My Tribe Blog

Winter Workout. A Slush invitation.

onyxhawke — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:17:16 GMT

G'day, I'm doing a slush reading marathon. You're invited. It's called the Winter Workout, the link for the place to respond is at the bottom. Cheers, How it works: Everyone who sends me a science fiction, fantasy, or urban fantasy novel between 10pm ET on February 4th, and 8am ET on February 6th will get at least one full chapter (up to fifty pages) read and critiqued by me. Many, will get theirs back the same day. To do this I will be reading for twenty four straight hours. My goal is to pass the mark i made last year which was 19 first chapters and critiques. To do this, if I am still reading after one chapter or fifty pages I will send the writer an email that says "Still Reading after one." or something similar. Last time i picked up two clients out of this, and have one more resubmission in my inbox waiting to be read. Writers should note that I use the same four part critique form for everyone. The sections are: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Rest. Everyone should add my domain to their spam filters immediately. When you submit you will get an auto-response telling you it has been received. Anyone who does not follow the submission guidelines on my website will be rejected without being read. www.Onyxhawke.com Notes: If i get the same size response or larger as last year, I will not get to everyone on that Wednesday. I will still read everything. Everyone who has submitted things to the regular submission inbox will be read between now and 2/6. My replies may start very soon after midnight as I read and type pretty quickly. Most importantly: go spread the word, the more submissions i get, the happier I'll be. Edit: the email address for submissions for the Winter Workout is: ww@Onyxhawke.com http://onyxhawke.livejournal.com/38388.html

My Pi-Con Schedule!

onyxhawke — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:43:39 GMT

Tell me we met on Tribe if you come. www.pi-con.org Pi-Con Schedule music: Lonely - Anita Baker Friday: 5pm GoH Interview: Wherein I interview C.E. Murphy 6pm How to Write Pages 1-5 Kabongo(M), DeCandido, Osborne Saturday 10am Shamanistic Druids Kane, Kabongo, Murphy, Mach 11am Myth and Folklore in Fantasy Laity, Harvey(M), Kabongo 3pm Flirting Harvey, Kabongo, Ferrett, Mach, Snyder 4pm Pitch 10 minutes to an Agent Kabongo 5pm Cliches That Need Banning Kabongo, Green, K. Williams, Mach, Silva 7pm Urban Fantasy Harvey, Kabongo, Murphy 8pm, run to the nearest place that serves good dead animal and order without speaking Sunday 11am Critiquing that Counts Kabongo, Mach Noon Coming Full Circle Kabongo, Murphy

Minor update

onyxhawke — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:03:01 GMT

Mostly i've been buried in life and other four letter words lately, but i did put Pi-Con on my schedule for August. And of course my slush pile is still open. www.pi-con.org www.onyxhawke.com

Sale: Dave Freer

onyxhawke — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:12:21 GMT

The OnyxHawke Agency has successfully concluded negotiations with Baen, and received payment for the sale of Dave Freer's fantasy novel "Dragon's Ring". Three cheers for the fantastic writing of my client, which makes my job so much easier.

Arisia

onyxhawke — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:35:29 GMT

Arisia was a great con, but I’ll start with the minor nit picking and move on to the good stuff. The hotel food was way too expensive for an event like this, $12 for a burger is beyond the average con goers budget and the buffets while good were similarly obscene I price. The breakfast buffet was $15 and had a whole host of foods from bacon to cereal and great gobs of fresh fruit. The hotel was not well ventilated and any room with more than ten people started to get hot in a hurry. And several of the similar panels were scheduled opposite each other, which made you have to choose one over the other. That and there not being a mention of where the green room was and when the ‘meet the pro’s’ get together was are my only baby-gripes. On to the fun stuff: My panels were fun, not at the best times, but fun. I got to be on panels with people who knew what they were talking about and actually let others talk too, weird I know. I even managed to keep from turning into a panel hog. I got to meet some rather interesting people, even if I never saw any of them again after our panels, it was like the ground sucked them up. The Arisia staff are possibly the most organized crew I’ve ever seen, it really borders on the pathological. I arrived around the same mid afternoon time a most of the con goers, and was in line possibly a full fifteen minutes before leaving with my badge. I knew what panels I was going to be on, and who I’d be on them with days ahead of time. The whole experience was fantastic, I can’t recommend the con enough for pro’s or fans. I also ran into Marlin and wish I could have talked to him more but Arisia is such a busy con I couldn’t.

Note to self:

onyxhawke — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 02:49:38 GMT

When one of your clients says 'I'm not sure what if anything can be done with this and am afraid to show it to you, read the other stuff first.', ignore them and read it first.

