Queriversary

One year ago I began my attempts at getting CONFLUENCE published. I sent out seven query letters, opened my facebook AUTHOR profile, and started to think seriously about publishing. I was SURE I would find an agent, then a publisher in a matter of months, and worried what I would do for insurance, because obviously I would want to quit my day job and writer full time after I was offered some $50K for my book.

Oh, MAN, was I in for a series of shocks.

My seven queries led to six rejections and an echoing silence. One of those rejections came within half an hour (a woman I would STILL love for an agent—we are soul mates; I KNOW IT. I just wish she did, too, but apparently I am not communicating adequately...

So after I excitedly peed myself, sending these early queries, I met a woman, though a neighbor of mine, who is a local writer. I asked her to look at my query and she quickly spotted the sticking point.

-----> 200,000 words.

Did you see it, or was it too subtle for you? Never mind that I happen to prefer my books upward of 500 page. Apparently debut authors have about the probability of a snowballs chance in HELL of publishing that long a book. I quietly stuffed the knowledge that one of the successful people at this, Elizabeth Kostova, shares my city limits. It doesn't happen to REAL PEOPLE. Because HONESTLY, The Historian hit that Vampire wave before it really even started, so someone with LITERARY fiction skills (and I say that in both the positive and the negative—The Historian was a GREAT book, and VERY dense, in my opinion—I have a hard time believing all the Americans who bought it were actually capable of reading it *cough* Sorry—snob moment there). So my cult of nuts isn't apparently the next vampire wave... No 200K book for me.


I spent the summer shortening the book, got it down to 150K and in August tried again. I sent fifteen, I think, ONE of which resulted in a request for 20 pages. Two got responses that were “no thanks we're not taking ANYBODY” (though websites had not said that)--I think I got 10 or 11 rejections and a few no response... hmph.


But near the end of August, when the queries were out, I went on my wild ride of writing LEGACY in just six weeks, then began ILLUSIONS, then took a brief break for NaNo and wrote DENIABILITY, then FINISHED ILLUSIONS in December... in 4 months I wrote 3 books. None of them is yet POLISHED to querying point, but it is NUTS how fast that all went.

In December and January, I then turned to a further polish of CONFLUENCE so I could enter the Amazon contest (had to be under 150K)--and got it down to 137K. In January I queried once again. THIS TIME, I had three interactions where agents wanted to see more, one of them 75 pages. It was a MUCH better ratio. But I have decided since that time, that while I love CONFLUENCE, I think it is really complex enough that it is a hard sell as a first book. It is the kind of book someone will say is their favorite one day, but it is too hard to describe to get a reader to pick up when they've never heard of me. I want to sell (maybe two) other books of mine before trying with CONFLUENCE again. I want an established success record.

So on this queriversary, I want YOUR opinion on which book I should polish first. The following descriptions are not polished pitches—that will come and will take time, but I would love to hear where you think I would be best off dedicating my next round of editing time.

LEGACY: Nine year old Peter hides and watches as his father is executed by invaders. Thirteen year old Athena narrowly escapes the drug dealer her mother has traded her to for a heroine high. Peter and his siblings hide in the attic of their family home as Athena takes to the streets of Portland. A chance meeting at Pioneer Square brings these children together, only to find that the Legacies they've inherited from their parents are intertwined and include spying, smuggling, and the politics of a country on the other side of the world. They decide unraveling this legacy is the only way to shake off the criminals who are now after them, and might lead the Popescu children to their missing mother. Sometimes though, you get more answers than you've bargained for. (this is the first of my trilogy)

DENIABILITY: Liza Dahlmer works for a super secret branch of the CIA charged with keeping operatives paranoid by exposing their vulnerabilities. She is a Watcher.. She tracks, photographs, steals from, and entraps the best and the brightest in American intelligence. Unfortunately, nobody knows—and she's not telling. When she is arrested for murder and taken before the intelligence committee to determine where she ought to be tried, she has nothing to say for herself, but psychiatrist, Philip Landauer believes there is more to the story. He begins an investigation, sometimes with Liza's cooperation, though usually without, as she is convinced her life will end if he unravels the wrong thread. The two play a game, he determined to save her, she determined to just go to prison and bide her time, until the powers that be decide she has shared anyway, and the two have to run for her life. This psychological thriller explores how nothing is ever really buried for good, and how sometimes the best way to get away, is to confront the thing you are running from.


For the former, I've been reading art theft tales. For the latter, I've been watching back episodes of Alias and La Femme Nikita. I think I am ready to dive into the next iteration of either one, but I'd LOVE to choose the one you think has the best shot of MAKING IT as a debut novel.

