Yup, Buckley has something his reptillian daddy doesn't: genuine humour. Mostly I want to poke him in the ass with a salad fork for his opinions, but he writes very very well indeed.

erika, you know my take on characters' journey: it's what makes or breaks a book. Plot is mechanics, but allowing realised characters to walk their own road, and not be afraid of where they end up or (most important) where they take you as their creator/interpreter, is to me the defining factor in what makes a book worth reading.

Victor, I left feedback at your livejournal, as well.

As are WHITE HOUSE PET BOOKS

Except Millie, because she had a clearer mind than any of those stupid Bushies. And if the current dog at the White House wrote something, I would expect it to be all about how he shoved that prat Shrub off his Segue.

"Aw, isn't that cute! It looks like he's reading..." Man, I can just be a huge bitch. As well as a Bitch. But I'm not taking it back:P

Deeeeeeeb!

The tree ate my brain. Reached up last night on the way home from Jilli and Pete's and ate it. Sucked away everything else I was working on, and grabbed me with cranky fingers by the throat.

Note to self and other cycling female writers: when you have a capital A Angry character, really, all it takes is cramps to get her going.

Susan, it sounds like your rejection letters are pretty encouraging, actually! I'm so excited for you. I mean, you wrote a book! And it's THERE for people to reject!

Yeah, I'm not at all discouraged yet. I'll get there, if not with this book, with the one after it or the one after that.

At the conference in October, among the speakers two stand out in my mind--Julia Quinn and a category author (i.e. Harlequin/Silhouette) whose name I don't recall offhand. JQ published her first novel. The other writer submitted something along the lines of 20 manuscripts over 18 years before she actually got published. I figure I'll be somewhere in between, though I'm still cocky enough that I expect to be much closer to the Quinn side of the continuum.

Victor, I left a comment on LJ, too. Really liked it.

I'd started getting "nice" rejections too... then I wasn't able to write for a while. Bet I'm back to form letters now.

Victor, I really liked the way you wrote that. I think part of my problem (as in, the reason why I'm doing newsletter stuff I hate instead of taking a chance and writing stuff that doesn't numb my brain) is the whole fear of failure thing. It's good for me to remember that to write is to fail.

Susan, that sounds like a very encouraging rejection indeed.

I remember reading one of Tabitha King's books once and suspecting her technical chops were much better than those of the hubby, but it's been a while, and that's all I really remember about it.

I dimly remember reading that she helped him a lot with the structure and female voices in Carrie. So in a way, he owes his career to her.

I think part of my problem (as in, the reason why I'm doing newsletter stuff I hate instead of taking a chance and writing stuff that doesn't numb my brain) is the whole fear of failure thing. It's good for me to remember that to write is to fail.

EXACTLY!!!!! Fear of failure can be SUCH an inhibitor.

I think the question writers need to ask themselves is, "OK. If I fail, so what?" Why is that such a horrible thing?

Failure is bullshit anyway - it's just part of the natural cycle of breathing and not breathing. There's no getting around it; might as well embrace it. Failure (however you define it) happens. Success (ditto) happens. All of it feeds the individual toward critical mass.

Plei! Wanna see! And a suggestion? Ask Pete if he will be a nice nice nice man and show you an astonishing piece he did; tell him, it's the thing with the lady and the tree. Quite, well, very, um, amazing and intense.

Here's a link, from a friend in my writers group. I reproduce both email as explanation, and a link (I'm not eligible, as you'll see):

There's a writing competition being sponsored by London Book Fair that I am entering and thought others may be interested in. Send in the first 10,000 words of a novel by Jan 23. The winner gets a ton of exposure (Brits as well as non Brits may enter). Those submitting can not have been previously published (sorry Deborah).

Here's the link:

[link]

Plei! Wanna see! And a suggestion? Ask Pete if he will be a nice nice nice man and show you an astonishing piece he did; tell him, it's the thing with the lady and the tree. Quite, well, very, um, amazing and intense.

Ooo! I will ask him.

I'll be insending in a page or two (when a page or two more is written, that is) for you to look at.

I'll be insending in a page or two (when a page or two more is written, that is) for you to look at.

(bouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebouncebounce)