Meeting an author

A wonderful thing happened on Sunday. We had friends over for dinner and they brought a couple with them who are new in town. It's always wonderful to meet new people and it is particularly wonderful to meet a writer __ and a published writer, at that.

Her name is Alexus Rhone and she writes YA books. I visited her website and read parts of two books. They are wonderfully written, extremely readable and quite interesting, even if I am not her target audience. Both she and her husband are terrific people and I'm glad to have met them.

But what I liked best was talking to someone at my dining room table who has gone through what I am going through and then some. She is a networking and marketing dynamo. She gets her material out there and doesn't seem to let anything get in the way. She has contacts and has attended events from one coast to the other. And in that, she is a real inspiration for me.

One of the hardest things for me to do is market myself. I become self-conscious and, at times, timid. But in order to sell my books, I have to be able to sell myself, first to an agent and then to a publisher.

In marketing __ and in writing __ I am hoping Lex will be able to help me.

And on another issue . . .

I started my query letter for "Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal." I have re-worked it several times and it's a little long at the top. But I am probably at least a month away from sending it to any agents so I have time to fix things. I have to finish with the first draft of the entire novel and rewrite the first three to five chapters several times. By the time anyone requests the entire novel, the final version will be done.

But here is a look at the first two paragraphs of the query:

Courier-Times owner and publisher George Wilson was a tyrant. He was nearly as indiscreet as he was sexually promiscuous. He was a dismissive father. He was more feared than liked. But when Wilson is found dead in his office, the black newspaper’s top investigative reporter decides to find out if any of those were the reason.

Piecing the case together, reporter Jason Crown discovers the victim’s long-held family secret, a secret that threatens to destroy family relationships. But the murder goes beyond mere family business. And when Jason begins to fall for one of the sexy suspects, he must put aside his feelings for her and find the killer or risk becoming the next victim in “Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal.”

That's it for the moment. Enjoy your day but keep writing.