Friday posting here!
:-)
Friday, September 12, 2008
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Welcome to the Book Roast
Our Contests Use Only the Finest Ingredients
Authors Already Sliced and Served
Chris Eldin
Enjoys eating ice-cream, wearing elastic-waistband thongs, and pushing bunnies into canyons. Writes humorous middle-grade novels. Her current WIP is about three hundred cookie bags in. If you're a writer, you understand.
Diesel
Rob Kroese aka Diesel is a severed head floating in a vat. But fortunately he's pretty good with Photoshop.
Jason Evans
Is the mountain wanderer who works in the bustle of Philadelphia. In his writing and photography, he mixes one part moonlight, one part mid-life crisis, one part green countryside, and one part getting run down in the street. When not practicing law or working on his current project, So This Fish Walks Into a Cemetery, he serves as the Twilightkeeper at The Clarity of Night.
Sarah Laurenson
Type A writer, reader, volunteerer, liver; trying to be a human being rather than a human doing while doing too much. A study in contradictions and living life as a paradox - writes light, humorous middle grade and deep, edgy YA.
Shona Snowden
Likes black tea, Apple Macs and koalas in kilts. Shona's short stories have been published in Australia and the UK. She is working on a novel and sharpening her Author Toasting Fork, all the better to enjoy a good Book Roast.
The Dishwasher
Someone has to clean up around here, jump in when patrons become unruly, and otherwise help the chefs by adding special ingredients.
Antonio, the Assistant
Miss Susanna
Mystery Publisher, Ms. Sally Spitfire
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69 comments:
Thanks for the warning this time, Chris ; )
Sorry about the last time!
:-)
You cut off my post! I'm going off in a huff...
So as I was sayin' (and by the way, Hi Janet, nice to meet you and all, but...)
Can you please share EE?
Share him?
I don't even know him!
See, Robin, I told you it was just business.
Well, it's that demon baby thing...
It is 4pm.
Well, yes Bill, I suppose it is...in some places that are not the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.
IVF--she's not even carrying it, I am. Just business.
My goodness, this is becoming quite the fun day. Demon babies, aliens, bucking naked horses..wait, did I say that right?
Bill's hoping Susan will come back and tackle him again.
I'm reading Eric Stone's next one. Gadzooks that man can write.
Naked bucking horses
I really want a cupcake but I don't have any and it's raining. And the bakery is closed. Those sadists close at 6.
That's just sick, Janet. You should picket.
But...Backing up Robin here.
There was that thing in Tupelo...
Maybe she meant know in the biblical sense. Which, good news for Robin, right?
hahaha..in the bibical sense.. yeah right
Tupelo! I forgot about Tupelo.
Not that anyone can really EVER singe the sight of EE in Tupelo from one's retinas.
In fact, I've spent much of the intervening decade TRYING to do just that (which explains my Scotch habit quite nicely)
I've always wanted a biblical sense relationship with a cartoon of a guy.
Oh wait. That's right. Already did that before I ever met EE.
Welcome back, Janet!
So I've frequented Query Shark, EE's blog, She who shall be nameless's snarky little blog, and I've got the query thing down, I think. Where do I go with it now? Can I get a book of queries published? Queries seem to be all I've been writing for the past year. There must be something marketable about them, right? Else why so many blogs with 'em?
Or didn't meet, really...
Hi K and Robin and Bill and Chris and Shona ...
Oh, goodness, Phoenix has them down and then some. She's a query machine.
I think a book of queries sounds kinda cool.
Hey, phoenix bird!
So how many can I put you down for, Robin?
Are there a lot of blogs with queries? I don't hang out much at writerly type blogs and sites so I'm not well versed in this area.
I wonder what person invented the query.
What did bookwriters do before queries?
What is the history of the query?
And the future?
At least one. And maybe some gift copies for Christmas?
Not too many.
Wow! Saved! My sister-in-law is coming to rescue me from a dirty apartment and stir-crazy kids. I'm out for the night. Janet, thanks for showing up--you are a delight, and I'm glad I know about you now. Book Roast, especially Chris who will beat me up at the slightest provocation, thanks again!
I really want to ask Janet a very witty, writerly, roasterly question, but I can't think of one. Can you, Janet?
Well, I'd like to know, honestly,
why you can't just cut and paste the first five pages into an email.
If the reader at the other end likes them and wishes there was another 'page' or more to read, isn't that saying something?
Bye Kiersten, nice to roast here with you!
Robin, it's almost impossible to evaluate a work without some sort of paramenter: what category it is, intended age group, etc.
What works in romance doesn't work as a thriller.
It just helps to know those things, and to know something about you the writer.
Thus the query.
