Trying to set a new personal best

Yesterday, I embarked on a quest to set a new personal best. Personal best, you say! Of what?

Rejections.

I sent out a batch of query letters yesterday for AN UNTIDY AFFAIR and will now see if I can top my personal best set on Sept. 13, of last year when I got four (4, IV) rejections on the same day. That topped the previous best of three set one week earlier.

While this is probably a worthy goal, I, sadly, will probably not top it anytime soon because my querying strategy has changed since last fall. I am sending out fewer queries at a time and if all the responses are negative, then I re-write the query in hopes of drawing more interest.

I send four queries yesterday throughout the day as time permitted, and will ship off three today. And that is it. Seven. Then, I will wait to see what happens. If nothing good happens, then I know that letter doesn't work and I will to try again with another letter. And then I will ship off another batch of seven.

For this letter, I used my novel's background as outlined in my Publishers Weekly review. It was good and generally well-written. I adapted parts, of course, but the overall structure was the same. Now I will see if that helps. Plus I made a brief mention of being a quarterfinalist in this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Time to see if that horse has any legs.

Well, that's it for today. I have a couple of other topics I want to discuss next week. But for now, have a great day and keep writing.

Thanks for reading.

Solid, but not particularly noteworthy

I know I have started this and should finish but today has been particularly busy and I will have to come back to this tomorrow. But for just a moment, I did want to return today to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and, more specifically, my Publishers Week review.

It was a mixed bag but in the end concluded with, "Solid, but not particularly noteworthy."

What am I to make of that?

Yes, I know it is only one person's opinion and they implied that the writing was good, which was nice to know. But the 'note particularly noteworthy' line puzzles me.

In the next couple of days I am going to try to figure that out, and then polish my novel yet again. I don't know what else to do.

When I have time, I will post all my reviews for you, dear reader, to consider. Until then, thanks again for supporting me, thanks for reading and sally forth.

ABNA -- I'm out

I haven't blogged but once since I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest this year, and I made it a point not to post about the contest. I didn't want to become consumed with ABNA or have people asking me how it was going.

I first entered in 2009 with DEATH AT THE JUNGLE-BUNNY JOURNAL, though I went with a name that was more PC. I was eliminated in the first round. I just missed entering AN UNTIDY AFFAIR in the contest in 2010, missing the cutoff deadline by mere minutes.

This year I entered Affair under the title A NASTY AFFAIR by M. Stewart Dunn.

To enter the contest, you submit a 300-word pitch, which is judged in the first round, a 5,000-word excerpt from the beginning of the novel, which is judged in the second round, and the entire manuscript, which is used to determine the semi-finalists, finalists and the two eventual winners.

Since I didn't do well in 2009 and I spent hardly any time writing the pitch this year, I was surprised (and pleased) to make it through the first round. Plus, I got two wonderful Amazon Vine reviews of the excerpt -- with one reviewer saying, "The author's talent is there in spades" -- as I advanced to the quarter-finalist round. (Wasn't sure how I felt about the 'spades' comment but decided to take it on face value.) And I got five customer reviews. Four of the five were very positive.

I felt quite hopeful of being named a semi-finalist but, alas, it is not to be. Ths list of semi-finalists was announced less than an hour ago and my name isn't on it.

I was well-aware of the possibility, of course. The competition was very strong this year. But I had confidence in my writing, and in the story. Where I lacked confidence, however, was in my self-editing.

I read through the novel line by line before I entered the contest but, since the submission period was already open, I didn't think I had time to have someone else proof it for me before I entered. Afterwards, I was surprised and embarrassed at the spelling and other errors in the ms. But there was nothing I could do about it but hope. In the end, I'm sure the errors hurt my chances of advancing, perhaps fatally hurting them.

I feel about as bad as I thought I'd feel but life goes on. I plan to go over the manuscript completely again and have someone else do a final read. Then I plan to let the query letters fly again and see where it all leads.

And I am on the third draft of the novel I wrote last November during National Novel Writing Month. It is stronger that Affair and I plan to enter it in next year's ABNA competition.

So that's it for me at the moment. Sad but resolute.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.

