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Wednesday, January 30, 2019

An Agent Query and the #SFFpit Twitter Event

Today there was a Twitter event:  #SFFpit (sort for Science Fiction and Fantasy pitch).  You can read about it HERE on the pages of Dan Koboldt, who founded the twice-annual event.

The rules were simple: from 10 AM to 6 PM, Eastern time, authors who are seeking agents can post a pitch of a finished novel they wish to market, in the limited space of a tweet, with particular hashtags, including #SFFpit and other hashtags that represent the intended age of readers and the particular genre or subgenre. They can post only one pitch per hour. Anyone other than an agent is not allowed to click "like," but they are encouraged to retweet or comment.

Interested agents can then search for the hashtag(s) to find potential clients. If they are interested in receiving a query from that writer for that manuscript, they will click the "like" button. It's then up to the author to follow up with them for the query.

So, throughout the day, I posted pitches, each slightly different, for my finished high fantasy novel, White Lands Dragon (as well as one pitch for my other finished novel, Chronicles of a Warrior).  One of those pitches -- the very first one for WLD, in fact -- received a "like" from an agent! I was ecstatic.

Here's the pitch:



I won't say who the agent is at this time, but she is with a very respected New York literary agency with a good portfolio, has four years of experience as an agent, and seems very much in line with my interests and works. And, to my surprise, when I messaged her, she indicated she wanted the entire manuscript as well as the query letter.

Words can't express how happy I am right now! (or should I say write now?)

Whether she accepts me or not, I'm just happy to live in this moment. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the book is a good fit for her.

Cheers and happy reading!

Friday, January 25, 2019

Award for Non-Fiction Essay: "Grandma's Tin Pan"

I'm happy to report that I won a writing contest.  First place!  Woot!

It was for a non-fiction essay contest at the writer community, Fanstory.com, for my essay, "Grandma's Tin Pan."

My grandmother Kilgore had this little pan, which was all beat up, but she used it nearly every day. Turns out it was one of her most prized possessions, as it was the first thing she and her husband had bought, back during the Great Depression. For her, it symbolized the love of family and how she provided for them.

The piece also earned the Fanstory.com "Recognized" ribbon for the many excellent reviews that other readers left the piece. I was surprised by the wonderful comments people left. Just go to the link below, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on the little "view ratings" button to read them.

You can read the essay here:
https://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?hd=1&id=919763

Time to submit this to a magazine, I think!

Cheers and happy reading!

Thursday, January 3, 2019

George R.R. Martin on Tolkien's World Building

The world I write my fantasy stories and novels in, Irikara, is as real to me as the "real" world. It is the true main character in my books, I feel.

But I feel I owe a lot to J.R.R. Tolkien for his fantasy world building for his books, the first fantasy author to truly do so, as another fantasy worldbuilder, George R.R. Martin, attests, in the following clip:


The Lord of the Rings series changed everything, due in largest part to the brilliance of the creation of Middle Earth in such extreme detail, including the languages.

Cheers and happy reading!

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