Seen but Not Heard

This may seem really mean and I don’t really care. As the title suggests this article is about children, the title is of course based on the phrase “children should be seen and not heard”. I agree with this. If you are a parent and you don’t have the time, patience or love to teach your child not to be obnoxious or rude, you should at least be capable of accomplishing the lesson of silence. Silence is after all golden, even if you have to use the duct tape.

Why do I write this considering I have no children? Well, I leave the house; I am out and about in society and since it is deemed appropriate by our culture to allow children out in the general public, I have to deal with children, not in a personal or social way, just a public manner, which is minimal. We do have to breathe the same air and if the child in question is being disruptive, chances are, it is affecting me. Whether the child opened something in a store or knocked something over and the product is now all over the floor and now that isle or section of the store is closed until the overworked, underpaid employees deem it worth their time to go over and clean it up; or if I’m done shopping and the young human is in line with its creator in front of me and that young human is screaming at the top of its lungs and its owner or creator is doing nothing to silence it or to get out of line to be courteous to the other shoppers. This leaves me with the very unhappy choice of either moving to another line in order to escape the noise, or to stay and endure it. The child in this scenario in this day and age isn’t even “young”. By the way, this excuse of being “young” bothers me a lot. I was never in any point in my life allowed to misbehave so horribly in public. Being young has nothing to do with it; it’s the lack of discipline and care. The child is so ignored that it feels the need to get louder and wilder in order to be acknowledged by its parents. Negative attention is better than no attention at all in the eyes of a child, and then eventually the poor behavior becomes habit. This brings be back to the fact that some children who are disruptive in public aren’t “young”. I’ve seen twelve year-olds and up, throw fits like the ones I’ve described: just because the screams are replaced with whinny demands or screeching protests doesn’t make it less of a tantrum.

The point to all of this is for me to say that I think something isn’t working. The way children are being raised has failed for several generations now. It’s time to rethink the public standard and I am all for going back to “children should be seen and not heard”. As a parent you should be concerned with how your children behave in public, enough that you actually do something to correct your child when they are misbehaving or don’t take them out in public at all until they can behave.

  My Mama wasn’t allowed to go to a restaurant until she was three years old and it was a guarantee she wouldn’t do anything that might ruin the meal. How many three year olds can you name off the top of your head that can sit through a proper dinner meal without getting “bored”? My grandfather was very old fashioned and stuck to the “children should be seen and not heard” rule to the letter. It worked then, so there is no reason for it not to work now; and as for “letting the kids be kids” rubbish, let me tell you, a child can have plenty of fun without screaming just because they like the way their voice echoes in the public bathrooms at Disneyland; and as I have previously stated, a child won’t even get loud if it’s being cared for by its parent. A well cared for child is a happy child; a happy child is a quiet child.

Inspiration

Fall Semester is finally over, and I’m already starting to dread the Spring Semester, but let’s not think about that. Now that I have the time to write, and I mean truly sit down and just do it and not thinking about anything else, or rushing so that I can get it over with and move on to some sort of assignment, self assigned or otherwise.

The subject according to the subject heading I picked is inspiration. So, I’ll start there, the inspiration for this post is that I just visited my Aunt Christine in the hospital today. Well, she’s not really my aunt, but I’ve adopted her. She's just had brain surgery to have a tumor removed. I watched her going through the past year as she prepared herself physically, mentally and spiritually for this surgery and I think I will take away from this time watching and being with her as a really inspirational rather than a scary experience (though it certainly was). After all of the stress and worry it was good to see her picking at her indigestible hospital food and great us with a tired but sweet smile.

I met my aunt not long after my family moved to California and my Mama and I were looking for a place to grow as writers. We found the Coffee House Writers Group and I was very pleased to join it. Christine was both the leader and organizer of the group and now she has definitely earned the title Fearless leader. She's officially one of the bravest people I've ever met. Forget my veteran Grandfather, cousins and Great Uncle, anyone can get drafted.

So, after I wrote my title (yes, sometimes I write a title before writing a post) I asked myself after I chose my title, (or my title chose me) what inspires me? Who inspires me? But most importantly: what does it or they inspire me to do or be?

 I thought of Christine and her poor head looking like something from a horror or graphic civil war film (which are pretty much the same thing) and Christine’s playful comment that she was going to be trying out for Frankenstein’s Monster’s Wife; although now that I think of it, one would be hard pressed to find someone casting for such a roll during Yuletide…

  She inspires me to be happy, to be brave, to write, to smile, to live, to love and above all to be me, especially during hard times.

A Talk with My Piano Teacher

Ever since we moved to California, my family and I have been unable to find a piano teacher we can afford. So, my brother’s and I have been teaching ourselves new pieces. Our old teacher, Fran, told us before we left that we all knew enough between the three of us that we could all keep learning with each other’s help and no teacher.