Sorry I have been away

I am sorry, dear readers in Russia, China and Brazil (I get people from all over), that I have been away. It's been a busy time for me and I just haven't had a lot to say. Plus, once I got out of the habit of posting, even on a semi-regular basis, it was easy to allow work and everyday life to intrude further into this part of my writing life.

So, I am back again.

Probably won't have much more to say this week, but next week I will probably have a lot of my mind and will fill you in on things then.

Until then, have a good week. Thanks for reading and keep writing.

ABNA -- brief update

I finally did it this evening. I entered ABNA.

I also did something I said I wouldn't do. I commented under my real name on one of the threads. I'm sorry but I couldn't help it. The threads are addictive and sometimes destructive. So, from now on, I plan to avoid the whole thing and let my writing stand on its own.

I entered under a pen name, and used the name of a male child that my wife and I never had. (We have daughters.) She smiled when I mentioned to her the name I used.

I haven't been very productive this month with my blog. Lots going on. But I should be back on the horse next month.

Have a good weekend and thanks for reading.

Cancer II

This is only the fourth time in the last 15 months I have written about cancer. But this blog is suppose to be about my journey as a writer and the things that affect me as a writer. (Which, by the way, brings up the point whether it should be affect or effect. I always have a hard time remembering which is which. So if I just got it wrong, well, at this moment I don't give a flying .... .)

I have some work to do on my current WIP but this evening I'm having a hard time with it. Writing fiction is like dreaming, and then writing it down. And tonight I'm having a hard time dreaming.

The reason is that I went to a prostate cancer support group meeting today, something I rarely do and I am now reminded why. It depresses me. Yes, I feel fine. Actually, I always have. The times when I haven't felt good have always been because of the treatment of the disease, not from the disease itself. I have never noticed a symptom of prostate cancer.

I went through eight-and-a-half weeks of external radiation treatment last winter. It was my "winter project," if you recall. But today I was reminded yet again that I don't know yet whether I am cured. I was told it could take 18 months to two years before we'd know for sure. I normally put such thoughts out of my mind because at the moment there isn't anything I can do about it, cured or not. But it is still like the Sword of Damocles over my head.

So tonight I can't write. Or at least it's a struggle.

I did everything I was suppose to do, everything my doctor and my pastor asked me to do. Now I just have to wait.

I hate this. I want the dreams to come easily like before. This really sucks.

But thanks for reading. And now I will try to take my oft-repeated advice and keep writing.

Endings . . . and redemptions

I am struck by the fact that I like happy endings, particularly in stories. Sentimental, yes, I know that. But it's not like I can't find satisfaction in a sad ending because I can. That is as long as the ending makes sense and there is some degree of redemption in the story.

So that brings me to my critique group. I won't mention names here, of course, but they all know I enjoy their stories and value them comments on my writing.

There is one woman in the group -- I will call her Kia -- who loves dark, creepy stories. I don't care for them much but I truly love her writing. She is a brilliant storyteller, has vivid descriptions and snappy dialogue. But she loves the dark side.

This week, we read a short story by another woman -- I will call her Angie -- that was full of mystical elements, which I could accept, and a surprising and shocking ending, where the protag is murdered. Now the protag wasn't a particularly likable person, certainly wasn't in the beginning. She was full of anger and pain. But Angie was wonderfully able paint a fuller picture of her as the story developed and there was a level of redemption in her life.

Then she is killed off.

Ninety to 95 percent of the story was great but Angie destroyed it in the last 300 words. I hated it and didn't pick it up again until my critique group meeting, though it was on my mind a lot. And I wondered how Kia, who loves the dark side, felt about Angie's story.

She disliked it, too.

The problem was nothing in the story up until that point -- not in its details or in its tone -- suggested the type of ending. It cheated the reader because there was little redemption and no justice in the outcome. It was like having a story about puppy dogs, and kitty cats, and unicorns, and daisies, and sunshine. Then suddenly at the end, having Freddie Kruger show up and stuff the kitties into a wood chipper. Despite the mere horror of it all, the ending would make no sense.

In my stories, I strive for them to make sense. I end them where I do because that's where the end is. I always want the ending to leave the reader satisfied, even if it's not totally happy.

Angie's story is a case study in what I will avoid.

Thanks for reading, and keep writing.