Friday, September 3, 2010

Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

Well good morning my lovelies. It's been a while, I know. With Monster Baby getting ready for kindergarten, it's been a long few weeks.

She goes full time now, which is a blessing for me. Did I cry when I dropped her off the very first day? No-o-o-o-o-o. My mother called me that morning at 9:00 and asked what I was doing, sobbing into my cereal, weeping into my tea. No-o-o-o-o, I was scrubbing the kitchen from top to bottom. The walls, the floor, behind the stove and refrigerator. I went crazy. Next week, I start on the playroom/office. (And it will take a whole week.)

I'd like to say Thank You and Welcome to all my new "friends" here at Piedmont Writer. So many of you, I'm so blessed. Ericka, Kalmdown, MB, Tara, Rose, Charmaine, Beth, Sora, Clarissa, Summer Ross, The English Writer, Chiccoreal, Mesmirix, Larry, Kay Em, Alison, DJ, Valerie and Shalet Jimmy. Thank you all so much for hanging out with me as I try and get a grip on the writing life.

Thanks again to everyone who read my IN THEIR OWN WORDS series. I'm leaving it up so if you missed it, there it is.

Now some of you have been following my story REMEMBERING YOU as I began posting excerpts in the spring. I've been trying to finish it up, my goal for Labor Day, but that is just not going to happen. Too many things going on. But I will tell you, that I have two more excerpts to post, yes, I'm sorry, only two, because I am almost finished with it. Almost. So stayed tuned. Big things are going to happen.

And when I said I was going to revise and be ready to query by the end of September, for those of you who laughed at me, I'm now laughing with you. What was I thinking? Obviously I wasn't. Writing is hard work. I have to keep reminding myself of that when I say stupid things out loud.

I also got the final two partials back from MASQUERADE - rejected - so that little tome is firmly shelved until I decide what to do with it. And let me tell you how subjective agents can be so you'll understand the process. (And these were the only agents out of 67 who gave me any kind of feedback - all the rest were form.)

Agent A said it was well written but the plot lacked...She didn't tell me what it was lacking only that it lacked. (I had 3 beta readers tell me they loved my plot and the mystery surrounding it held steadfast until the very end.)

Agent B said the female protag wasn't strong enough. (She only read the first 50 pages so didn't see the transformation of the female protag throughout, which was what an historical romance professional said the main MC should do.)

Agent C said my main secondary charater shouldn't be involved in the plot at all. (Which is why my female MC was involved in the plot in the first place.)

And Agent D said the writing was strong, the plot was good, the characters were wholly developed but she didn't think she could place it in the market at this time.

So, what I take away from this is - this business is very subjective.

And that's all I have for right now. I'm going to try and stick to my M-W-F posting schedule again. Like I said, the last few weeks have been busy and I haven't been around much.

Happy Labor Day weekend and for those of you on the East Coast, take good care, I hear there's a hurricane moving in.

19 comments:

Ted Cross said...

I'm not sure how good the feedback was, but it's great that you got some. I haven't had any really, though admittedly I have only sent 13 query letters.

Christine Danek said...

It is interesting how each said something different. That is the thing it is subjective.
You will get there.
Have a great weekend!

Bish Denham said...

Hey, at least you've gotten some feedback. I can't even get an agent to respond! And yes...its all so very subjective.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Everybody has an opinion and no two match! And you celebrated your first day without Monster Baby by cleaning? What's wrong with you, woman?

Linda G. said...

It IS a subjective business, and that's why persistence it so important. Eventually you'll find your agent match. :)

Summer Ross said...

Props to you for sending it out. Congrats on getting some kind of feedback, I'm sorry it was a rejection though. However rejection collages could be fun :)

Matthew MacNish said...

Thanks for the updates Anne, it sounds like that's at least some encouraging news. I hope you have a great weekend too!

Today's guest blogger is Emilia Plater!

Sarah Ahiers said...

huh. the plot comment surprises me because i always felt masquerade had an excellent plot. I mean, not that i know anything really about historical romance or romance in general, but i was impressed when we were discussing your query all those months ago

Anonymous said...

