Hello,



I've noticed a lot of new people lately. And it has been several months since I waived hi and asked people what they are looking for in content here. So new folks, please say hi and how you heard of my little corner of the internet,  and all-y'all if you have something you'd like to hear my 2 cents on speak now or forever (about 2-3 months) hold your homekeys.

Finally! I saw the preview I wasn't allowed to share, and now, there is this cover final and one for all to look at. I tried to get a larger image into the post, but apparently Picsa, myself, and LiveJournal aren't a good mix.



Here's the Picsa link. And I'm sure you've all preordered already so I won't point out that large preorders make editors happy, and being happy makes them much more pliable when I twist their arms for additional books and better terms.

I've had the pleasure of meeting several of my competitors over the last couple years. While we all have our own personalities, we do have several things in common. Near the top of that list is a dearth of time. This is true of those of us building our lists, and those who have lists that make their competitors salivate. One of the things that I'll take the opportunity to declare a universal truth of agents is that we tend to ask questions with a precision a neurosurgeon would appreciate. We know exactly what info we are looking for. We want it in a specific order if at all possible, and broken up into orderly clusters that can let us apply that information with the maximum effect later. So when we ask a question, please answer the question we do ask, not the question you wish we'd asked, or the question you think we should have asked, or ala most politicians and public relations talking heads the question you wanted us to ask.



The reasons for this are legion, the most salient are stated above. But they are (at least for me) not the only reasons we do this. For me, and I suspect most agents one of the things taken into consideration when we read enough of a submission and its cover letter is how much we want to work with the person who created the title. I've gotten no few submissions since I started the agency from people who wrote at a publishable level (or very close to it) but who were in the precise technical terms I learned as a psychology student bug-fuck-nuts and who would have sucked up more of my energy than I care to devote to any one person. Indeed, It would be unfair of me to other clients to take on these people who would take my time and energy away from existing and future clients who had entrusted their career to me.

This is a banner provided by the nice folks as Pyr for James Enge's The Blood of Ambrose.



Anyone who wants a copy to post elsewhere who can't get this one to work post a comment with your email, I have screened them for this post.



edited to you know, screen the comments...

Facebook's current terms of service give them the right to do what they wish with any content you post for as long as you leave it up. This means your stories, pictures, wall conversations and comments on other peoples notes. I've already stopped feeding my LiveJournal into Facebook and won't restore it until they have sensible, and non preadatory TOS's. More here.

From the most recent several weeks of slush encountered, here are some random facts.

Longest read before a no: 70 pages

Shortest read: 3 paragraphs.

Most common reason for rejection: lack of interest in the main character.

Second most common reason for rejection: Unsupportable plotting quirks.

And yes, I'm still bemused by people who send me query letters via the contact form. Especially since this is directly below the contract form:

Any one who attempts to submit or query through this form will have their email address banned across the whole domain.



And of course it is nearly always for something I don't represent in the first place.

Enjoy, or have your eyes cross...

The four books I read this time are all interesting, and from just two publishers.



K. E. Mills' The Accidental Sorcerer is a fantasy, set in a world that has an early electric age feel with a lot of magic. Gerald Dunwoody is our title character who has all the good fortune of a plague victim without the blessed death at the end. We start off the book with him in the middle of a magic wand factory that is about to explode. Politicians and bureaucrats being the same everywhere he is blamed for it despite evidence to the contrary. This job was of course his last shot at success and the explosion yet another disaster in an life that could be the highlight reel from I Love Lucy. A fun book overall with a some interesting insights hidden amongst the litter of fantasy tropes.

Three Urban Fantasy's also got onto the list, and all three are written by people from different areas of the nation. Each has recognizable regional quirks that make their work distinct.



Anton Strout's Dead To Me features a thief gone straight who has decided to use his ability to read objects for something other than lining his pockets. As part of proving that there's no saint like a reformed sinner he's joined a pseudo government agency. Strout's Big Apple is replete with scenes that demonstrate all the shades of gray that color scale life in any large group. Some of Simon's superiors are not as nice as even Simon's low opinion of them, some are not as pure as he'd believe, it's a mantra we see more than once to good effect. The quips about New York life, and various denziens of the city are a hoot.



