Primarily cause I haven't had much to say. But now I have potentially good news: I've a publisher interested in my novel. Not only that, she's interested in the five-book series.

Nothing contractual yet -- just chats by e-mail and phone -- but it's definitely different than the usual form rejection letters!

Serious talks are supposed to resume in several months after their current project is squared away. Meanwhile, she loved the first novel and wants to see the sequel, which will have a lot of bearing, of course, on her decision.

In any event, she paid me a high compliment since I happen to know that, like me, she is the mother of four school-aged kids. She said she stayed up till four in the morning reading my novel cause "she couldn't put it down" and "just had to find out what happened next."

That's what I like to hear! Ha!

Meanwhile, if you're a poetry fan, you can catch one of mine online for another day or two. It's the poem of the week and the url where it is at (sensitive POETRY) is http://home.earthlink.net/~sensitive/sensitivepoetry/

Let's see, what else? The adoption slowly moves along. Our homestudy update is completed save having the document in hand, though it is due this week yet or next week. Our criminal records checks are late. Once I have those two things in hand all I need to do is wait for the Immigration approval notice (about another two to three weeks, I suspect) and we can notarize everything and send it off. That will be a relief!

Then it is just a matter of waiting while our paperwork makes its way through international channels. That, and figuring out what to do with the four here while we leave to get the two over there!

Ugh. I'm beginning to think this is the most difficlt "pregnancy" of all!

Anyway, cheers to all and hope your New Years are all off to as good a start as mine. Today is my son's birthday (Sully) and he is officially a teen, so I've got to go get those gifts wrapped!

Take care.

garrie k.

Sounds like the book deal is coming along! That's wonderful.

I read your poem - very moving. Thanks for posting the link.

Keep us updated. As a writer, I read so much about rejection - it's a breath of fresh air to read something positive!

Donna

Good for you on the potential book deal! Congratulations!

Sandra

Congratulations!! I agree with DonnaJ. It's so nice to hear of acceptance instead of rejection for a change.

The poem is great. So directly at the gut.

Thanks.

smile

Great poem, Garrie! I get the Sensitive Poetry newsletter and hadn't gotten to this week's until you posted. Glad I caught it!

Garrie,

The book deal sounds so exciting. I was wondering how you did it. What did you do first, second and third? Did you send a query letter? Or a synopsis? A couple of chapters? The whole book? Did you send it directly to the publisher or did yo go through an agent?

Just wondered.

smile

Great questions smile!

Garrie, congrats and thanks for sharing the good news.

Do you have the sequel written?

Will you continue to query while you wait for her to finish the other project? If not, it would be great to try to get some kind of contract.

Sounds like you two connect on other levels too which is so important!

I wish you tremendous success and please keep us posted.

What's the book/series about?

Garrie,
Congratulations! How exciting! I too loved your poem.
Maggie

Well, Smile, lemme think here. First I wrote the 600 + page novel! Ha! (I've come to realize that's the easy part!) I completed the first draft in 1994.

Second, I took what to me was some very difficult advice and put it aside for six months to a year and went on to something else. I fought the natural urge to send the 'script off right away.

When I pulled it back out and re-read it, I groaned. I gasped. Egad! How embarrassing! How stupid! I re-wrote it, taking the other "half" of the above advice, which was to cut 20% on the re-write when I finally took the novel back out of the drawer.

I did more than that. I edited out 60%! The second draft stood at 200-some pages. Again I set it aside. Third draft? Back up to the 400-page range cause I realized I'd taken TOO much out.

That's where it's hovered in the years since as I've gone through 8 more drafts.

In between those drafts I began working on the sequels, finishing one only to go back to the opening novel and re-write that, then returning to adjust the sequel.

I'm three novels in now, with the other two still languishing in my head so the characters (and their creator) can recover a bit from their strenuous adventures!

At some point -- around the year 2000 (that STILL sounds "futuristic to my 1960's mind!) -- I began soliciting publishers and agents. I probably shouldn't have cause the story was still melodramatic slush pile fodder.

For a long time all I received were form rejections. I kept records of where I sent manuscripts and how long it took for the rejection to come. I saved all the rejections so I can frame my favorites someday and laugh at them! Meanwhile, they're adequately humbling.

