Ok, that was a lame title. But the things I made are super cute!
My friend Jen’s baby will be a year old in October, but I promised her this quilt back before the heart thing, and I always keep my promises… eventually. I had a bit of fabric left over from the kit, so I made her a diaper bag/quilt keeper bag to match.
Well, the quilt was finished a few weeks ago, and delivered in the matching bag. Not too shabby, despite the 11 month delay. I hope. *wince*
My article reviewing various free-ware, share-ware, and low-cost writing software, The Modern Pen, will appear in the e-zine Vision: A Resource for Writers in the upcoming November edition.
For those of you who don’t know about Vision, it is a fantastic place to find ideas, tidbits of knowledge, and writerly advice. Check it out:
So I haven’t been posting much the last couple of weeks (*cough* at all *cough*). Sorry. On the bright side, I’ve been getting a lot done! I’ve finished a couple of my Christmas craft projects, started a couple of others, and stacked my quilting fabric selection up by about 600% over the last two weeks.
I’ve also gotten back into the revision of Hunters, tentatively retitled “The Revision That Never Ends” which is entirely unfair, considering that it’s already made some rounds to agents in its “finished” form and I reopened the revision rounds based on some agent feedback I received. This week, I reread the first 18 chapters, making a few tweaks here or there to bring the dialog up to snappy and tighten the descriptions a bit. Then I scrapped the last 10k words of Hunters1 and all of Hunters2, plotted a new ending with the help and approval of my foremost beta reader (hi, hubby dearest!), and am now drafting the new ending, which should bring the total project from two 80k books to one 120k book with an optional but not necessary sequel waiting in the wings.
On the health front, despite a round of stomach flu on my anniversary weekend (10/15 marked my 13th wedding anniversary), I’m actually feeling better than I have in almost a year. Which is to say that I’m still fatigued almost constantly and I still get short of breath and lightheaded and passy-outy, but with slightly less frequency, and at least the mental fog seems to be lifting. No more major issues with word swapping, new memory lapses, or conceptual issues. Treating myself for POTS, despite only having a tentative diagnosis according to my cardiologist, seems to be improving things a little.
Keep your fingers crossed for me, dear readers.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about agents. This is a natural occurrence for writers, like myself, who are at the stage of looking for an agent and tailoring what has already been written in that direction. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is that old adage that money flows toward the author, and how agents who have something to sell break this traditional model.
Some of the non-agenting things agents are doing these days for profit – hosting paid workshops outside of the independent conference model and even marketing self-created books and software that guarantee your idea as a finished novel in only 30 days – hinge on the borderline between providing a valuable service for value and taking advantage of hopeful potential clientèle. As a writer, I have some serious misgivings about working with an agent who engages in some of the financial activities at the latter end of that spectrum.
First off, there are ethics. As a nurse, I was taught that the relationship between a patient and a practitioner is sacred and that the patient should *never* be made to feel that they have to offer up a bribe to get good care. The AAR has a code of ethics, too. (The AAR Code of Ethics)
A lot of the activities I have come across agents doing outside of the agenting world, and using their status as agents to market, tread on thin ice with these very important principles. Marketing claims that promise your novel can be written and ready for an agent in X amount of days if you just follow this blueprint, formula, or plan smack of exaggeration, if not downright deception. Attempting to sell products to potential future clients based on the agent status has the potential to create a significant conflict of interest and give some writers the impression (whether intentional or not)Â that they stand a better chance of gaining said agent’s favor if they mention having paid $$ for the agent’s workshop, software, or book.
Secondly, what is the agent’s focus here? I’m a realist. I know that an agent has many clients and a life outside of the work place. No agent is going to spend 100% of their time trying to sell my novel (or anyone else’s) and that’s fine. But when an agent is interviewed for a writer’s publication and answers the question ‘so what are you focusing on now?’ with something along the lines of “My next $$ software tool to write your book for you!” it sends up a lot of red flags for me. Shouldn’t the answer be something along the lines of “looking for new clients” or “selling stuff for the clients I already have an obligation to” perhaps?
Maybe I’m too old school. Everything I’ve ever accomplished worth mentioning in my life has been achieved through hard work, diligence, strong convictions, and coming to an intrinsic understanding of the subject matter. I’ve been helped along the way – by books, by formal education, by self-learning, by my peers – but I have yet to accomplish anything worthwhile by just following someone else’s blueprint with little or no understanding of the processes involved.
So I’m more than a little leery of anything that promises I can skip all that there learning stuff and go straight to the finish line in X number of easy steps. Another old adage comes to mind here: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. This cautious approach to spending my dollars on quick fixes is backed up time and again when the people I know who have spent those dollars remain unfulfilled hopefuls, or worse – end up dejected and disillusioned.
Both as a nurse and a moral humanist, ethics are vital to who I am and what I do. So ethics play a very big role in who I chose to send my manuscripts off to when it comes time to search for that perfect agent. I’m picky with queries because I want a good fit, and the agent who fits well with me will value ethics and honesty as much as I do.
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What qualifications does your Ideal Agent have? Do you think that selling quick-fix products creates a conflict of interest for agents?
I’ve made progress on a few fronts lately – finished the baby quilt, delivered the baby quilt (baby is OMG cute!), and composed most of an article I pitched to an e-zine editor.
I’ve even made a bit of progress on the heart front. The cardiologist finally called me back (only 10 days after he promised to) and has tentatively diagnosed me with a new condition called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) which is basically indistinguishable from IST except that there are a few more treatment options. I start a new medication today which will hopefully address the symptoms I’m having rather than just swamp me in unpleasant side effects.
So why the plodding? Today was a rough day. I got a little over-tired yesterday, and barely had the energy to crawl back to bed by 3pm today, after a day spent sitting in a chair. Not only that, but my cognitive and mental functions are taking a serious hit these last few weeks. I’ve become forgetful (even forgetting where my son goes to school when I had to pick him up sick), swap words constantly, and am having a difficult time with memory, concentration, and attention. So I’m plodding along, doing my best in a situation that leaves a lot to be desired. Next week is going to be devoted primarily to taking care of business (bills, phone calls, and paperwork I’ve been putting off) and finishing up that pesky short story from 2006 and the revisions on Hunters.
