Rejected!

Today I got the form rejection from the same agent who requested a partial last week.  She was very nice though and while I had high hopes, this whole experience gave me some new insight into the book. Fortunately, I am staying busy with other writing projects and what not.

Here are some fun sites I stumbled upon for fellow writers/readers:

Postcard Shorts (Arthur C. Clarke wrote a story that falls into this category)

SpeckLit (I am hooked on these 100 words stories...really gets the creative juices flowing)

Shortbread Stories (a taste of short stories from the UK)

And if anyone would care to read "The Wizard Next Door" before it becomes a highly sought after novel that only the most prestigious and wealthy can afford...look me up and I'd be happy to send along the manuscript.  I just ask that you don't share it with anyone else or try to pawn it off as your own or print it out and use it for toilet paper.  Oh, and a critique would be nice too if you don't mind.

Got a nibble!

Forgive the fishing metaphor but a writer trying to land an agent, who in turn is going to try and land a publisher for said writer, is a lot like fishing.  And the bait is called a query letter.  Anyway, I got a partial request (ok, first five pages but it's a minor victory nonetheless) from a literary agent for my 2nd book "The Wizard Next Door".  Otherwise, I've been busy with work, getting ready to audition for "Little Shop of Horrors" and revising my query letter.

Here's the latest effort:

"If he thought about it and focused really hard, 13-year-old Jake Rinehart could change the direction of the wind.  His Dad told him that once upon a time...before the Great Betrayal.  However, when his father leaves the family for another woman, Jake's world comes shattering down around him and the only shred of hope that Jake can cling to is this idea of magic.  But it's silly.  Magic doesn't really exist...

Jake's anger gets the best of him and lands him in hot water at school and eventually leads to him seeing a therapist who recommends writing exercises to get his anger under control.  But Jake wants to focus on the wind and on that feeling of freedom and wholeness he felt when his Dad was not the Great Betrayer.  It's this thought that he carries with him as his mother picks up stakes and moves them across the country to her hometown in Southern Oregon.  But something is following them, something born from children's nightmares and bent on destroying Jake and his little brother.

The Rinehart family sets down roots at a low-income apartment complex and it is there that Jake finds a new mystery to unravel.  He discovers that his neighbor, a weird old man with a creepy black cat, might be more than just eccentric.  He sets out to prove that the old man is behind the mischief at the apartments - dead mice found in a perfect circle under the floorboards, neighbors mysteriously losing their voices, strange symbols that appear and disappear.  But when his brother goes missing - along with the other children from the complex - Jake becomes entangled in a plot to release an ancient evil from another realm.  With no else to do the job, Jake realizes he must put a stop to it - even if that means accepting that his father was right about magic and taking a chance on THE WIZARD NEXT DOOR.

THE WIZARD NEXT DOOR is a contemporary fantasy novel at around 130,000 words.  If you would like to read more, I'd be happy to send along the completed manuscript.  As for me, I have been writing fiction for over twenty years with several short stories published in Battlespace Anthology, Weekenders Magazine and Kzine."

If you're a fellow author with a query letter you're working on, why not give Query Letter Hell a try on the Absolute Write forums?  The name is very fitting but the pain and anguish is worth the finished product you'll get after it's been ripped up on side and down the other.

Wishy Washy Writer

I've decided to broaden my range and cast a wider net to try and attract readers to "Vampire Savant" so I'm now releasing it again on Nook and for the first time on Smashwords.  I may add some other eBook sites as time goes on so wish me luck.  If you haven't picked up a copy, please do so and let me know what you think!

Otherwise, I just finished a contemporary fantasy novel entitled "The Wizard Next Door" which I've been querying to literary agents.  No bites yet but I've just dangled my toes into the water so I'm hoping to hear some good news on that front in the near future.

And since I can't just sit idly by, I've started work on a novelization of the short story "Connections".  It's going very well (maybe, too well).  It's a different type of project especially since I'm writing solely in first person narrative.  I hope to have that done sometime in 2015.

Anyway, that's the best I can do for a writing update.  I'm about 1/4 of the way through reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (and posthumously by Brandon Sanderson).  I'm almost finished with Book #4 "The Shadow Rising".  Overall, it's a great fantasy epic and I'd highly recommend it if you're into that sort of genre but be warned...it's 14 books long.