Happy New Year!

While getting ready to make those resolutions, I stumbled upon my favorite list. Each year J.A. Konrath, author of the Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels thrillers and blogger of the no-nonsense A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, adds to a list he started in 2006. As soon as you read it, you'll jump off the internet and get back to writing the book or story you put down before the holidays. I'm not the only one, right?

I've been reading like mad, at least keeping up with part of my job. Several books on London showed up under the tree because, alas, a research trip in 2009 is out of the question. London: A Biography by the masterful Peter Ackroyd is chockful of details, 772 pages worth to be exact, 12 of which are an essay on sources! A shorter read is Walking Haunted London by Richard Jones. London has more ghosts than any other city and reading about them fuels my imagination.

So I'll procrastinate no longer. As J.A. Konrath says, "Now quit reading blogs and get some writing done."

Happy New Year all!

Ghost Writer

As someone who can't stop writing about ghosts, it was inevitable that I would eventually be visited by one of my own.

While writing my new manuscript a few nights ago, I frantically typed, trying to get my ideas on the page before I forgot them. I'd written a few pages when all of a sudden my cursor started dancing across the screen. I'd try to anchor the dang thing, but no go. Then letters appeared. But not letters I'd typed.

I debated telling my son, who was doing homework at his desk behind me. Nah, he'll just laugh and question my sanity. Again.

That's it, I thought. I've finally raised my own ghost. My skin tingled, a breeze blew by my neck, and I looked around for loose change. Then, a crash sounded behind me.

It was my son. He'd tossed his mouse on his desk in frustration because it wasn't working. "Look, nothing happens," he said, rolling his mouse on his desk. I turned around and saw a cursor looping across my screen. His mouse was controlling my computer. We called tech support (husband) for advice, and he'd never seen this problem before. Leave it to Joan, I'm sure he was thinking. But then he figured it out. He tossed aside my Bluetooth mouse and wired up the old one. The words I typed were my own.

I was kind of let down that it wasn't an apparition after all. I'd already made plans to bring her to critique with me on Thursday night. Ghost writer, indeed.

WIth Advice Like This

Since my mini-retreat at the library, I've been reading a few more how-to books. A few I will buy and keep within reach. Some were published over twenty years ago. Most of the advice holds true. I take general notes, hoping someday I'll find the time to reread them. But I also jot down ideas for my WIP characters or plot. Yesterday I finally put it all together and wrote about 3,000 words. A good day for me.

I'm still waiting to hear from a few agents reading full or partial manuscripts of The Bodley Boys and Center Court Seats and a Pair of Jimmy Choos. Pamela and I received excellent comments from Moonrat on CCS after Pamela won us a partial review and we're working on tweaking the manuscript. Moonrat said she believed someone would snap it up!

It's been over a month, so I'm not sure if I should query the next few agents on my Bodley wish-list. I thought I'd read up on the etiquette.

One particular book was published about ten years ago. Not so old. The book focused mostly on proposals and finding an agent. So far, so good. I started feeling squirmy after seeing the word entitled. As in "the book was entitled." In the U.K., acceptable. In the U.S., not so much. But hey, it could be a style thing, right?

Then halfway through I realized the advice was a little off. No, a lot off! If I followed it, I wouldn't receive the amazing rejection I received last week (so close!) or even kind "I'm passing on it" rejections, I'd be starring in all those agent blogs titled "How to Piss Off an Agent." I'm clearly exaggerating for dramatic effect, right? (The all-cap SNL references are mine.) You tell me:


1. Query one agent at a time. Offer them a six-week exclusive. REALLY!?

2. If you haven't heard from that agent, call after three weeks. OMG, YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!

3. If you receive a confusing rejection, call the agency and ask to speak to the agent for clarification. NOW YOU'RE JUST TALKING NONSENSE!

I don't know about you, but I'm going to pass on it. Any agents reading my blog want to comment on that advice?!

Buy the Book

I read this article in Publisher's Weekly (further link to Editorial Ass a.k.a. Moonrat). She suggests, "Buy a book this weekend. Just buy one."

Most everyone's heard about how the economic crisis has affected the publishing industry. Many people will be reining in their spending habits and chopping gift budgets. But if you're buying gifts, why not make it a book? I typically buy the little kids books anyway. I love to share some of the titles my son asked for over and over (A Fly Went By, The Fraggle books, Go Dog Go, The BFG and one with the line, "Cheese it, the cops!"). If anyone remembers it, let me know!

Normally, unless it's an author I love to read, or a writing buddy, I check out books from the library. Or frequent Half-Price Books. Or Amazon used. I know, I shouldn't admit it. But if I bought all the books I read, I'd be serving paperbacks for dinner. (When you do go to the library, save a clerk's job and avoid the self-checkout kiosks!)

However, this year, everyone on my gift list is receiving books. I love B&N and Borders, but consider giving some of your business to an independent. Legacy Books has just opened in Plano. It's a huge store with a comfortable environment and knowledgeable booksellers. Hopefully everyone knows about Powell's Books in Portland, the largest independent in the country.

And if we all encourage our friends and colleagues to do the same, maybe we can make a difference. Push a publishing house into acquiring a new author's book. It might just be yours. Or mine.

How A Lizard Sent a City Girl on a Writers’ Retreat

A 3-inch green lizard skulked in the corner of my bathroom this morning. It scared the pants off me (a horrible cliché that I promise will make sense later). My husband wouldn't turn around on the tollway and head back home, so I closed the door and shoved a towel in the gap, so he could catch the little guy later and take him to a nice place in the woods a few blocks away. I threw on some clothes, stuffed my files in my bag, and ran out the door. I was so scared, I forgot to brush my teeth and chomped on gum and mints all day long like a teenager.

If anyone in Plano doesn’t know, Haggard Library has a terrific writers’ reference section. I curled up in a chair and for 6 hours soaked in the wisdom of Elizabeth George (Write Away), Noah Lukeman (The Plot Thickens) and Orson Scott Card (Characters and Viewpoint). I had my own little spontaneous writers’ retreat. Now I’m rejuvenated and ready to apply what I’ve learned to make my WIP characters multi-dimensional and unforgettable.

I called Pamela and she asked, “You won’t pick up a lizard?”

I should have called one of my east-coast city-girl friends who could appreciate my plight.

On the way home, I called my husband and asked if he’d caught my lizard. He said, “You scared the tail off him.”

“Oh, ha ha, you’re so funny,” I said.

“No really. When lizards get scared they drop their tail. I found a lizard running around the bathroom—without a tail. His tail was on the other side of the room.”

Oops. “Poor little guy.”

“It’ll grow back,” my husband assured me.

Whew. As long as it grows back on someone else’s bathroom floor.

Where's The Plot?

I’ve started a new project. Before I started writing, I thought I’d do some research first. Read for inspiration. Read for advice. Read agent interviews.

I picked up Susan Page’s, Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book, recommended by one of the agents. I don’t read every how-to book that comes along (this one was published in 1997!) but I started to wonder if in fact there was some big step I’d completely overlooked. Maybe I hadn’t put the right secret code word in my query letters.

I usually read non-fiction in the order it’s presented. The author had a reason for the order, certainly. But this time I glanced through the table of contents and Part II: Taming the Monsters, jumped out at me. Monster #2 is procrastination. Until now, I’ve never had a problem with this particular monster. But since finishing my last manuscript, I hadn’t been able to pin down my next project. I couldn’t focus. I began to wonder if I had some form of ADD. I couldn’t even focus on what to read. I’ve been in the middle of six books for a few weeks now and each day I pick up a different one depending on my mood.

I’ve been researching, writing snippets of ideas and scenes, but without a clear mission. Finally I wrote the first 20 pages. I even asked Pamela to read it. “Lots at stake,” she said. “But where’s the plot?” I knew she was right. If only I could read a little more, research a little more, it would come to me. I’m procrastinating, no?

No! I’ve got acedia. (Not a disease!) On page 218 of Page’s book, she notes that a friend told her about acedia. “Acedia, my friend explained, is the slow and arduous forward motion required to start a new project or to return to work after a break.” She goes on to explain that it’s a way to allow the creative juices to flow, to prepare for the next writing journey. Procrastination is putting off something you don’t want to do. Acedia is the process of getting ready to start a creative project that you want to do. Wow! Yes! I love to write! There’s nothing I want more. (Aside from a call from the perfect agent, the one who knows one of my books will sell immediately!)

As soon as I accepted this explanation for my lack of direction, I began to focus. I brainstormed. What would happen if… I jotted notes about my characters. What does he want? What’s in his way? Next thing I knew, a plot was forming. Now I’m so excited about it, I can’t wait to write. And I actually know what I’m going to write.

Positive Rejection

Last week I started writing a piece about rejection. I’d received a few query rejections. Two agents had passed on my full manuscript. Don’t get me wrong, I was crushed. But an agent I met at a conference sent one of the nicest letters to date, a hand-written note praising my writing. Letters like hers encourage me, make me determined to do whatever it takes to write the best novel I can and get it published.

No one loves rejection, but when I get an email back from an agent query or hear the slow tires of the mail truck, my pulse quickens. I don’t always run outside right away--mostly because I’m usually still in my pajamas! Sometime in the afternoon, I head to the mailbox. Finding a returned SASE is thrilling. It means I’m putting my work out there. Others are reading my work, even if they’re not convinced it’s “right for this agency.” Once, an agent requested the full via my SASE! “Love to see it,” she wrote. I might never receive another request in the mail. But, then again, I just might.

Fast forward. This week, I received two requests for full manuscripts. Better still: they were for two different books.

I’ve revised The Bodley Boys after receiving valuable feedback from critique partners and a few other trusted readers. I still love it. Maybe this will be the agent to champion it. And, if I’m lucky, an editor will, too.

Pamela and I started querying on our Center Court Seats and a Pair of Jimmy Choos and within two days we had a request. We knew when we read our chapters aloud to a critique group full of non-women’s fiction readers and they all laughed, we had something good. This might not be the one. But even if it isn’t, we know we’re getting close!