Arisia!

onyxhawke — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:42:30 GMT

I got my preliminary schedule for Arisia and will be on three panels, one saturday, two sunday.

Into the pile!

onyxhawke — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:27:26 GMT

Today, i will look at at least two entries in my slush pile. One reccomended to me by a a friend at a publisher, the other the oldest current entry in my slush pile.

Sale

onyxhawke — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 06:13:24 GMT

Myself and my client Dave Freer have sucessfully concluded negotiations with Baen Books for a solo novel entiteld "Dragon's Ring". It should hit shelves sometime in 2008.

Soon!

onyxhawke — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 06:08:58 GMT

In just a couple days i'll be wading back into my slush pile. With any luck i'll be pulling out a keeper or two. Who knows, if you submit it could be you? www.onyxhawke.com Please read the FAQ before submitting. O'Mike

World Fantasy Con report.

onyxhawke — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 02:47:36 GMT

What a fascinating con. A not so complete list (yes my memory does suck, sue me.) of the charming people I met, Lucienne Diver, Anne Groell, Ginjer Buchanan, Melanie Rawn, Steven Brust, Jane Lindskold, P. N. Elrod, Robin Hobb, S(teve). M. Stirling, Ester Friesner, Steve Cobb, Stoney Compton, C. E. Murphy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Mary Teresa Huessy Ben Fenwick, and a whole sea of other writers, fen and assorted humanoids populating the Con. I ran into a few people I knew from other cons and online; David Drake, David Hartwell, David Coe, Eric Flint, Walt Boyes, Sarah and Dan Hoyt, and their two rather amusing sons, Pam Uphoff, James Montgomery, Kate Paulk and Amanda Green. The con on the whole was good, the biggest problem being that the overflow hotel was over two miles from the con hotel. For your average fan this is not a con to go to if you want to meet authors sitting around languidly soaking up the attention of fenkind. On the other hand, if you want to go get your book collection and quite possibly your entire collection signed, do go the mass signing is a sight to behold. And on the gripping hand, if you are a professional, or trying to break in as a writer, editor, agent, artist or whatever be there. Be there. and be polished, gleaming, charming and above all pay court To everyone. The person in front of you may be a fan with no upward desire, or they could be the spouse of someone with stroke, they could also be a two time Hugo nominee or a NYT best seller. As good a show as the attendees put on for the panels, and other events World Fantasy Con has a very different agenda than most of the other cons I’ve been too. WFC is roughly eighty percent business, with the other two portions being pageantry and entertainment. It’s truly arresting to have gone to cons that are mostly entertainment and then go to WFC. The awards banquet suffered only in two ways. The sound system was not adequate do compete with the hands and mouths of several hundred attendees, and not one of the people who won an award was in attendance. The first is obviously correctable and hopefully will be for next time, the latter is just unfortunate. The food was about three dozen grades above most banquets I’ve been to, not only was it edible, it was enjoyable to the eye, nose and palate I had a great time and hope I have even half as much fun in Saratoga next year. More importantly, I think I met a few potential clients, it will be interesting to see what comes of it in the weeks ahead. For now I’m on to plan my con attendance for 2007 since I doubt strongly I’ll be be able to attend anything else this year. Crossposted to my LJ also "onyxhawke"

This week

onyxhawke — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 02:10:59 GMT

I was actually productive this week. I managed to order and get the proofs on some swag turned around and put in an order for some business cards, which I’m still waiting on the proofs for. I also read two or three proposals for a client and finished proof reading the novel of another. Who knows, I may even pester a certain publisher who said they’d read the work of one of my clients last month.

World Fantasy Con

onyxhawke — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 04:53:27 GMT

I've got my room and flight (Jet Blue) booked for WFC This should be an interesting event as one of my author friends will be introducing me to editors i've not yet had a chance to meet, and she's not even a client. Cheers

My fun con

onyxhawke — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 06:06:01 GMT

In April i'll be attending the only con i'm planning on going to strictly to have fun. www.ravencon.org. I was at the first con last year and it was killer, well run, very good hotel staff, and interesting guests.

Odd moments in reading.

onyxhawke — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:05:37 GMT

One of the weird things about reading the writing of people you know is that you occasionally run into a turn of phrase in their writing that jars you out of your 'readers trance'. Not because the phrase is bad, or even good. But simply because you get the mental image of the writer using the phrase or of them mimicking someone else doing the phrase. Suppress the _writers_ voice in your head so that you can hear the _story_ speak in its own timber is something I can't encourage people to do enough.

Hello,

onyxhawke — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 22:40:19 GMT

This is the place i'll post the occasional blatherings of my so-called adventures in agenting. It will have news about cons, books, authors, and the fun of trying to shake down publishers for more money than they want to spend and make them think it was a good idea.