  Yesterday I called Fran because I hadn’t contacted her in a while and had been meaning to for some time. Her husband picked up and I when I said my name he didn’t remember my name, but after I said I was the red-head who used to take lessons from Fran and they would always run late he remembered me and said he’d try to find her.

  Fran was always more like the grandmother I never had than a piano teacher, she’s sweet and forgetful like an older woman should be, and she tends to go off on some story and then forget what her point was; though there was plenty of piano playing involved in the time we spent with her I assure you. She was just very special; I wish we could have brought her with us.

  She answered the phone and was very pleased to hear me as she said at least five times throughout the phone call. She would just tack on to the end of her sentence, “and I’m so glad you called me dear, it’s so good to hear from you.” I don’t have the greatest memory in the world either, so this is not exactly the way the conversation went, but she is just so sweet and I miss her so much, I couldn’t avoid writing it down.

  After she greeted me she said, "I knew you were going to call me, because I was thinking about you and I thought they should call me."

Me: And here I am!

  Fran: Right dear, here you are, now how are things going have you found a job? (it‘s obvious in hindsight that she had wanted to ask this question since she got on the phone).

  Me: Yes, I’m selling Avon.

  Fran: Oh, really? That’s wonderful dear. How about your brother?

  Me: He’s still looking.

  Fran: Right well, I should have said this…but- I know it’s going to sound silly but, I think you all should try teaching piano. I think it would be a good experience for you since lessons are so expensive out there, you could probably find some little kids to teach and it will greatly benefit you, as well as making some money. You won’t charge as much because you don’t have a master’s degree and you have no experience, but that will be fair, and the teachers there shouldn’t get upset about you charging less because you don’t have any experience.

  Me:  Yeah.

  Fran: I mean, I learned so much after I started teaching. Because you have to think a lot; you have to ask yourself, ‘how am I going to teach this?’

  Me: Yes, but I’m not sure what a good age to start would be, because as I got out doing my daily errands I see kids and a lot the five and six-years-olds are just so unruly.

  Fran: Five year-olds are terrible and my old teacher got four five-years-olds and she didn’t want to teach them, so she gave them to me and I was seventeen-years-old and with no teaching experience at all! I had no idea what I was doing and they left after three weeks. I couldn’t control four five-year-olds! They were running around, jumping, and laughing at me. I had no control over them. So they left. Then after I got married and my first husband and I were living in Wichita Kansas, and like most young people, we were short on money. So my husband told me I needed to start teaching and I said ‘O-o-okay’ then I loved it. I learned so much! And the feeling that you get when your student goes to a recital and plays well is great. You can imagine what that did for my ego, because if your student does well, then you must be a good teacher.

  Me: Yeah.

  Fran: And I am a very good teacher, I’m so old now, there’s really no point in modesty. I am a good teacher and have been for a long time. Then there’s my old student S- did you ever meet him?

  Me: Yes, I believe I did once.

  Fran: Well, he lives down in Florida and he works for a music store and he was doing pretty well, but he still needed some money, so he started teaching and he does rather well…I don’t know how I started talking about all of this.

  Me: You think piano teaching would be good for me.

Fran: Right, yes, it would be very good I think for you and both your brothers, but especially you.

  Around this time the phone was disconnected and I had to redial, I won’t go into all that we talked about, but after I spoke with her I decided that everyone needs a Fran in their life and my brothers and I are going to make an extra effort to speak to her more often.

My Hat (aka. My Brother's Hat)

                Avon has just started selling what they are calling “Foxy fedora” (Product number 532-025 price $24) it’s adorable don’t get me wrong, but I started wearing my brothers fedora before I started seeing models wearing them.

The Story Behind the Hat

First it was my brother’s hat, then he out-grew it about the same time I started abducting it from his room to wear it around the house until he would take it back. Then to my immense joy, he tried to put it on right after he took it from me one time, and it was ever so slightly too small, (just enough for him to look a little goofy, but not enough for him to notice by the feeling of it.) When I hinted he could give it to me, he said “no”. When I continued to push it and suggested that he could give it to me as a gift, (Christmas was on the way) he smirked as he put the hat away. That Christmas I found the Fedora with a ribbon wrapped around it and a bow; it didn’t need a label for everyone to know who it was to and from.

New Start

Well, next week I will be in college and I have no idea when I’ll have time to blog. I’ll let you know as soon as I get used to the new schedule, if ever. I still have what seems like a lot of Avon campaign books left to get rid of before Sunday. I’ve decided to make reminder calls to my customers on Sunday, so that I won’t have to think about it on Monday. My first class on Monday is at noon, but I think my older brother has to get there some time in the morning, so I’ll be there on campus stressing until my first class begins and I don’t want to think about work on top of everything else.

 Good news, on Sunday we went to the Orange County Fairgrounds, (which was the inspiration for my last poem.) My brother’s ceramic painted lion was the ceramic and glass division winner ages 13-15. My Ariel cross stitch was the needlework division winner ages 16-18 (earlier I said my apron won, but I was mistaken, I didn’t enter my apron in this contest.) My Short story was the 15-18 class winner; I’m pleased with that still. Have a good weekend.

Writing Fight Scenes

Unlike some writers I don’t enjoy writing action or fight scenes. Not because I don’t think I can write them well, it just seems no matter what I do there will always exist a negative opinion, here are some examples of the critiques I hear most often (some of you fellow writers may have heard some of these too): “Well, that’s a good start, but it needs some work,” or “I wasn’t there with the character, make it more personal, give me more emotion, less description,” and my least favorite “Make it snappy.” It appears no matter what I do with a fight scene, someone is going to be unhappy with it. I realize that you can never please everybody, but it seems with my fight scenes, there is a definite increase of people wanting the section to be changed in some way. In trying to figure out why that is so, I have decided to pick apart my writing process and see if there is anything that should be changed.

The Process

First with an action scene, I find grounds for the confrontation; I don’t write fight scenes just for the sake of having them, there has to be a reason. Once I know the reason and have made sure that I have or will make the reason clear in my story, I proceed on to mapping out the fight itself.

How many people are involved? What weapons or potential weapons are in the room? Will the character resort to these make shift weapons, or do they have the skill or resources to fight without resorting to them. Who is in the immediate area? Are there people in the other room who might over hear this fight and come to see what is going on, or call for help? Will the fight be quick in decisive, or will it be drawn out? Will one of the characters run? Where will they run to? Etcetera. So once I have mapped out, either in my head or on a piece of paper where everyone who will be involved in this scene is and who it will affect, I start writing. It usually starts out very basic: “he hit, she kicked” kind of thing. Then I go back and add details such as pain for the characters and how it effects their movements, sounds, the character’s thoughts if applicable, I flesh it out a little bit you might say. Then I reread and edit, reread and edit, read it aloud, and edit until I’m sure all the holes are filled in and I’m satisfied with it. Then it’s time to read it to someone, or give it to them to read. I’m always filled with apprehension when I reach this stage, because I’ve always been told to change it up, and at this point, I think it’s done. It’s true I want feedback and I want to hear what other people think and if there are any holes that I missed; and I do get this feedback…more or less. Advice with action portions of my books always seems so unhelpful. “In needs to be changed”, “Shorten it”, “Lengthen it” but no one ever tells me how or where it needs to change. “Well, you’re the writer, so you need to make the changes” yes, but some suggestion would be nice, or better yet, why don’t you tell me why it isn’t good? Why does it not reach you expectations, take a small excerpt of the scene and write out and show me how it needs to be changed, and I will reformate the rest of the scene. It doesn’t seem that much to ask if you really want to help me out, but you can’t find the words to describe what needs to be done.

  I guess it boils down to the only thing I dislike about fight and action scenes is the repetitive and unhelpful critique that is bound to come with them; which is why I prefer to have my characters use stealth and cunning to get what they want, rather than brute force.

"This was my week..."

Well, I can’t really make up my mind on whether or not my week was a good one or not.

  On Monday I did the usual house cleaning that I do every first Monday of the month. I washed the bed sheets, just like every Monday, and I made reminder calls to my Avon customers who hadn’t placed any orders this campaign, which this time was everyone, with the exception of my Mama. It was bizarre; did anyone else get the memo about this Monday being, Don’t-Pick-Up-Your-Phone Monday? I kid you not, nobody picked up, and by noon I had placed my order consisting of my order and my Mama’s order without a call back from any of my customers. After I placed the order one customer called to say she didn’t want anything.

  Tuesday was a little bit better. I registered for my college classes, and remarkably enough, I got enough Units to be a full time student and I’m not on any waitlists! I know; I was shocked too.

  Wednesday nothing of import really happened, I put some of the new brochures on some of my customer’s doorsteps.

  Thursday was my Papa’s birthday, and I made cupcakes for him. I also put an Avon brochure in laundry mat that Mama goes to, it’s the end of the first week for Campaign 17 and I’ve only gotten rid of a few booklets. I’m not very pleased with myself, but I can’t really help it. I also found out that I got my first on-line customer order: Mama, shocker. I’m grateful that she ordered, if one customer orders every campaign, it cancels the fee Avon charges for me to have an on-line store; but...it’s still Mama.

  So I feel pretty worthless, but I’m going to keep on working, like I always do.

My Week

This week was very emotionally demanding for me.

 This Monday as some of you may know, was a bigger drag than the regular Monday. I had some serious cramps, which I have not had to deal with on this level for a while, and I needed to make some reminder calls to some of my Avon customers, which wouldn’t have been a big deal if I had been feeling well, as it was, I wasn’t even sure I could speak without groaning, but I go through it alright.

