Hello? Gay now!

Willow ,'Showtime'


The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...  

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


deborah grabien - Apr 23, 2005 6:27:51 am PDT #1280 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

There's rice in a tube?

Why?


SailAweigh - Apr 23, 2005 6:36:35 am PDT #1281 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb

Ask Sean.


Strix - Apr 23, 2005 7:47:38 am PDT #1282 of 10001
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

Deb, that is AMAZING. Really, really wonderful. I'm so excited, and SO JEALOUS. I would love to teach a seminar for teenagers at something like this.

I'm chuffed that there is such a thing in existence, and it makes me feel better about world leaders and influential people and such.

Go, team Deb!!!

You know you have to tell us all about it.

Man, all the things you could talk about! I'm so jazzed!


Susan W. - Apr 23, 2005 9:02:13 am PDT #1283 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Another "this isn't really how the industry works, is it?" question for AmyLiz or anyone else who knows.

One of the bits of Conventional Wisdom I've seen floating around the internet is that you should never query an editor or agent in August or December, because August is the most popular vacation month, and December is the holidays, plus people have an urge to clear their desk for the New Year. The theory is that more form rejections go out because the editors and agents just don't feel like dealing with the mail.

That's never made sense to me. I can see how you might have to wait longer to get a response if your query arrives right after your target has left for 3 weeks in the Bahamas, but not that it would affect his/her response. I also wouldn't send an email query on Thanksgiving Wednesday or Christmas Eve, just because I think it smacks a bit of "I have no life, and as your client I will pester you at the most inconvenient and inappropriate times." But with regular mail, I figure it'll just go in the pile and get read when it gets read. All this stuff about not querying in August or December, or mailing your query/partial on Tuesday so it'll get there on Thursday or Friday and maybe the editor or agent will take it home over the weekend, just seems like so many silly stories writers tell themselves to give themselves more control over the uncontrollable.

But, of course, I could be wrong.


ChiKat - Apr 23, 2005 9:29:06 am PDT #1284 of 10001
That man was going to shank me. Over an omelette. Two eggs and a slice of government cheese. Is that what my life is worth?

That is so freakin' cool, deb! That's the kind of thing I would so geek out on.


deborah grabien - Apr 23, 2005 9:52:56 am PDT #1285 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Susan, I've been told - by two of my editors past and present, and by my agent - that nothing gets done in publishing in August or December. I can vouch for August - NYC publishing keeps "summer hours" and no one seems to be in their office after about three in the afternoon. And in December, holiday hours.

But, like you, I can't see that affecting their responses to a query. I suspect the "don't send at those times" dictum is based on the "no one's around, might as well wait until they are" scenario.

Amy? Your views, ma'am?

Oh, and Susan and other writers who have stuff making any stage or level of the rounds right now, I wanted to share this - as you may know, I have a supernatural thriller, Still Life With Devils, being looked at.

Just received a rejection letter from Random House. And it begins with the sentence "This novel creates the perfect pitch of suspense..."

And yet and yet and bloody yet.

Publishing R weird, yo.

I am going to be tearing my hair out with curiosity about who nominated me for the Renaissance weekend. And then more hair to follow, as I try to figure out who on the advisory board seconded and approved me. And why and how the invitation was sent through my agent.

Gah.


Steph L. - Apr 23, 2005 10:05:35 am PDT #1286 of 10001
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Deb, the fact that it was sent through your agent leads me to believe that you were nominated by someone who read your book.

Someone whose initials are "Big" and "Dog," perhaps....


Topic!Cindy - Apr 23, 2005 10:13:12 am PDT #1287 of 10001
What is even happening?

See, deb? Teppy knows the truth. I'm telling you, it was Bill. He was laid up with all the cardiac troubles and treatments. Being a voracious reader, he read everything he could get his hands on. He read your book. He said, "Damn. I remember that woman. I think the Laders should invite her to one of the Renaissance weekends." Then he called his assistant, gave her the publishing house name and told her to track you down via your agent. She can do that easily, on account of the fact that she works for the Big Dawg.

edited for apostrophe abuse


sumi - Apr 23, 2005 10:20:32 am PDT #1288 of 10001
Art Crawl!!!

Oh, yeah -- I'm with Teppy and Cindy -- it was the Big Dawg that nominated you.

And wow!!! What an amazing thing to discover in your mail.


Steph L. - Apr 23, 2005 10:43:25 am PDT #1289 of 10001
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Actually, now that I think about it, I was just thinking that the Big Dog used Google. But I forgot he has more resources to Find Out What This Person Is All About than the normal person has. We have Google; he has -- god only knows.

A Google search turns up the fact that Deb is a writer, and a damned good one. I would imagine that the kind of resources an ex-president has access to would turn up things like her political involvement, for one thing. And the combination of the spicy braiiiiiiins that are clearly obvious from reading her books + her politics = someone who definitely belongs at a Renaissance Weekend. Totally.