That's a lovely little paragraph setting up all sorts of delights. Except for the first sentence, which seems composed entirely of prepositions.

"The driveway he took angled down a ravine. Only the roof of the house was visible until the last possible moment, and even then," etc.

Or something like. Those preposition thickets are deadly and seem to further ensnare you the harder you try to fight free. Or at least they do me.

They are a pain, aren't they? I'm just having fits because I have this very specific image in my mind, of not just the setting, but the motion as well. And while it's not evident from this passage, it is in first person, so she's describing it as she sees it, from her vantage point as the passenger in a car.

Let me see if I can streamline further.

You know, Bev, I love you. Thank you for making me look at this in a different way.

###

He turned, slowly navigating the steep narrow path through a thickly wooded ravine that despite the well-tended gravel driveway, maintained a sense of undisturbed mystery.

"Jack, you don't think this is some kind of joke, do you?"

"It would hardly be the first time." He slowed further, pulling his sunglasses off in order to better see through the sudden twilight.

No… I did not like the way this felt. My heart raced, my breath catching in rapid shallow gasps at the sensation of forging through darkness with no idea what lay on the other side. My fingernails dug into the edges of the seat as I fought the memories.

And just as I was about to suggest that we leave, that we get out now, rather than continue further into the nerve-wracking darkness, the trees broke into a clearing flooded with light, the path widening into a perfectly oval drive crowned with the most perfect house I had ever seen. Or rather, less house than fantasy. Spans of glass and natural wood planks with mossy green trim giving the overall impression that the building had emerged one segment at a time from the earth on which it sat until nature decreed it done. Behind the house the Pacific stretched in wild, vivid contrast, white-capped waves sweeping in before suddenly disappearing with a crash and hiss, the occasional fine mist springing up over the cliff's edge, sparkling against the burnt orange horizon.

It was a scene out of a fairy tale.

How many times does this asshat have to be sued?

[link]

It just burns me. So many aspiring writers have no idea how the industry works. Even my mom asked me how much I had to pay to get an agent when I first signed on with Agent Kate, and she usually has a pretty good bead on things.

I don't even care that a lot of the authors who send these asses money are shitty writers. They still bled from their foreheads and sunk their hearts into a project and got scammed. I want to punch this dude in the face.

I think you should.

Seriously. I'm two chapters from completion. Agent Kate says it's cool to send to beta, as long as she has it next weekend. My stomach hurts.

That's the first thing a new author should know: No reputable agent will EVER charge you a reading fee to evaluate your work. Ever. Ever ever ever.

::shrug::

It's terrible, but it's also publishing Darwinism. In this day and age, there are far too many sources for people to check on the legitimacy of agents and/or publishing companies. Especially if they found this guy on the Net, then they can take the extra few hours to do their homework. Hell, all they need to do is pick up Jeff Hermann's Guide to Agents and Editors which is a good basic, cover all your basis guide. But no, they'd rather pay to have their dream of publishing Right Now without properly educating themselves.

Should the guy be prosecuted and possibly have his balls cut off and fed to seagulls? Absolutely-- he's an unethical dickhead and should be run out of town on rails. But as for the rest of it-- it should be a lesson.

But it won't be.

Hell, all they need to do is pick up Jeff Hermann's Guide to Agents and Editors which is a good basic, cover all your basis guide.

This is not always true. We didn't get back to them on time one year, and all sorts of ridiculous stuff got put in our entry at K. -- like, we published poetry and YA and sci-fi, none of which was remotely true.

Urk. But at the very least, IIRC, he has basic stuff in there about good agents not charging reading fees and blah, blah, blah.