Tuesday I went to the Whittier DMV office to take my driving test and I tell you here and now not to go there ever, ever. I got a woman who was determined to flunk me before she got in the car! Before she came all the way up to the car she ordered, didn’t request: ordered me to get the rosary off of the review mirror. I don’t think it made that much of a difference, but, okay, let’s say she’s worried that it would get in the way of me seeing what’s in the mirror, okay I can deal with that, I’m not that religious, I don’t care if it’s there or not; but still, I can think of at least thirty different ways for her to ask me to take it off the mirror that would have been acceptable from one human being to the other. So, I got Jesus down (wow that looks odd, I thought Jesus was supposed to get himself down [for clarification that’s a joke, and yes, I know I’m going to hell]) and stuck the beads in the cup holder. Once the instructor was in the car and we were going down a neighborhood, she didn’t pay any attention to my driving for the whole first half, she was more concerned with the fact that the air-conditioning in the car didn’t work. At some point she realized all the fussing in the world wasn’t going to get the air cooler in that car, and she told me to pull up to the curb behind a white car, then to stop. I did so, then she told me to backup, I did this, then I kept going, and going and going, I asked how far she wanted me to go, she said she’d tell me when to stop. So I kept going, I must have backed up over a hundred feet. The part of my brain that wasn’t occupied with not hitting the curb was wondering when this would be applicable in a real life situation. After that ridiculousness was over, I was thoroughly shaken and forgot to turn my blinker on and check before I pulled away from the curb, because logically, I was just looking back there and I knew no one was there to signal at, I know the rule is you check and signal no matter what because someone could be there, I know this, but it didn’t even cross my mind to do this until the test woman made a big show of looking behind us after I had already pulled away from the curb, and I thought “Crap,” okay so the word was a little stronger than that, “it’s too late now.” I half-heartedly looked over my shoulder and didn’t bother to flick the blinker on; it was way too late for that. After this I drove much slower, the whole time I was thinking, “What the fink” I’m paraphrasing, “is she going to make me do now?”  She complained about my slow driving and marked me down like I was driving too slowly through the entire drive, (which I wasn’t she was too busy with the air-conditioning to notice) so, she flunked me. That sucked, I need my license before the end of summer, or I don’t know what I’m going to do when school starts. Better luck this Monday I guess, Mama is going to try and teach me how to drive backwards between now and then. We’re going to go over the car controls in my brother’s car too, because I didn’t know where some of them were, (we’re in Southern California, when am I going to use the defroster?) So, hopefully I’ll get it this time, if the tester in Pomona is more reasonable; did I write “more reasonable”? I mean reasonable. Someone reasonable would be nice.

Wednesday was a little better; I went to group counseling for college and got my math level boosted up a level, which is great, because I want to spend as little time in that department as possible.

  Thursday, I rested, and my second Avon shipment arrived and I made all my deliveries, save one.

  Today I went over to a friend’s house and did some quilting stuff with them. I gave away some Avon brochures there, and then went shopping with my mom. So today was all about girl time, it was wonderful.

Driving Test

Today I’m taking my driving test, I’m not as nervous as I expected myself to be, but I’m sure that will change the moment I get to the DMV office. Mama is taking part of the day off work so she can drive me down there, which is really nice of her. I’ve never driven in the area of the DMV so it’ll be a new road, and everything, but the driving instructor is going to be giving me directions, it’s probably someone I have never met or even seen before. I don’t understand how anyone can fairly judge someone’s driving in such an alien environment. I’m never going to be in a situation, (at least I hope not) that I’m going to have a complete stranger in the car with me with no one else there. This is probably going to be the only time I will ever do something like that. I don’t know I find it bizarre; maybe I’m just blowing it completely out of proportion because I am a bit nervous, but…it’s still a weird concept if you think about it too much.

Query Letters (Part 2)

So last week I wrote about how I go about finding agents, but mostly about how I keep records on how I keep track of which manuscript I sent to which agent. Once that is done, I put together my query letters. Drum roll.
There is a basic query frame that I put together. There are certain things in all query letters that are required no matter who you send it to, such as your name, address, and/or email, the agency’s name and info, a salutation,  a catchy beginning, you get the idea. (Again, I’m not saying this is the best way to do things, or that this query letter writing technique will be workable for you at the time you read this, the business is constantly changing, and so are the query letter rules of form. I am just sharing the way that I do it now.) So what I create will look something like this:

Samantha Blackwell

Ifyouwantmyrealemailyoumayask.com

Date:
Agent:
Agency:
Email:

Dear (agent name),
 A plot to murder the queen has just been uncovered and her lead sorceress is dying in a cabin belonging to White, a little dwarf. Leaving it up to him and his seven cousins to find away to save the kingdom without alerting the Ordinaries to their predicament. But what do they, humble dwarfs, know about magic? Nothing! and that’s the problem. My book Understandable is full of plot twists and lovable characters that keep the pages turning. All 45,000 words are tightly packed with information, keeping the adventure fast paced, sure to excite a wide age range not just the middle graders as I originally I intended. 

  The adventure is split into three parts, “How it Began”, “What Now?”, and “Is it over Yet?”; White’s journey takes you through a wonderful fairytale land that lies just beyond our front doors, filled with perils like dragons, assassins, gremlins, and the unknowing Ordinaries (us).