You're back!!! *HUGS* *HUGS* *MORE HUGS*

I'm so sorry that you received yet more rejections but sometimes they can be very eye-opening; see what you learned about the industry? I still wouldn't give up on "Masquerade." There's a spot out there for it somewhere. :)

Hey, at least you tried to keep up with your goals regarding "Remembering You." But sometimes you need to slack off in favor of real life.

And I laughed out loud when I read "writing is hard." Hehe. People have no idea.

<3 you.

Anne R. Allen said...

Those rejections hurt. It's OK to mourn a bit when you get them. But they probably don't mean much. That "your protag isn't strong enough" one drives me nuts. If you've got a good story, your character should grow and change and learn, so how can she be perfect on page 1? Sigh.

All those rejections mean is that your book didn't make the agent (or her 17-year old intern) do somersaults and hear violins and/or the ca-chink of bestsellerdom in the 3 1/2 minutes she had to look at your partial. (Or if you sent it to Nathan Bransford, it did not have any monkeys LOL.)

This is why we have to keep querying. It's mostly luck--hitting the right agent at the right moment on the right day. More sighs.

It's OK to have a life outside the blog. As I said in my blogpost this week, you haven't failed to blog, you have succeeded in joining the SLOW BLOGGERS.

Anne Gallagher said...

Ted -- I was hoping for 'eye-opening' feedback but I guess they don't do that with partials.

Christine -- SO subjective.

Bish -- I know, sometimes I wish they'd just been form because now I don't know what to change or keep. If they had all said the same thing I wouldn't be crazy.

Alex -- Well, cleaning is the only thing I have to do besides write. I don't drink, don't have friends to go shopping with, don't play golf, what else is there to do?

Linda -- Thanks. I hope this next round of queries for REMEMBERING YOU comes with some kind of agent huzzah.

Summer -- Yeah, rejection collages could be kind of fun. Maybe I should try it.

Matt -- At least I'm not a bad writer.

Sarah -- Thank you so much. It's nice that you remembered my plot.

E.Elle -- I am back. And you're right, people have no idea how hard writing is.

Anne -- Thanks. I read your post on SLOW BLOGGING and am trying to emulate it.

And I did send it to Nathan lol, without monkeys or vampire bunnies. Just as a joke mostly. I know he doesn't rep romance.

Unknown said...

It's true. It's subjective. And each agent, publisher will want what pleases them most. Well, I guess that makes sense because each reader wants what they want as well.
CD

Terry Towery said...

Well, as someone who HAS read Masquerade, I can honestly say it's great. And I don't even like Regency romances! ;)

Sigh. Partial requests. If only ...

Kelley Vitollo said...

Man is this business subjective. You're right about that. I've been getting some of the same kind of replies as you. It's killin me! LOL

notesfromnadir said...

Hi Anne,
Good thing your daughter's off to school full-time because you'll be able to write & query more.

Too bad about your ms. being rejected but maybe you should aim for the publishers instead of the agents. Sure is interesting to read the diversified opinions.

Anne Gallagher said...

Clarissa -- That's so true. I know what I like to read and eventually someone else will too.

Terry -- I know, you only like to read Hyatt Regencies. lol. Someday our ships will come in.

Kelly -- Chin's up. The one thing I've taken away from this experience is the experience.

Lisa -- You'd think it would be easy to write now she's in school full time. But now that she is, my parents are usurping all of my time.

Wendy S Marcus said...

Being signed by an agent/editor take so much more than just writing a great story. The stars need to be in alignment while you write it. You need to throw salt over your shoulder before you send it. And you most definately need to hop on one foot while holding a four leaf clover and drinking lemondade upside down at the exact minute the agent/editor starts to read it.
Good luck!

Lola Sharp said...

I'm sorry about the rejections. It is DEFINITELY a subjective business.

You definitely have talent, so please don't give up. I know when you are on a cleaning spree it means you are working out some writing issues, working on a breakthrough. So, once you get everything clean and organized, now that the kid is in full day school (woohoo!!!! :), I know you'll get back to pounding the keyboard and making the magic happen.

School doesn't start back until Wed.---I am counting down. T minus 2 more days!

Love,
Lola

Anne Gallagher said...

Wendy -- I think I missed the lemonade. I did all the others.

Lola -- My love. Oh the issues! If you could only see the issues!!! Yay Wednesday!