Wednesday, May 30, 2007
 

Send Off


Shnakvorum, rikoyoch! (Welcome, friends),

The day has come. Finally I'm ready to send my completed novel, Starfire, off to the agents I've targeted. Who would have thought there were agents out there in this day and age who still wanted you to correspond with them via snail mail? But there are, plus a few publishers I figured I'd try as well.

Most seem to only want a simple query letter, but a few asked for some chapters, one publisher even wanted the complete manuscript printed out and mailed to them! So just as soon as this post is finished I'll be headed to the post office to send them all off.

This whole process has been a very interesting learning process. I used to think that publishing a book was as simple as finishing it and just sending it off. But the more I looked into publishers and agents the more I discovered I had to come up with such vile things as synopses and queries (can you imagine stuffing all the nuances of a 100,000 word novel into a paragraph?)

Thank goodness for the Internet and various writing books to help with research on all that. Otherwise I'm not sure what I would have done. But I pushed on through and here's what I ended up with as far as a summary for Starfire:

Rathe of Yanguch has fought his entire life to rise out of his low hatch status. When he wins a spot in the Imperial Light Infantry, he hopes his days of struggle are behind him. But when he discovers an ancient artificial intelligence (A. I.) that imprints him as its protector, he finds himself at the center of a fierce struggle as opposing forces seek him out in hopes of turning the A. I. to their own ends. Ultimately, Rathe is faced with a terrible choice: Destroy the artificial intelligence and doom his Empire, or use it to activate the mysterious Starfire, and doom his world.

I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date with how my path to finding an agent goes.

-- S-man


Posted by ~ Bailey Truitt @ 7:00 AM 4 comments
Monday, May 21, 2007
 

Wilbur's Eight


Howdy, Wilbur here. In the last post Bev wrote this crazy list of "eight random facts" about herself. I gotta say, that's the most boring list I ever read. I told her so, and naturally she got all huffy on me. Said I should write my own list rather than "impugn" hers. (I have no idea what the word means, much less how to spell it. Good thing Carla's typing this for me.)

So I'm answerin' Bev's boring list. Here's my eight:

1. I can count to ten in English. On a good day.

2. Who's Shakespeare?

3. Sure I been outside the U.S. Went to Korea. In the army, from 1951-1953. Let's just say I did a little more than sightsee.

4. Who in their right mind collects African violets? I don't collect nothin' other than good stories.

5. My middle name is nobody's business.

6. I don't believe for one second Bev killed a rattle snake--in her backyard or anywhere else. As for me, I lost count of the number of critters I bagged over the years.

7. No wonder Bev's elevator don't go all the way to the top. Anybody who's corrected over 75,000 essays oughtta be google-headed. Only thing I ever corrected is kids when they're not actin' right. Which is most of the time. Don't get me started on kids these days.

8. What in tarnation is lutefisk? For Christmas I got a new shotgun. And I aim to do a whole lot more with it than let it sit in my pantry.

There, Bev. Now stop yappin' at me.

-- Wilbur


Posted by ~ Bailey Truitt @ 7:00 AM 3 comments
Monday, May 14, 2007
 

Bev's Eight Random Facts


Since the tagging comment was left on my post (what was that person thinking?), everyone at Java Joint insists I must go first. As if I want to play some silly electronic game of tag. But Angie, in typical fashion, won't let me be until I do. So here it goes:

The rules: 1. Player start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. 4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

And my eight random things:

1. I can count to ten in five languages, including Greek and Latin.

2. I've read every Shakespeare play at least three times.

3. My husband took us to Victoria, British Columbia, for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. That was the first and only time I've traveled outside the United States.

4. I collect African violets.

5. My middle name is Elin.

6. I once killed a rattle snake in my backyard, only to have my husband yell at me for not cutting off the head.

7. I've corrected over 75,000 essays.

8. A friend sent me some lutefisk for Christmas one year. It is still sitting in my pantry. If anyone wants it, they can have it. I'll deliver it myself, if I must.

There. I've done my eight things. Now it's somebody else's turn.

--Bev Trexel
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Posted by ~ Bailey Truitt @ 6:00 AM 1 comments
Monday, May 07, 2007
 

A T Comes to Visit


Hello, Bailey here with you today. Last Saturday we had fun meeting one of our blog readers. I will call her T--the name we use around Java Joint for tourists.

T is from Mississippi, and her accent shows it. She's absolutely darling. She brought in her husband and two children for coffee drinks and pastries, and they ended up staying in the cafe for almost two hours, talking to the various people who post. T brought in a printout of posts--one from each blogger--and had as many signed by the author as possible.

T's two sons, 10 and 12, took to Jake and Wilbur like fleas on a hound dog. The kids sat on the two counter stools left after Jake and Wilbur took their usual places, and the two men regaled them with one tall tale after another. I had a hard time keeping a straight face with some of the stuff those guys were dishing out. They sure know how to take a real story and streeeetch it until its almost unrecognizable. The caught fish and hunted deer got bigger and bigger.

S-Man and T's husband talked science fiction. T's husband has read it all his life, and is very knowledgeable about writers and plots. I don't know who taught whom more. I know that the conversation was fascinating enough to cause S-Man to stop typing for almost an hour. Now that's something.

Bev and Angie were also there to sign posts for T, who asked them if they really argued as much as their posts implied. Bev looked as Angie and replied, "Argue with her, are you kidding? She’d never be able to keep up with me."

After T and her family left, they went across the street to Simple Pleasures to meet Paige and Sarah--and ended up buying gifts for their friends back home.

Summer in coming to Kanner Lake--the best season of all, and the time when we see the most tourists. We hope more of you can come visit!


Posted by ~ Bailey Truitt @ 7:00 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
 

The S-man Posteth


Shnakvorum, rikoyoch. (Welcome, friends) I apologize for the long silence from me, but I've been buried up to my tail in editing Starfire to get it ready for submission to agents. I must admit I wasn't ready for just how much work there was to be done after writing Starfire. I really do feel like I've re-written almost the entire thing. It was a daunting task, and there were times where I wondered exactly what I had gotten myself into. But also it was an incredible experience for me to go back and read through this story that sprang out of my imagination. To re-live once more the journey of Rathe, Selae and Karey Or.


Some scenes were sparkling already, some were rubbish and needed to be trashed. I even found myself having to re-write significant portions to incorporate a new character that came about through the re-writing. But it also gave me a very touching funeral scene that I think showcases a bit of Saurian culture as a backdrop to what is going on inside of Rathe very poignantly.


In the end after this editing pass I believe in Starfire more than ever. It seems impossible to me that it won't get picked up by an agent and then a publisher.


Especially after the recent events, I feel like this is a chance to leave something lasting behind, something that will impact lives beyond the reach of my mortal coil. And what more could a man want?


-- S-man

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Posted by ~ Bailey Truitt @ 7:00 AM 2 comments