  I’ve never been published, but I have been a writer all of my life. I believe Understandable is more than ready to be read. (How I found your agency), and I’m sending query letters to other agents too.

(Say what I’ve pasted to the email). Please let me know if you would like to read more about my book.

  Thanks for your consideration,
 Samantha Blackwell

As you can see, I make my query letter not unlike a movie commercial, it’s exciting and hooks you right in, telling you just enough for you to get excited about the story, but not enough for you to know what actually happens in the book, which leaves you wanting more.

Once this draft is written out, I then copy and paste it to another document on my laptop, and save the original for later. With the copy, I fill in the blanks and boom, it’s ready to send to an agent or publisher of my choice, and because I saved the original with all the blanks in it, when I’m ready to send another query, all I have to do is copy it again and fill in the blanks. It’s easy and it’s fast. Every once in a while I’ll make minor changes to make the letter better, but mostly it remains the same. Here’s an example of that same query, except filled out.

Samantha Blackwell

Ifyouwantmyrealemailyoumayask.com

Date:  1/16/2010
Agent: Aurora Kingly
Agency: Fantasy Agency
Email: aurorafantasy@imadeitup.com

Dear Aurora Kingly,
 A plot to murder the queen has just been uncovered and her lead sorceress is dying in a cabin belonging to White, a little dwarf. Leaving it up to him and his seven cousins to find away to save the kingdom without alerting the Ordinaries to their predicament. But what do they, humble dwarfs, know about magic? Nothing! and that’s the problem. My book Understandable is full of plot twists and lovable characters that keep the pages turning. All 45,000 words are tightly packed with information, keeping the adventure fast paced, sure to excite a wide age range not just the middle graders as I originally I intended. 

  The adventure is split into three parts, “How it Began”, “What Now?”, and “Is it over Yet?”; White’s journey takes you through a wonderful fairytale land that lies just beyond our front doors, filled with perils like dragons, assassins, gremlins, and the unknowing Ordinaries (us).

  I’ve never been published, but I have been a writer all of my life. I believe Understandable is more than ready to be read. You’re agency was recommended to me by a fellow writer, and client of yours, Phyllis McNotReal, the author of “I’m Bored” and I thought my book would be a good fit with your agency, I’m also sending query letters to other agents too.

I have pasted the first five pages of Understandable and a synopsis to the bottom of this email. Please let me know if you would like to read more about my book.

  Thanks for your consideration,

 Samantha Blackwell

So you see, after you learn the language, and develop your own system, sending out the dreaded query letter gets to be as easy as fill in the blank.

Meet the Writer

This week was very busy, which seems to be becoming my normal week, that’s fine with me, ever the shying violet, I realize that I need to develop social skills, including: small talk, introducing myself and the like.
So, on with my report, yesterday I somehow got the bright idea to bring one of my blog poems to my writers group last night. I thought it would be fun, after all I was growing confident in my poetic abilities, and the next step in my mind is to read it aloud. After some thought I decided to pick one of my favorites, I thought picking a poem that I’m confident in might make the new experience easier when the nervousness of doing something new brings. Then the moment came and I thought I had lost my sanity. The writer group is comprised of people who would never do something to hurt me, not terribly anyways, so it was not really the fear of the people saying something, just what they would think. Oh, my gosh: that was a terrible poem! She needs to stick with fiction, and thoughts along those lines were my fear, which might seem silly to you, dear reader, but what made it so terrible, would be that I would agree with them, I don’t consider myself a poet: so what am I doing bringing my therapeutic scribbling to them? I got through it though, and they enjoyed it. I actually read it twice because some of the people were not at the table and because it was so short no one minded me reading it again. So, it was scary, but I got it done!
The other thing that happened this week that I want to mention to the five people who read my blog (thank you for reading it by the way,) my Mama and I went to Starbucks to meet with a writer, not to read our work or anything, just a social thing, and it was very nice. We got to know each other a little better and it was great. During our writing group meetings we don’t really have time to talk, and even during the “socializing time” there are certain voices that tend to dominate over the others. It was a refreshing change and it’s just nice to know that I have a friend in a fellow writer.