Eventually I began receiving rejections that were personal, discussing the chapters I'd sent with small details or suggestions about the characters or setting, the action or plot. I found this a "step up." I always took the time to write back and thank any editor or publisher who had sent me anything more than a form rejection letter.

This past October I went to Boston and took a course called Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, the agent-writer who is a past president of AAR. It was a great course and worth the time and expense. I would recommend it highly. But what that class did most for me was to encourage me because in listening to Maass talk about the elements that top-selling novels had in common, I realized I already had a good handle on the basics. Now I felt I had been given both the tools and the encouragement to make my work even better.

When I arrived home hyped up from that weekend course I was hit with startling news: my novel (which I'd entered many months before in a publisher's competition for which first place would be a publishing contract) had reached the finals. It was one of the top ten being considered based on the three chapters and synopsis which had been requested for entry. I was to send the whole manuscript for final judging.

I panicked! I had just learned all this stuff that I wanted to incorporate into my work! I pounded off an eleventh draft, taking about six days in which to do it. I had come home from Boston planning to take three months to re-work the book based on what I'd learned! ARGH!

But I was excited by my changes and happily sent the work off, feeling fairly confident I'd place in the top four. New Year's day the company announced the winners. I took second.

Despite placing second, it is this publisher who is interested in the work. Because my novel is part of a series, there were other considerations for her. Dotsie is right. I do feel connected to this woman on other levels, too. For one thing, once I found I was on the list of finalists I wanted to find out more about the publishing company (naturally).

Since Dawn, herself, is an author, I decided to read her work. I was delighted to discover I loved it! If you like fantasy and/or romance, I recommend it highly. It's called Rise of the Phoenix and you can get it at www.brighidsfirebooks.com

I plan to read it again, in fact and I hope to review it, as well, for the sf&f webzine for which I write. I would read passages aloud to myself simply because I liked her way with words. I hadn't done that since I read Kalil Gibran or portions of Shakespeare!

Anyway, that is my story (though there is actually more to the Maass part and more re: query letters). It's a young publishing house but their second book, The Haydes Project, appears to be doing very well. I haven't read it, though, cause I'm no fan of horror.

Meanwhile, I'm doing a re-edit of book two to bring it more in line with the last-minute changes I had made to book one and then I will send it off. If she likes the sequel as much as the first book I hope to hear from her again. No matter what happens, it's all very encouraging. She knows my novel is also with another publisher -- likely rotting beneath their slush pile, no doubt. She's made no promises to me nor I any to her and that's okay. I like the fact that she is intelligent, business savvy, and personable. It was so much fun to talk to her on the phone. I knew I would like her. I just knew it from having read her own work.

My novel is called The Secret of Sharada Nye. It's a sci-fantasy family saga. I began writing the characters nearly 25 years ago in college. Yes, it's that old! The maiin character was inspired by a crush I had on an actor whom I envisioned (when he was younger) playing the part should they ever make a movie out of it! HA HA HA! How goofy. Buy hey -- whatever inspires!

Now get this: tomoorow I'm actually off to see him in person (well ... live, anyway). I'm heading to NYC to see Chicago on Broadway in which he's reprising his tony-award winning role.

Life sure is funny. The guy'll never know cause of him I wrote three novels!

garrie

[ January 16, 2004, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: garrie keyman ]

Garrie, Thanks for the information. Looks like you're reaping the rewards for years of work. And what a wonderful reward it will be.

Your story made me feel a lot better about editing my novel for six years or so. I also have a sequel that is kind of limping along. Not sci fi, more a woman's novel. Sort of a love story, but not a romance. People say it's funny and poignant with a little adventure thrown in.

I'm afraid there is no genre for it except mainstream which I understand is almost impossible to break into. Oh well. I just keep thinking how much fun it was to write. Sending it out is a huge hurdle.

I'm still not clear on the part about what you sent out when you weren't entering a contest though. I mean to the folks who rejected it. Did you send a query, synopsis, chapters, or all of the above? And did you send it to publishers or to agents??

Sounds like the publication actually came from a contest. Makes me want to enter more contests. I have avoided them in the past.

Thanks again and Keep up the good work. We'll see a whole shelf of Barnes and NOble filled with your books and people waiting in line to buy them.

Our own J.K. Rowling!!

smile