Jennifer Rardin;s Once Bitten Twice Shy is the first UF i've read from Orbit, and the first book by the author. Jaz Parks is like the author from the Midwest, although i doubt the authors boss is a vampire. Jaz, is a CIA assasin, and she's good at her job, aside from wrecking cars and her boss's nerves. Jaz has a personality that utterly fits her battle scarred experiences to her her pragmatic midwest roots.

Mark Del Francos Unshapely Things is quite the tour of Boston, and his imagination with a well concealed smattering of New England common sense. Connor Grey is medically, or at least magically retired Druid who has to eek out a living working as a private investigator with the shreds of his once formidable power. Connor's Boston is one where Elves, Fairies and other creatures of legend have come to live. Unfortunatly someone is making ritual killings in his neck of the woods. Connor Grey is not the type to stand around and let things like this happen, especially when he can do something and irritate the powers that be at the same time.



A fun, and contrasting four books.

 

edited since i conflated the real and pen names of the first author.

It occurred to me as i read this list that a lot of these simply don't occur to some of the writers who submit stuff to me, or sadly to one or two of the things I've seen in print. Some of the high points of the list:

2. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammunition is cheap - life is expensive. If you shoot inside, buckshot is your friend. A new wall is cheap - funerals are expensive



This one translates well into: Never believe something, know it. In other words: Overkill is just right. An enemy that has been sawn in half by your; gun fire, laser fire, magic, animal tusks or sword is probably not going to come after you again.



4. If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough or using cover correctly.



This one has two major forks to its point for writers, and those unfamiliar with guns:

1. If your enemy is moving at your slowly enough, and without any ranged weapons, that you can get into the picture perfect stance seen in target competitions and bad movies, it is either a) not very dangerous or b) it's confident enough that you should be taking the time to run away.
2. Standing in that wonderful range posture makes you a delightful target for anyone (the enemy you see or the one(s) you don't.

10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.



While blowing away all your ammo in the first five seconds isn't great tactics either, waiting for the perfect shot you have to be realistic and think of the possibility of losing your gun. This is most important if you or your character is small, weak, hurt, or your enemy is that strong.



16. Don't drop your guard.



This seems to be what makes the plot in horror movies (what little there is) work, but you can rarely get away with it in good books.



20. The faster you finish the fight, the less shot you will get.



Obviously this applies to all weapons, and magic, and hand to hand as well.



24. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun, the caliber of which does not start with anything smaller than "4".



While the "caliber wars" will rage eternal, you'll note that many police departments carry .40 or .45, some will go with a 9mm simply because it moves faster and in theory has both takedown power and leaves the chance of survival for the person hit.



27. Regardless of whether justified of not, you will feel sad about killing another human being. It is better to be sad than to be room temperature.



The second sentence of this one is rather more important than the first. I hope I never have to kill anyone, but if the choice is me and mine or some schmuck that has actually made me want to kill them, it'd be unwise to bet on me feeling too bad about surviving.

If so, revising may be a good idea.



Thank you Darius.

So, what are people reading in YA right now? What have you liked in the last year?

The nice folks at Audible have let me know that the audio version of James Enge's debut novel The Blood of Ambrose is scheduled to be released on April 21st.

Well Con goers it is nearly that time again! Lunacon is almost here with a Guest of Honor who not only hasn't been in the USA in five years, is looking forward to his first stint as Guest of Honor. Dave Freer who has over a dozen books on the shelf ranging from epic fantasy to space opera to urban fantasy will be touching down in time to meet the people he writes for. Larry Dixon will be Artist Guest of Honor, the Special Guest will be Mercedes Lackey and Eric Flint will be Toastmaster.





Don't forget: Lunacon March 20-22, the greatest con this side of the moon.

davefreer 

James Enge has turned in the sequel to his soon to be best loved Blood Of Ambrose to Pyr. The sequel is currently titled This Crooked Way. 

This video reminded me of some of the stories I've seen that have rather sharply juxtaposed elements, some working well, some working horribly most working for only a very small slice of the market. I suspect this video falls into one of the latter to categories.





Thanks Mel