Throwing Things Out

I love throwing things out. Let me explain; things have a tendency of accumulating in my room. Since I try my best to keep everything within their various folders and envelopes to the outside observer, it may not always appear that items are beginning to pile up, when in fact they are doing just that. I try to throw things out as they become irrelevant or old, but if I have set something aside in its proper place, I can sometime forget to throw it out when the time comes, or I think I already have thrown it out when I haven’t, or I don’t know that the items time of usefulness has past.
Let me give you an example, just yesterday I had my college folder out, most of the flyers and pieces of paper in there are essential for me to finish the process of getting into Fullerton College: proof of assessment, my student I.D. number scribbled on a scrap of paper (since they haven’t sent me my card yet), proof of orientation, flyers on the different class I can take within my various interests since I’m not positive what I want to study (people ask me what I’ll be studying and I always say Art, because I don’t like the look most give me when I say I have no idea. Some people may have their entire lives planned out, and I want to be one of those people but am incapable of it) I think you get the idea of how much stuff is in that single folder. Because I’ve been so busy lately, I usually only have time to open the folder when I need a particular scrap of paper. So things that are no longer relevant, such as old information on scholarships I didn’t win and flyers for events at the college for this past spring were still in the folder. Yesterday I actually had a free moment, (imagine that) and the folder was right in front of me, so I went through it and had the pleasure of throwing out old pieces of irrelevant notes, and flyers out. I say pleasure because it’s a form of cleaning and I love cleaning because it makes me feel like I’m on top of the pile of stuff that is my life, rather than being buried by it. Also getting rid of these things shows me how far I have come in the process of getting into college, it also makes the folder, so much lighter and easier to carry.

Query Letters (Part 1)

I received a question from a fellow aspiring writer, it was about query letters. As you may know I hardly consider myself an expert on the subject, but as I began to think about it I realized that I know a whole lot more now than I did when I first began. My nature of over-studying and trying to ask more questions than I think I need to ask has taught me a lot about writing a query letter, and the delivery of that query letter.

  First off my advice to newer writers is study!! Read books on how to write query letters, on what to do and what not to do. Then find your prospect agents or publishers and then you need to study more!! I know right about now you would say that being told to study is not what you want to hear, you want me to tell you exactly what you need to do, well unfortunately every genre requires a different approach, fiction, non-fiction; what level you’re writing, child, middle school, young adult, adult and it’s sub category, college level, average intelligence, or a specific field. Which is why there are so many reference books on the subject, and the rules keep changing every year. What I tell you now may be different by the time you read this. So what am I blogging about? Well, I’m going to tell you how I get ready to write a query letter, I am not saying this is the only way to go about it, or even if this is the best way to do it, this is just what I do.

  Let me set up the situation. Let’s say that I have a story called “Understandable” (I have no such book, this is just for an example) it’s an urban fantasy (aka. a fantasy story that takes place in our world as to opposed a fantasy that take place in its own world, like Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”) The main character is…a dwarf named…White, (hey, I’m making this up as I go, so stop snickering.) White works in the mines when he returns home to see a lovely lady dressed as a traveling apple sales woman, (wait for it) she’s a powerful sorceress in disguise, and she has come to the dwarf for shelter. This is an unusual occurrence as you may expect, but White lets her in, and that night she explains that she just caught wind of a plot to kill the queen, so she was on her way to stop them, hence the disguise. White offers his help as a….guide (I guess), she says thanks but no thanks, the sorceress refuses the food White offers her, saying she can only eat the apples she has with her, for they are the key to her strength. The next morning however, White and the sorceress find the basket with the fruit has been stolen, and the sorceress will die if they are not found, and the day for the planned murder of the queen is drawing near, and they need to do all of this while keeping themselves hidden from the other people of this world: the Ordinaries (that’s us)….White goes to his seven cousins for help and together they save the sorceress.

  So what do I do first after the story is written and edited?

I go and find agents and publishers that might be interested in this kind of thing. I write out an index card for each company or agent with all their important information.

Side One:

                (1)White (2)great    other project okay                         

       

        (3) 1.16.10                 11.12.07 (4) NO

(5) Fantasy Agency

(6)Aurora Kingly

(7)Fantasy@Imadeitup.com

or Aurorafantasy@Imadeitup.com  

(8) Fantasy Agency

212 I Make It Up St.

New York, MY 99999

Explanation

(1)    I list the books I am currently searching for agent for; usually I am looking for more than one book at a time.

(2)    I make a note at how well I think my project fits the agency or publishing house in question.

(3)    I note the date that I sent the agency the query letter.

(4)    I write down “NO” when I get a refusal or no response so that I can avoid sending a query to the same place twice.

(5)    Next I list the agency name.

(6)    I list the name of the person I wish to contact; there may be more than one noted person in the company, if possible I narrow it down so that I send it directly to my desired agent or publisher.

(7)    I write down the company email and/or the specific email of the person I wish to contact.

(8)    The final thing on this page is usually the physical address of the agency or publishing house.

Side 2

(1)    Picture books, fantasy, Short Stories

(2)    Q letter Snail Mail with 1^st 5 pages & synopsis along with SASE.

(3)    Q letter with QUERY & work title in email subject with 1^st 5 pgs and synopsis of work NO attachments. WILL REPLY, if none, email again.

Explanation:

(1)    I list the preferred genres of the company, or specific person I’m going to be sending the query to, in some cases, they list only what they don’t want sent to them in which case I list those instead with NO at the beginning of the list.