Robin,
My next topic in my new blog series "Stuff Writers Like" will deal with what to copy and paste in a query.
And trust me. It's not your own work.
I wrote a query 'on the fly' several weeks ago. I wrote it in a state of distress, as I had to hurry. It ended up being pretty good, but even so, I realized (was told) later on that I'd skimmed over the first half of my novel.
I actually had a harder time writing that, from the nerves perspective, than I'd had writing the beginning or ending of my novel.
That's why I was wondering, I suppose. I see what you mean about parameters.
Oh, I know. If you love a client's book but can't sell it to a New York house, do you take it out to the small pubs or e-pubs? What size publisher is it not worth your while or the author's to pursue?
Or would you rather not talk biz and just have some drinks instead?
I have a remnant of sushi on my EYEBROW!!!
ewwwwwwww.
I am my own seal.
You and Thing 2 will get along just fine.
Sushi. My entire family loves it.
Except me!
Phoenix, I sell clients books to any kind of publisher I can as long as they'll publish it well.
I try not to take on books that I think I can't sell for big money, but my crystal ball turned out to be a Canal Street knock off and not as reliable as I'd been promised.
Well, Robin, if the beginning wasn't worth putting into your query, do you really need it (the beginning) in your book?
If you can't read a book in the dark, are the words still there?
Something to think about...
What's not worth taking on is a small, one time project. Small is ok if it's the start of more, but one time small, that's inefficient.
Janet, I know it's been a long day for you. You started with us last night even!!!
Let's close the drinking story contest at 8pm, and if you can pick a winner anytime after that....
Of course, the chat line will stay open! But I didn't want you to feel obligated to stay another hour and half to announce a drinking winner.
;-)
Was nice to meet you Kiersten, have fun this evening
I've just received 'the call' from my female versions of Thing 1 and Thing 2 - and I need to go and pick them up.
Nice to see you all!
Nice to meet you, Janet.
Have fun!
Chris, that works fine for me.
I'm pretty wiped out from being here at 9:30 this morning. How you all do that is beyond me.
Well, Janet, perhaps next time you'll splurge the $20 on the real thing, crystal ball wise. I think Chris mentioned she's tucking $25 into her next submission to you. That should cover the tax, too.
Janet, finish your sushi and kick up your feet.
You work too hard.
We'll see you the other side of 8pm....
:-)
Chris, the way I see it, there is normal human time, which is my time, and then there are all those other weirdo times, which are clearly all wrong.
Yeah, Bill. All these eastcoasters throwing out times like they mean something to the rest of us...
Chris Eldin better save her money for when the world rolls into her town next month! Bail is spendy.
Bill, that's kinda how I view most things. My way, and then the other way, the wrong way.
Bill, I've always wanted to visit Oregon. I love the West coast...
i'm tempted to stop comments so janet will get some rest...
;-)
Oregon is great. The whole West, really. I grew up back in the East, and while it has its charms, I am a fully western fellow.
I'm good.
Well, ok, I'm not good.
Im evil.
But I'm fine, honest.
Don't shut down unless you want.
I'm here, answering queries for a while yet!
Janet just handed me the envelope...
Writers all have some "Can you believe it?" type rejections. Have YOU ever sent one of those out to a writer and what was the gist of it?
What's a can you believe it rejection?
I send form rejections unless it's really good or really close.
And the winner is.....
Julie Weather!!!
WOOOHOOO!!
That was one fine story!
Congratulations!!! Thank you for sharing it with us!!
When Shona wakes up, or joins us, or whatever Aussies do, you two will arrange for Michael Jackson's ostrich... I mean, book. Book. That's it.
:-)
Janet, all of us at the Book Roast would like to thank you--a heartfelt thanks--for teaching us, entertaining us, and giving us valuable insights into the world of publishing!!
Thank you!!!!
I'm going to say goodnight and thank you to EVERYONE for stopping by!!!
Comments will be left on, but I'm going to turn them off before bed (which as you know could be in the next half hour or so!)
{group hug}
:-)
It was my great pleasure to be invited, and to be here!
Thank you all for a "warm" welcome!
I'm bowing out since I need to finish Eric's book before he wonders if I'm dead.
*hic*
Thanks, Janet! Keep sending your authors on over. We promise to take very good care of them: marinade massages, a cozy fire...
It was so nice to meet you Janet and again, Thanks for letting me stop in and play. It's a fun day when I can play. have a great evening one and all :)
that's a good choice, picking julie! it IS her birthday, today, and the tale was excellent!
janet, thank you... also the rest of you... it's been a grand week :)
Nighty night all!
I'm going to turn comments off, but will be back over the weekend with another post.
Thanks again!
:-)
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