Today I’ve got more of the same stream of consciousness multi-topic madness as last week. Comment on what you like, ignore the rest and if nothing piques your interest, just say HELLO! :-)

EDITED TO ADD: MICHAEL JACKSON is gone. I can’t believe it.

ER …. MR. ROMANCE?


That’s the 2009 Mr. Romance winner. Click on the pictures to enlarge. I’m afraid he’s a bit too chunky for my tastes. True, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my beholding eyes no likey him. :no:

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WHY AGENT JANET REID REJECTS QUERIES

From her blog:

1. Your novel isn’t finished. You were kind enough to tell me in the first line saving me the time required to read the entire query. Finish the novel before you send the query.

2. The Heroin of your story wasn’t drugs. Misused words, particularly when you’re writing for kids are instant no.

3. Kid’s books that, for lack of a better phrase, are vile. Really scary books and really mean books usually with a “should” theme: “this book will show kids should do this; parents should do that.”

4. In your 250 word query letter there’s nothing, literally NOTHING, about the novel other than the title.

These are queries that don’t make it to the holding pen; they’re rejected in about 15 seconds, the time it takes to skim a page.

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IN AND OUT

The Intern gives the inside scoop on the latest publishing trends:

Hot tips fresh from the past 5-6 editorial and pub board meetings:

-Vampires are IN.
-”me”-related books are OUT. (“it isn’t all about you any more! now it’s about “us”!)
-Twelve-step book[s] are IN
-superfoods are on their way OUT.
-simplicity and simple living are IN

Do the math people. We’re looking for twelve-step programs to help vampires get over their narcissism, using a diet rich in white bread and peanut butter, while living in straw-bale houses.

:lmao:

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CHAPTER FOUR BURNOUT

Do you suffer from this? Editor Lynn Price of Behler Publications describes a phenomena she encounters a lot in the submissions she receives. Here’s a snippet, but I strongly suggest you go read the whole blog post. It’s very enlightening:

Authors spend an inordinate amount of time on the first three chaps because it’s where the characters are introduced and developed and story is set up. It’s natural for those to rock the house.

However, what explodes also implodes, and thats what I normally see when I hit chapters 4 and beyond. The story implodes because all the elements that held the first three chapters together “character intro and story set up’ have been dealt with. Ch. 4 etc, pertains to telling that story. Less attention appears to be paid here, and I’ve gotten so that I wait to get excited about anything until after I’ve reached the middle of a full manuscript. I can almost feel the author floundering as to where to go next, which path to take. It’s like they poured all their focus into the first chapters  because we classically ask for the first three chaps – and are left without enough wind in their sales to get out of the harbor.

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I HATED THE FIRST ONE

No surprise that most reviewers think Transformers 2 sucks. The first one was like getting a two-hour root canal. Noise. Nothing but NOISE. And according to Roger Ebert, number 2 isn’t any better.

“If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.”

FWIW, my son liked the first one, but he has an excuse. He’s a 12-year-old boy. They live for guns, fire and noise.

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FOR AGENT HUNTERS

If you write romantic suspense and are looking for representation Agent Sandy Lu of The Perkins Agency is looking for you.

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THE DEATH OF real JOURNALISM

Mini rant….

Before my illustrious career as a romance writer (snork), I worked at a small town (I mean REALLY small) newspaper as a copy editor and feature’s reporter. That was ages ago, but I never forgot the basics. Yet lately many so-called journalists have. Most of the news I get (especially cable) is biased commentary.

FOX, MSNBC, CNN! You know who you are.

Okay, so maybe one of them is guiltier than the others, but guilt is guilt. SHAME ON ALL THEM! What happened to real reporting? I don’t give a crap about what the anchormen think. I don’t care what their opinions are. I just want the facts so I can decide for myself. Dear Cable News People, stop telling me what YOU think. Stop telling ME what to think. Where the hell is Walter Cronkite when you need him?

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MAKING LEMONADE

This is soooooooo cool. Rakia Clark, former editor at Kensington was laid off several months ago, so what did she do? She went into business for herself. Now she’s doing freelance editing. You can check her out HERE. I swiped this from her website:

Genres & Specialties:
Women’s Fiction
Biography
Memoir
Pop Culture
Romance
Humor
Lifestyle

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TWITTER PITCH

Twitch Week is almost over at BookEnds. It’s basically a Twitter pitch contest where you pitch your book to Jessica or Kim on their Twitter page. Trick is you can only use 140 characters or less. Think you can whittle your pitch down to fit their guidelines? Have at it. Go HERE. Or HERE.

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TOTALLY ROMANTIC

Check out this awesome dance routine from So You Think You Can Dance (1 min 49 secs). The song: Falling Slowly