(2)     I note how they wish the query letter to be sent by mail. Since I am pressed for space I use a mix of my own shorthand, and the generally accepted slang of the writing world. Q letter, meaning they want a standard query letter, which is only one page long. Snail mail, which is regular mail; a lot of agencies will not accept UPS, or other deliveries and will not even let it in through the door. Some will ask for the first few pages from your work, it can be anywhere from the first five to the first fifty pages of the work, depending on the genre. They could also ask for a synopsis, which is basically a summary of the entire book condensed to around three pages for a “Short Synopsis” or around ten pages a “Long Synopsis” they may or may not specify what kind of synopsis they want and you’re left to guess. A SASE is a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope, a lot of companies will not pay for postage to send you a rejection or an acceptance, so you need to send an envelope addressed to yourself with a stamp, even then some do not guarantee a response.

(3)    This is where I note the recommended mode of sending the query by email. Most agencies and publishing companies get a lot of spam, so even if they don’t require it, it’s best to put QUERY in the subject line of your email, with your book title. Most of them are paranoid of viruses, and do not open attachments, so anything that they ask you to send along with the query you should paste to the email, they will most often request it but even if they don’t, you should do it anyways. Some will guarantee a response and will ask you to email another query after a given period of time, because if you didn’t get a response, they accidentally deleted it, or it got lost. Most are not so kind. Most of them will give you a time span of days to expect a reply, and then if they exceed it, you are to assume it to be a refusal.

So, this is how I start my query letter adventure, I think this post is long enough for one day, I’ll be posting more on this subject another time.

Friday - Again

Today my first Avon order arrived, YAY! I’m so happy, and today I went to an audition. Everything is so exciting! I guess I have trust issues with the internet. Since all of these things, the rehearsal and the Avon order were all on-line, I had this bad feeling in my gut, like it all wasn’t real. I mean come on, this is the same internet that we play video games, and keep up with friends on facebook, it seems to go against logic that you can use it for serious things too. I’m always really pleased when something works out that started on the internet. While I do print out directions from the internet, they usually get something wrong, which is probably why I have distrust for things posted on the internet in general. The whole thing could be a hoax after all, my brother would have had gotten a job by now if the internet was reliable the way people like to pretend that it is, yet here I am working my job through the internet, sending query letters for my book on-line, finding auditions, and keeping up with my favorite bands on their websites, because we all know how important that is to me. Now that I have gone to the audition, spoken to real people and received my Avon order, I’m feeling so much more relaxed with the whole idea of the internet… getting directions still sucks though.

My Puppy

Whenever I’m feeling like the entire world doesn’t understand me, or I think there is something wrong with me, I confide in my dog. He always makes me feel better. He still wiggles and waggles the same way he did when he was a puppy, which is really comical because he’s so big now.
He still loves to rub up against me; it almost makes me fall down. I keep telling him not to do that, one of these days he’s going to land me on my ass, but he doesn’t care, he just wants to be close to me. It’s sooo sweet!!
I still adore him just as much as I did when he was smaller than our little dog: Tippy; now if he stands on his hind legs he can kiss me on the mouth, though I’ve told him not to do that, ‘cause he’s a dog and that’s grows. I love, love, love, love him!
He likes to sleep beneath my bedroom window, so if the window is open and I’m listening to songs on my computer I can hear him sigh. These sighs are superbly timed, they always occur every time an angry rock song ends, then I play something softer, and I don’t get any comments from the doggy peanut gallery. I guess he doesn’t care for screaming and guitar solos.
So, I love him, he loves me, and all is right with the world!

Merlin, my puppy!

30 Day Song Challenge

This week on facebook I decided to participate in the 30 Day Song Challenge. the first song required is favorite song I decided to go with the acoustic version of "Lithium" by Evanescence. I think this was probably the hardest song to pick, since I don't really think I have a favorite song or book or place, generally I don't really have "favorite" of anything. It changes with my mood, but if you were to ask me what my favorite (fill in the blank) is, I would give you an answer fairly quickly, because it's all about my mood, but there are some people who seem to understand that I don't necessarily have a "favorite" then there are others who stare at me like I have two heads because I don't have a favorite. Since I never know which reaction I'm going to get, I just give them an answer and move on.

 If you want to become my facebook friend, or see what songs I pick for the 30 Day Song Challenge (or whether or not I can even complete it) visit:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100002346702722 (Remember to Login to your facebook account first!)

Happy 4th of July

It's a common misconception that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th 1776. That famous painting with our Founding Fathers gathered around the document is inaccurate. There was never a large gathering like that to sign it. After it was drawn up, it had to be ridden to several towns where the various Founding Fathers were at the time. We forget, that even when the war was over (in our perspective) there was a lot of political turmoil: What's fair and what isn't? Whose the Governor or leader of this city and so on and so forth. There was a lot to be done, and while that document is now considered to be one of the most important in our nation's history, it was actually just one of many legal documents that needed to be taken care of, and it was well into August by the time all of the signatures on the Declaration of Independence were in their places.