So THANK YOU for any help or insight you can give on where I ought to start! Happy Queriversary!

Getting Loopy

[She’s already loopy] I heard that.

The kind of books I write, because they are the kind of book I like to read, inevitably loop back on themselves… What do I mean? I mean I like all the subplots to head back into the main thing eventually, I like foreshadowing from early on to be relevant to the final action sequence.

But I have reached the point in this trilogy where I’m looping, and MAN is it a lot of work to keep everything straight! In the first book I had some events that need to be gone through from a different perspective (and place, usually) but carefully keeping them in line so it’s not inconsistent. In the second book I introduced characters that I now need to give a ‘how they came into play’. It is a mad mess of things to keep track of.


My Primary Failing

I’m not the world’s most organized person. In fact as I type that, I can hear my husband across town laughing. I’m pretty darned bad at it. When I was younger I didn’t really NEED organization because I had a FABULOUS memory, but two pregnancies and 20 years later, that memory is no longer what it used to be. (I usually blame Sam—my pregnancy with my son caused a noticeable drop and it has never rebounded—since he is SMART, I generally just say he got a major portion of my brain, including the part with the memory storage)

I know in my HEAD that I should keep notes (in fact when I wrote DENIABILITY—my NaNo novel, and the only one I’ve written at the computer) I at LEAST kept a character file—it’s easy in Excel. When I am hand writing though, taking the time to take down notes really throws me off. The only time I do it is to note FUTURE things I want to come out of something… ideas for later.


CONFLUENCE Handling

When I wrote CONFLUENCE I handled all this stuff in my rewrite—I didn’t worry about it as I wrote. It made some sections of the rewriting a little tedious, but it seemed okay, possibly because I had a really clear vision of where things were happening and that didn’t change over the book.

CONSPIRACY’s Trouble

The problem now is I am dealing in a realm I am less familiar. I’ve mentioned the art theft (think I’ve worked out my organizational structure with names and everything, so that will help), but the mystery here is more convoluted. In LEGACY the characters were kids and teens, so I was okay with not entirely understanding everything—it was truer to voice that way. ILLUSIONS I had a teen and an adult who is trying to help find some answers (so somewhat clueless). CONSPIRACY though, is from the perspective of two people who’ve known for the most part, what is going on… so now I have to figure out what is going on… Oi!

In LEGACY Athena found ‘clues’… now I have to go through the thought process behind LEAVING those clues… The whole thing just feels a lot bigger than it did in either of the other two books.

It’s possible I shouldn’t have written any of it until I knew, but that isn’t really how I work. I write with a general ending in mind (which is still in mind) but not the detailed path by which it is reached. So now, a third of the way into the last book, when I am to the point in ‘backstory’ where it all becomes clear, it is time to really pound it all out and make it work.

Keep in mind this isn’t entirely unexpected… I’ve said from the beginning that LEGACY would not get edited until all three were written because I knew I may have to adapt to things in the later books (heck, even names have changed!).

But it doesn’t change the fact that I think the next half dozen chapters are going to be hell to pound out… then the end will fly—since I sort of know how THAT is supposed to work…

Anybody have fool proof methods for keeping complexity straight? I’d love to hear them, especially if they don’t require me to get organized…

Calling All Art Thieves!

Though my own art skills ceased to develop after about kindergarten, I actually know a fair few artists, but I don't know a single person who steals the stuff! And honestly, what I REALLY need, is someone in the administration branch of a RING of thieves.


Writing What you DON'T Know (and can't really figure out how to find out)

This is the second book in a row where I am finding myself leaving blank spots because there is a large gap in my knowledge base and I just can't wing it because too much depends on getting it right.


DENIABILITY

[hmmmm... am I the only one for whom that keyhole looks suspiciously penis-like? Too much time at Accidental Dong, perhaps...]

Anyway... The two central characters in DENIABILITY are a Psychiatrist and a 'Spy' (sort of). The Psychiatrist I can do a fair job with. It's a job I considered having until my freshman chemistry lab taught me that people in pre-med are a nasty lot (by and large—I know a few docs who are fabulous, and must note the exceptions) and under no circumstance did I want to spend twelve years with them (as a collective). I've watched shows, read books—probably most importantly, PAID ATTENTION.

Spies though... while spies interest me from an entertainment perspective, all the movies and books show spies... SPYING! I need to see a spy being TRAINED to spy. In fact REALLY what I need is to see a Bounty Hunter, or maybe a (non-religious) terrorist of sorts be trained. Those are the pieces this book is missing and could really benefit from me getting just right.


