March 2023 News
Spring is in the air. How did it get there? Was it thrown? Did it bounce? Is it stuck?
Anyway,
Writing
Book 1 of V&V is back in the hands of the copy editor for his final touches. After he's done this is a finished book. It's a finished book. You'd think after so many years I'd be really stoked by that sentence. All I see is the nitpicky work that remains, including type-setting and arranging the manuscript with distributors. I'm terrible at nailing down the blurb and pitch and ads. I have a reader who's interested in ARC reading, but I'm clueless how that works.
David you've had a long time to work on all this. Stop crying. This ain't your first rodeo. Don't you remember ASH?
You mean ASS? You're right. It ain't my first. But times change. Besides, I flushed that era out of my memory in therapy.
Well there are dozens of references to get good at it. You've no excuse.
Dozens of references? Try thousands. And they all have their own slant. It's intimidating and inconsistent, which is one reason I broke down and queried literary agents.
It'd be amazing if I could outsource some of the work. I'd even take the royalty disembowelment ya get from tying yourself to a traditional publisher. I never planned to get rich off this book. I only need it to make enough to fund the next.
Anyway, I did query some agents. I examined every agent who has a presence online. Narrowed the list down to around thirty based on interests. Cross-examined those and removed all the ones who have ceased to represent authors, or ceased to exist outright. Got down to ten promising agents. I emailed the first. Waited a week, then sent out two more. Got a rejection from one, who helpfully explained that while she didn't consider the book a good fit, others might. For a rejection, it was quick and nice. Can't ask for more than that so I replied and thanked her for her time. Too many literary agents just don't respond at all. That's not how to do business. I don't care what's the history or tradition or whatever.
But David, they see so many queries a day! It's so hard and difficult and arduous to read that much! Think of their poor eyes' balls.
Read my lips. I don't give a single f. Respond to emails or build a bot that will.
I'll probably not send out more query letters. I get salty, and I don't wanna be salty. Querying irks me, drains my soul, and fails entirely to entertain. It's more productive to spend my time writing...
Book 2
I'm following an outline which lists all major events, plot-wise and character-wise. Currently about 8 chapters into it, and remembering exactly what I love and hate about first drafts. I love them because they're wide open and you can write whatever you want. Some of my favorite scenes have come about on accident. I hate them because deep inside I know every chapter I write will need touchups, if it even survives the day.
Point is I'm making good progress, averaging 2k words a day.
Kayaks
We did a rental a couple weeks ago, which was our first for February. As the globe continues warming up, we hope to see winter rentals increase. S'long as the lake doesn't dry up we're golden, baby. When it does we'll switch to renting sun screen.
Also we're finally throwing our efforts into merch design. We desperately need merch. I mean, look at this logo! It would look good on EVERYTHING. Thanks BranDuncan.
 |
| the lady of the lake of the Hartwell |
Last month I mentioned something in the works for LHKRAD expanding to Lake Russell, and I'm pleased and anxious to announce it's still moving forward. Nothing's promised yet, but we'll know soon. By this time in April there'll be news.
Zeal
The Kingdom of Zeal is thriving, thank you for asking. Check out a picture of Hans, who it took me six months to name.
 |
| Hans shows himself so rarely and is so hard to photograph. |
Next Month
I've said this before but maybe NEXT month we'll have news on the podcast I want to do. I'll tell you my hang-up. I have guests in mind, plenty of whom are willing and won't require kidnapping. I have questions in mind. I have the means of recording a Zoom call (a phone).
I just don't cherish the idea of long-distance interviews. I'd much prefer a physical meet-up, at least for some of these interviews. But that comes with its own challenges and unfortunately at this time, the interview podcast isn't as high a priority as other endeavors.
Next month is April, according to my calendar. See you then.
dtl