Why Parents Need Freshman Orientation More Than Freshmen - National - The Atlantic Wire

Why Parents Need Freshman Orientation More Than Freshmen - National - The Atlantic Wire

Getting off topic with this but, with an 18-year-old daughter heading off to college in college weeks, I thought this was an interesting article.

As a writer, not having my daughter around all the time is going to affect my writing and as well as my output. It will probably be good. But regardless, I don't plan on being a helicopter parent. Unless there is a life- or health-threatening problem, she is going to be on her own to handle whatever comes up. I will cheer her on but it will be from the sidelines.

Thanks for reading.

Contradictory feelings

It's a strange thing. When I finish a novel or short story, I feel excited about what I have just done. I'm sure it reads well. But at the same time, I am gripped by a incredible insecurity about my writing.

It's a contradiction.

But then I get comments from those whose opinions I trust -- both good and bad opinions. And while offering suggestions for improvements, they are always encouraging of my progress as a writer.

So, I feel better and keep writing.

Anyway, I decided to let you in on a little of my insecurities. Have a good day and keep writing.

The Missing Medallion

The Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime plans to publish a basketball anthology next year, with the publication date possibly being during March Madness. When we pitched the idea to the publisher more than a year ago, he jumped on it immediately.

The deadline for the story submission was yesterday, July 15. The deadline was set months and months ago so there shouldn't have been a problem with making it with plenty of time left over.

One would think . . .

I got my story in under the deadline by a little over two hours.

My story is called, "The Missing Medallion", and is the fictional story of an legendary old high school basketball coach who for 40 years held on to a winner's medallion for a player who disappeared minutes after scoring the basket that clinches the state basketball championship. It was a lot of work but I think the end result is good.

Thanks to the five people who braved the first draft and who offered wonderful suggestions for improvements. The suggestions, many of them taken, greatly improved the project.

Now I wait to hear what the editor and publisher have to say. I am ready for any notes they have to offer.

The title of the anthology is Hoosier Hijinx. It will be the chapter's third anthology, following Racing Can Be Murder (2007) and Bedlam at the Brickyard (2010). My story in Bedlam was my first published fiction.

The editors for Racing are serving as editors again.

I contributed factoids for Bedlam two years ago, and this time will help write and edit profiles of prominent basketball personalities with connections to Indiana.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Query shark

I have decided to again test the waters of the Query Shark.

I know I have blogged about literary agent Janet Reid before. She has a very popular following on her blog, Query Shark. On that site, aspiring authors like me send her their query letters for critique. Some of the letters she publishes -- names and identifying characteristics removed -- are reasonably good but most as bad, for a variety of reasons. Often she asks for the author to re-write the query and re-submit. Occasionally, she publishes a letter and a request for additional material.

The site is a great learning tool.

Getting on her site is harder than getting an agent through a query letter. She has said she only picks about one in 100 to critique, which is only 1 percent. (Nationally, agents reject all but about 2 percent of queries.) But I thinks she must have been getting lots of poor queries this year because her stats are way down.

I submitted to Query Shark some time ago. I haven't looked but it was probably the query for An Untidy Affair. And while she sent an e-mail acknowledging that she got the query, in the end it was neither good enough nor bad enough for her to publish with a critique.

So, I will try again, this time with The Last Tontine Survivor, though probably not until next week. Before I do submit, I plan to read through all her requirements and blog posts again. If I'm going to be rejected, I don't want it to be because of mistakes others have previously made -- and on things the Query Shark has already chomped on. After I read through the blog again, I'll make one last re-write of my query and ship it on.

Given the work I need to finish first and the amount of Shark prep I need to do, I probably won't submit until some time next week, undoubtedly just before I head out for a vacation.

Reid's comments are helpful but she still breaks some of her own rules. But her main rule is that the query be well-written, readable and interesting. All the other rules are subject to breakage.

Therefore, I will do the best I can and let it fly, and not worry about the rest.

Thanks for reading and don't give up.

So much work to do

I have so much work to do today, and for the rest of this week, in fact. I am editing a couple of stories for an anthology, writing a short story, completing work on a newsletter -- deadline was last Friday -- and lining up interviews for a writing project I am doing. Plus, I have to look for work to do in the fall.

On top of all that, there are still query letters to write. It never seems to stop.

But I should have a little rest in a couple of weeks when we go on vacation for a week. Yes, I will still do some writing. That never stops. And while I am gone I plan one, and possibly two, meetings with potential clients. Even if nothing comes from that, the tax write-off will help pay for part of my vacation. And if something comes of it, all the better.

So, I must get back to work. Time's a-wastin'.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.