CONSPIRACY

With CONSPIRACY, it is the art thieves. I know HOW they are stealing art—that isn't too difficult... well, stealing the art would be difficult, but these guys have a system—my imagination supplied that one alright, so they're set on that. But this organization requires a relatively large group of intertwined people. To top it off, about 75% of them need to have realistically Romanian names, so from the bathtub I am having trouble conjuring what to call my various people...


The Problem Clarified

So what does one do when encountering something important to a plot that you've worked out that is unlikely to have a few nice, clean hits on the internet? My instinct is I need to find a couple books to read (love an excuse to read!) and maybe a few movies to watch, but I need to be careful they get at the angle I WANT and not just the more commonly seen 'theft itself'. Thieves are so often made out to be buffoons, and I am not interested in that, at least not at a collective... these guys are smart enough to have pulled one (several) over on some smart characters, so they need to be written well, organized well, and believable. Same for the Spies or Bounty Hunters.


So I am throwing out two topics I would LOVE feedback on.


Do any of you know of any great books that show 1) art thief rings from the inside, or 2) the TRAINING of spies or Bounty Hunters?

And

How do you writers approach topics you know nothing about that elude traditional research?

Back to the Grindstone

It's so hard after almost two weeks of sleeping in to go back to the 'day job'. I thought though, it would do me good to reflect a little on what got accomplished and what there still is to do, day job notwithstanding.


CONSPIRACY

I failed miserably at accessing my friend with Romanian expertise... I just wasn't far enough on my 3rd book of my trilogy to know what I needed to know, if you know what I mean. I am making progress on it though. As it stands I am in the middle of Chapter 7 and writing backstory. LEGACY was about a group of kids who are living with the repercussions of their parents' lives. Book two is a progression of that (kids trying to SOLVE those problems), and book 3 finally comes back to the parents, so it seems logical to give the 'how we got in this mess in the first place' story. Mid-book it will meet the action at the end of 2 and then wind to the conclusion. I think it works because of the PoV change—the two characters whose PoV I am using have been important, but largely absent thus far.

Being on chapter 7 puts me a chapter ahead of my December plan, so that is okay with me... it's just the fact checking I'd intended to do, as my expert is an educator who had a break—next one will be a couple months.  That is editing timeframe though, so it should work out.

Typing has completely not happened. I've focused on editing CONFLUENCE instead.


CONFLUENCE

I have done all but the very last two chapters of a cleaning. I have confirmed it will come in under 140K words, which is FABULOUS, and I've sent my new first three chapters to my writer's group—feedback from one person so far (Thank you, Natasha!)—she misses the detail because she's fond of it, but this reads cleaner and is probably closer to what they will want. Hopefully I will be DONE tomorrow night.

Querying on the other hand... NOTHING yet. I will supplement my list today and hopefully they will start trickling out tomorrow.

DENIABILITY

(looky!  Joris made me some more covers!)
This is the working title of my NaNoWriMo novel and the one I have mysteriously taken up as the 'let's get this puppy out of my pile' project. I've written about 20 new pages this week, filling in most of the holes as I come to them. I've got (I think) only one more gap, but it is fairly substantial. I've got about 40 pages (of 200) to get through and I suspect maybe 20 more pages to add in that space, but I REALLY believe that will be off my desk this week (erm... or moved to the editing pile) and I will be done with my 4th book and can get back to the trilogy. (see, part of this plan is that 5 is my lucky number and I really want CONSPIRACY to be my  5th book *cough*) 

*looks for superstitious nut*

I should probably make sure I get the querying done before getting to CONSPIRACY, as querying kills the 'from scratch' mojo (as opposed to the 'write something along this line' that I am doing for DENIABILITY. Besides that, I have more invested in the trilogy. I've always known the NaNo project would need heavy editing eventually, where this trilogy is 1) 3 books so I have more invested--in fact it is really one 900 page story, it just broke nicely in 3, and 2) somewhat inspired, or so it feels to me.


So there.

As I head back to the 'office' and trying to wrestle a stupid stats program onto my computer so I can get to the project that kept evading me before break, my writing house isn't all that disorderly. I am soon to be down two projects, which will make me VERY happy.

Should also get back to reading other blogs better… That is the kind of thing I do five minutes at a time, so easy from work. The home computer editing process doesn’t have those same time gaps… (funny, that…)

On a Sillier Note: If you haven't noticed, I started a Blog Opera over break. It has two installments and might take a couple more before it is really in full swing, but it is fun. The original inspiration was the thought of Dangerous Liaisons, transplanted into a tiny town where everybody knows everybody else's business. It sort of blossomed from there and I'd love it if you want to give it a peek. Here is the first episode.