Guess they showed ME who's boss

[shalanna]

The writer who is going to decide whether my Marfa Lights novel will go on to the finals has a website. Go buy all his books. Maybe that will help out my karma. Be sure to chant an appropriate incantation as you buy the books ("Bob, send Marfa Lights novel in as winner" might be good.)

http://www.bobmorris.net/index.htm

I'm hoping that some kind of positive spell effect might take place. Well, at least he's not one of those All-Amateur Judges who writes on my scoresheet, "I didn't get it" and "Don't use long words." We can hope for the best.

Because this book has just been bounced from the two agents who saw such promise in it last year. One of the rejections was just a garden-variety form reject from an assistant (and that was the agent who seemed to like me and was so enthusiastic about a Marfa Lights novel back last summer when we met in person), but the other wrote, "My suspension of disbelief didn't work. I couldn't believe in the circumstances because they were too odd, and Ari seemed much older than the 23 she's supposed to be."

I'm at a loss about the circumstances being odd. Ari is inheriting from her ex. I suppose that could be a bit unusual.

I understand that age bit, as I am an old soul and have always been older and more philosophical than the average twentysomething Paris Hilton-head, and also I had to change Ari and her sister to be younger. When I wrote this, I made them thirty and thirty-three, but then the death of her nephew couldn't be fixed (he had to be a little kid and Zoe had to have been thrown out when she was sixteen by her parents who were cold-hearted and she had to pull herself up by her bootstraps, making her strong, but screwing up the timeline.) Some people are just more mature younger than others.

Still, it's another all-purpose excuse for hating the book. I am not having very nice thoughts about agents and editors right now. That's a sin, of course, but I can't seem to repent. I also think I stole a carton of diet cola from the store yesterday, as the kid at the checkout and I were talking about online gaming, and I don't think he swiped the second carton across the reader. And I didn't repent that enough to go back today. I am really rackin' up the badness. This is not a good thing, considering we've lucked out where it really matters lately, and I have to make my mother go to HER tests next week, and we have a cardiologist follow-up in a few days, etc. (sigh)

I figured out that I DO HAVE A PLATFORM for promoting my novels, though. How do I tell agents about it? My platform includes . . . I can make the Richardson library choose my book for the "Richardson Reads One Book" project the year it comes out. That would mean REALLY GOOD sales around here. My aunts rule the library program in Sherman, as well, and they can get an article about me ("Niece of Local Hens Makes Good") into the Sherman Democrat/Denison Whatever-it-is newspaper, and I can sell there. I can sell in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Austin, and Minneapolis because I know people there. I can promote myself as whatever they want.

Hmm . . . let us rethink this platform claim.

But I probably COULD make them pick me for R.R.OneBook, unless Paris Hilton moves here and puts out a picture book.

And skinny jeans with a red T-shirt make me look like a candy apple on a stick. All I need is a sign saying . . . "Bite Me."

Comments

[highway-west.livejournal.com]

The frustration is so hard to deal with.

I can't even seem to get an agent to ask for a partial so you are doing better than I am.

[dennismhavens.livejournal.com]

I think you're on to something. The importance of marketing. And networking. These nit-picks that you get . . . there's nothing consistent about them. Ari and Zoë are the wrong age? Where's your target readership on the age scale? Make them that. Anywhere from late teen to early forties can produce babies. It would take very little rewriting to do enough backstory to explain why Zoë didn't have a child at the traditional age. A Vegas friend of mine used to be married to a girl who'd had her first baby at fourteen! I've got another friend whose wife was still buying tampons every month, regular as clockwork, at 53. That's a broad playing field; pick what you figure your readers will easily identify with and make the numbers work with that. They're meaningless, after all: the emotions would be the same at any parent's age. Zoë could be 38, she could be 28, she could even be 18. Just whatever leaves room for the kid's tragically short lifetime.

Funny, isn't it, that the complaint was about age discrepancies, but the existence of the Marfa Lights was not a suspension-of-disbelief issue. Odd.

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

>>Funny, isn't it, that the complaint was about age discrepancies, but the existence of the Marfa Lights was not a suspension-of-disbelief issue.

*Grin* That's because this was Stephany Evans, who lives half the time in Marfa herself and has seen the Marfa lights (and thus is presumably a believer.) No problem with that being odd at all. *grin*

She said I got the West Texas vibe just right. The way she said that was to lead off her letter by writing, "Thank you for letting me see work from a fellow West Texan!" Well . . . Richardson is a typical suburban Yuppietown. We're nowhere close to the Western vibe. I have NEVER seen anyone wear a cowboy hat here except my crazy church friend Marcus, who used to wear Western shirts and boots as well and say, 'YEe-ha!" I think he affected all that so the girls would flock around (and they did!) I am pleased that she thought I had even BEEN to West Texas. OR maybe that was just her way of leading off with something gently encouraging because she's a nice person and likes to open letters with something other than "Go away." Can't read too much into it.

See next entry for the rest of the answer . . . the comments system said I couldn't post such a long comment. (grin)