Partial

[clarentine]

...and what, to my wondering eyes did appear, but an email message from an agent I recently queried, asking for the first 50 pages of Cavalier Attitude.

In a spring that has been non-stop effort on several fronts at the same time, this is a bright spot. I'm trying not to get too excited. *g* Because, of course, she could get those 50 pages and decide the story wasn't moving in a direction that pleases her, and reject it. Rejections will always outnumber acceptances in this business, and it's well to remember that, as well as that it *is* a business. This is not my heart being judged; it's my novel, but it stands on its own. It has to.

So, in addition to all of the other deadlines I'm juggling, I'm focusing tightly on those first 50 pages, making sure they say exactly what I need them to say. Oh, nuance, how I love thee. And how complicated a beast you are to manage!

In other news, and along the lines of that research thing I was doing earlier, I bought some music today that will inevitably influence the writing. Maybe, just maybe, the pirates will come out to play again after listening to Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys. The self-titled Rodrigo y Gabriela cd, an instrumental fusion of heavy metal and acoustic guitars which I heard pieces of on NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition, ought to be useful when it comes to revising the novel_in_90-generated draft of Bells of Leon y Cantara. And I am not sure what Lisa Gerrard's latest, Immortal Memory, will influence, but I'm sure it will. I listen to selections of her earlier efforts with Dead Can Dance and in movie soundtracks (most notably the soundtrack for The Insider) all the time when I want that deep, bittersweet, achingly depressed mood that makes the words flow for so many of my characters.

Onward! (For, of course, there is no going back, and no sense looking over your shoulder. You don't want to see what's catching up.)

Comments

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Fantastic news!


In a very weird business (where I have a full manuscript still in second round consideration with a publisher after five years and two months.)

[clarentine]

Thanks! It certainly made my week.

And for your mss, I'm assuming you queried its continued residence there?

[ter369.livejournal.com]

And for your mss, I'm assuming you queried its continued residence there?

Well, sure, for the first 1.5 years. Last November I heard from the editor, out of the blue. He wanted to apologize for their slowness and to ask if the MS was still available, as it's still under consideration. (With another thirty-seven MSs, I bet.)

HA. I'd actually written them off in my head, didn't even send a contact update when I moved last fall. But he called a phone number in Houston before sending e-mail, and wound up talking to the husband of my friend (who initially housed me when I moved there in 2001).

Weirdest "still under consideration" story, For The Win!

[clarentine]

He called you last November? After a year and a half? Wow. Yeah, I definitely think you've got the best bad story I've heard. Alas, not the record you probably want. *g*

[ter369.livejournal.com]

After a year and a half?

After three and a half years.

I know DAW has a staff of only four, but surely they must know what types of new books/authors they want to take on? Mostly they publish a whole lotta series novels by a set list of authors over the past decade-plus.

At least Tor kicked my MS up the review line and made a decision in 11 months.

[clarentine]

After three and a half years.

Fuckedy. That's really sad.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

My wacky anecdote should not distract from:

Yaye, they asked for a partial from YOU

[clarentine]

*g*