It's your basic "I want to impress someone so I'll show off something dangerous I've been doing for months, and I've gotten away with it so far so what could possibly go wrong?" thing. Risk-taking and over-confidence, the things people who are young and think they're immortal get up to.
It really is quite discouraging to be the age I am and looking at youngsters who are doing the same idiotic things I did and knowing there's no way to convince them that the things are idiotic. Well, discouragement with a full serving of schadenfreude.
I kinda feel guilty for enjoying it, but I can't help but like SlushPile Hell
Latest One:
Exerpt from Query
I intend to secure an A-list actress for my trilogy of books, specifically Keira Knightley. I intend to send Keira $150,000 to read my first two books and the synopsis for the third book. I intend to retain an entertainment lawyer to represent us, and said lawyer would write a contract for Keira Knightley and send the $150,000 via her agency. If Keira Knightley likes the books and agrees to take the role within our time frame, then she keeps the $. If not, she returns the $.
Lit Agent's Comment
I have a better idea. Send me $150,000 to read your first two books. If I like the books, I’ll keep the $. If I don’t like the books, I’ll still keep the $, but occasionally I’ll have pangs of guilt over it.
I saw that one! It's sad, but editors get lots of letters like that. I had a file of them for a while.
Seriously?!
Writing a character that reminds you of Keira Knightley? Ok, cool.
Promising to deliver KK? Not so much.
A great interview with Aimee Mann, specifically about songwriting, but also applies to writing in general.
That's awesome! Thanks for linking that, Tom.
That's great. Getting a couple of partial requests right out of the gate is a good sign. Did they come from queries that included pages?
One yes, one no. Signs the query letter is ok?