This song is one that I grew up listening to, the country radio stations would play it on every patriotic national holiday, not exclusively on the Fourth of July, and then of course after 9-11-01 they only played patriotic songs for what seemed the longest time. Since I no longer listen to the radio (they don't play what I enjoy listening to anyways) I haven't heard this song from start to finish in several years, and I figured it was long enough.

I have a Plan

For the past few days I have been very stressed out. Since I joined Avon, I’ve had to learn the Avon terminology or “language of the business” on top of that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with the job. Did I want to earn the bare minimum of what I need, or more? Then I realized I didn’t really have any idea how much money I need to do the things I want to do with the money. So there were a lot of questions that I needed answered and most of which I didn’t know how to ask, or where to look. The worst part of it though, was that there were a lot of questions I didn’t even know that I needed to ask. (That was the part that really sucked.) Learning the language of the job, finding out what I wanted out of the job, figuring out what I want and need from the job, and whether or not I tie everything together into something I was capable of doing. I put myself under a lot of stress to find these things out, and I have been very uptight and “not fun” as my Mama would say, (and I think did say at one point).

  But I’ve figured out what I want the job to pay for, and how much I need. I’ve learned enough of the Avon language to achieve that dollar amount, probably not as fast and as effectively as possible, but I am learning as I go, so it’s good enough for me. After all the right questions were asked and most of them answered, I feel a whole lot better, and not under so much stress. I now have a plan, and as anyone who knows me well can attest, (and not many know me well) I am much more fun when I have a plan.

EEP! A Mouse!

So my Mama has seen a mouse in the house in the corner of her eye since Tuesday night, and last night while my family was watching Net Flix it made its grand appearance before us all. It seemed like it wanted to get out, so we opened the sliding glass door, and we tried to shoo it out, but it didn’t “shoo” so Papa set up the traps and this morning when I got up the traps were gone, and so was the mouse, now however Papa’s pretty sure he saw another one go into my little brother’s room. So (eww) it’s the only thing that’s (gross) on my (icky) mind right now.

  I got a job with Avon, so joy.

Belief

I remember when I was much younger and my family went to church, I didn’t realize for the longest time that people actually believed the stories in the Bible. It was a gradual realization, there wasn’t really a specific moment in time that it struck me that people took those stories seriously and as actual documented events. Like the Ancient Greek stories that my Mama told me, I thought they were good moral stories to learn from, and that church was just a place where people who had a particular connection with those stories gathered (which I found kind of odd, because I found the tales a little hard to understand because of the way they were written, but they were adults, sometimes adults did things that didn’t make sense to me because I’m the kid. It would all make sense once I was grown up, which in my mind was around fourteen or so). I remember not wanting to accept that adults believed these stories, and having to keep on reminding myself that they thought it was all real so I wouldn’t make a comment that might offend them.

  At one point I tried to think it was all true, I even said it out loud, but it rang false in my ears. The statement made me feel dirty, because I didn’t believe, I just wanted to, really badly, I wanted to, but I didn’t like the feeling that the Lord’s Prayer gave me when I recited it, it was the same feeling I got when I was trying to lie to someone.

  So for years I discouraged my family going to church. When my parents asked if I wanted to go, I would just say I didn’t like getting up early, and they would leave it at that and let me sleep. One year on Easter Papa was feeling some pressure from his boss to go to this Easter play his boss’s church was putting on. I tried to pass the “too early” excuse, but it was an evening show. So we went, and I remember feeling some surprise after the show was over and everyone was invited to come up to the alter and be forgiven all of their sins, and neither of my parents budged. Later, our parents bought us some shakes for behaving so well, even though none of us had wanted to go. As we slurped they explained that sometimes in the work world you had to do things that you wouldn’t normally do, and in this case it was either Papa would have to spend hours on his boss’s boat to go fishing, or go to this play; and that if he didn’t do either, it would have been very awkward. We asked what they thought of the Easter story; the most that they would commit to was that if Jesus was a real person, it didn’t really affect us because it was so long ago. I felt a rush of relief, because I felt that way too, though I wouldn’t have been able to put it to words. It wasn’t until years later that I found out that my parents never stated their own beliefs because they wanted my brothers and I to find our own way, and not be influenced by their opinions when we were too young to make our own, and no matter what conclusions we reached, they would accept it and love us no matter what.

  In my late teens whenever I made a statement about beliefs or religion in general, Mama would present the opposite side of the arguments, which baffled me, then she told me she just wanted me to have my arguments down to the letter, so my opinions would be complete, like a house with four walls, a door and a roof (I’m paraphrasing, she didn’t say this exactly.) As I became more observant and I just saw more of the world in general, I learned that there were people out there who had their opinions, and stood by them, even though their “house” was very incomplete, the one thing that they had finished was a closed and padlocked door to keep all other options and opinions out. So because of my parent’s unique and wise way of upbringing, I feel confident in my house, and that I try to keep all doors and windows open, and I’m not afraid of remodel as circumstances change in my life.