I'm sorry that I've been a bit distant of late. There have been a few changes in my life that have left me feeling a bit . . . cluttered.
As I've mentioned in earlier posts, my job was dissolved (I just love that word. Bring all sorts of images to mind!) back in March. I am now getting settled into my new position and the new shift. I was working 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. It was a good shift. I would come home, do some writing before the wife and kids got home, maybe do some work around the house. Now, I go in at 10:00 a.m. and get home a little after 7:00 p.m.
It's a real bummer. I am now a morning writer. I'm not an early-to-rise kind of guy. I'm mostly on auto-pilot. I get up, help see my wife and kids off, then sit down and get as many words down as I can before I have to trudge off to work. This way it frees up my after-work hours for the most important thing of all: family time.
The downside, however, is that this leaves me very little time to do blog posts.
I would like to answer a couple of fellow bloggers who have reached out to me lately.
First is Mercedes. She asked about my partials that are lingering with agents. The answer . . . I'm batting 500. The agent that has my full manuscript still hasn't replied to me. Today is 14 weeks that he has had it. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but as of right now, it's not a rejection. The agent that asked for the first five pages passed on my novel. I was a little disappointed, but it was a minor wound. Again, I'm happy she liked my query well enough to follow up.
Second is Chris, who by the way is mostly responsible for the success of my query letter. He took me under his wing and pointed me in the right direction. Chris tagged me with the "four-thing meme" and who am I to resist?
Here we go:
4 movies you would watch over and over again:
Die Hard
An American Werewolf in London
The Shawshank Redemption
The Terminator
4 places you have lived:
in a low income apartment
in a farmhouse sans the farm
in another apartment (not low income)
the house I'm in now
(boring, I know, but I'm a deep rooted Hoosier and never moved far from home)
NOW WITH BONUS! 4 places you have lived (fiction edition):
Belmount
The Dark Tower
an Earth peopled with vampires, save one
Middle Earth
4 TV shows you love to watch:
Simpsons
The Office
World's Deadliest Warrior
Family Guy
4 places you have been on vacation:
Clearwater, FL
Gatlinburg, TN
Nashville, TN
Red Lake, Ontario
4 of your favorite foods:
steak
fried chicken
pork chops
strawberries
4 web sites you visit daily:
my wife's blog (sorry, no link, it's private)
AgentQuery
Wildside Press
HWA
4 places you would rather be right now:
in bed sleeping (it IS 3:00 in the morning)
somewhere warm and sunny, playing with my kids
camping
fishing
4 things you'd like to do before you die:
See a novel through to publication
Make a living as a writer (I stole both of these from Chris)
Visit all 50 states
Learn to fly (I mean like Superman does)
4 books you wish you could read again for the first time:
An Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Wasteland by Stephen King
Tag 4 people you think will respond:
Jamie Eyeberg
Catherine Gardner
Samantha Sterner
Jennifer Hudson Taylor
10 comments:
Gabe, I had little to do with the success of your query letter. You had all the raw ingredients; all I gave you was a little insight gained from my own trial and error. As far as 14 weeks goes, Jennifer had my full for six months before I got The Call. Hang in there.
As far as the change of shifts, I'm sorry to hear it. I find I seem to write best in the mornings, but the funny thing is, I've never been a morning person. I think my muse may be a bit of a practical joker.
And as a die-hard Syracuse fan, I'll try not to hold the Hoosier thing against you...
cool, now I have something to blog about on monday. BTW, how do you have a farmhouse without the farm?
The Shawshank Redemption is one of the few movies I'd watch again and again too!
Oh, shift change. That's pretty similar to my husband's shift, and it's hard, especially with little kids. "Hi,here's daddy, dinner's at eight, okay, bed!" Good luck with everything. We're rooting for you. :)
-Mercedes
Chris: I'm trying not to think about it too much. I figure things will happen when they do. And thank for not holding it against me. ;-)
Jamie: It was a farmhouse that had been in my family since it was built. The house is still there, but unfortuneately the farm was sold off piece by piece.
Mercedes: You hit the nail right on the head.
"The Hong Kong Connection" is a legal thriller about a gutsy female attorney who takes on high ranking International officials. It's a taut, rollercoaster of a ride from New York to Palm Beach to Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. The plot is expertly woven, the characters persuasive, and the dialogue snappy and spot on.
www.StrategicBookPublishing.com/TheHongKongConnection.html
Hi Gabe--I'm with you in that I'm NOT an early morning writer; altho I've definitely tried. Good luck finding a writing/life rhythm that works for you. I know you will!
Apparently I need to start posting every day so you have something to read! :-)
Tagged you! If you have time to respond, that is. :)
-Mercedes
cabin
Text to Speech (TTS) API
higher and one page rankJennifer had my full for six months before I got The Call. Hang in there.
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