"Sir! May I have another... query?"

Hi folks! First let me thank anyone who has taken the time to listen to my ramblings and let me assure you that, though I may not be an expert on this subject, everything I am about to put in this blog is based on countless hours of research over the last year and an epic internet hunt for the most reliable information available on how to query an agent.

About a year ago I started getting close to completing my first full-length novel, CHANGERS, which is designed as part of a SpecFic trilogy (for more please see HERE). As the end drew ever nearer, I started thinking about the scary world of being published. I entered this world as a wide-eyed, naive hopeful (read here as uninformed idiot). Of course my first step was what everyone's first step is when they want to know more about something: I typed it into my trusty search engine and began the trudge. Google is my search engine of choice (tres cliche, I know), but soon I realized that my time was being wasted in the sludge of scams, self-publishing dead-ends and inaccurate information. So I did the same thing I used to when I had to write twenty page research papers for school-I vetted my sources. I chose only reputable websites to do my research (most notably Writers Digest, published author forums, the blogs of notable agents, and literary agency websites). What follows is a compiled list of all the information I found and a bit of my own experience.

Complete Manuscript

The first step in being published is to complete your manuscript. This was my first error. When I was close to being done, I (being the ridiculous overachiever that I am) decided to start the query process early since I knew it would take a while for agents to answer my Query. I thought that if I gave the agents/editors/publishers a mostly finished product I would give them plenty of room for notes and show that I am more than willing to edit to satisfy their needs. FAIL!
Never, EVER, send a query letter without having a complete, revised, rewritten, edited and FINISHED product. It's like sending out a partially working prototype-you're not putting your best foot forward. You may have the luck I did and blow it royally, but more on that later. The point is you only get one chance to make a good impression, and agents are looking for someone who will require the least amount of work. If you give them a product they can put on the shelves TODAY (or as close to it as you can get) then they may be more inclined to take you on as a client. 

Do Your Research

You don't go into a job interview without some basic knowledge of the company and its vision. The same goes for querying an agent. If you get the yearly publication of the Literary Agents Directory, start with "A" and work your way down, you're doing yourself a great disservice. First you have to do your research. You need to define the genre your novel fits into and ONLY query agents who are actively seeking that particular genre. Agents have their own specializations just like writers do, they have their own niche they're passionate about. An agent that represents Historical Fiction, will hit the dreaded "trash" button should he/she receive a query for a SciFi story. Most agents will let you know exactly what they are looking for and if they are in fact "Actively Seeking" on their websites.
NOTE: "Actively seeking" is extremely important. If an agent indicates on their site that they are currently not looking to represent new clients, DO NOT SEND THEM A QUERY, they won't thank you for it even if you are the next Dan Brown. No matter how brilliant your work is, if an agent is too swamped with current clients, you have missed the opportunity and probably created a negative impression on that agent who is thinking: "Didn't I say I wasn't looking for anything new?" The down side to all this, is your brilliant novel may have had a chance with that agent had you waited for a time when they were taking on new clients. As it is, they will remember you as that one guy who couldn't follow directions.

Follow the Rules

On every agent's website they give you the guidelines of how exactly they want to receive queries. FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES EXACTLY. Most commonly, agents require the query be sent by e-mail, though some accept it through the mail. My advice is go ahead and use e-mail, it's cost effective and more professional. Some agents require only the query letter (the details of which we will discuss in a minute) while others want a synopsis as well. The query should be no longer than a page and the synopsis is generally one or two pages long (single spaced). Some agents also require sample chapters to be submitted along with the query. These are generally the first five or ten pages of your work (thus why you should have a complete manuscript before you query). What does this tell us? That the first ten pages of the book better be PERFECT. (We'll talk more about the sample chapters in a later blog). Moral of the story is, make certain you know exactly what each literary agent wants in a query and give them exactly that. An agent is more likely to pay closer attention to a well formatted query than a brilliant work that doesn't follow the guidelines. Remember this is exactly like a job interview, why would they want to hire you if you can't follow directions?
CARDINAL RULE: Never, ever, EVER send your query letter, synopsis, or sample chapters as ATTACHMENTS to an agent. Because of security reasons, they refuse to open unsolicited attachments and this can cause your letter to go unread. 

The Query Letter

So this by far was the hardest thing in the world for me to write. I could write a million novels and be happy if I never had to write a query letter again. How are you supposed to be memorable, make a connection with the agent and present your book and yourself in the best light in under five paragraphs?? To a writer that sounds nigh impossible, but if you ever want to be published, mastering the art of the query letter is key! My next blog will dissect the perfect query letter and I will share with you mine for CHANGERS as a discussion piece. Until then, however, let me give you the basic mechanics. There are three parts to a query letter. In the first paragraph, you normally introduce yourself, and try to connect with the agent in some way. More often than not this is the part that will change from agent to agent. No, you don't want to tell the agent you're their third cousin once removed from another aunt (even if you happen to be), nor to tell them how you both love Game of Thrones (generally agents will put personal information tid-bits on their website). Though these things can serve you later in the letter.
What you MUST have in the first paragraph of your query letter is the NAME of your work, the WORD COUNT, GENRE, and how it RELATES to what the agent is looking for. The best way to flatter a literary agent is to show them that you understand what they are looking for and why and how your novel fits perfectly in with that.
The next part of your letter should be one to two paragraphs describing your work. DISCLAIMER: This will be the hardest thing you ever have to write! Somehow, in two paragraphs you have to describe your main conflict, the character that drives it and the outcome of the story. This is where your talent comes in and honestly a lot of peer review. I spent hours, days, WEEKS agonizing over these two paragraphs and forced them down the throat of a million writers forums and I still think they could be rewritten. The only thing I can tell you about this part is EDIT. Take out even a single word that is superfluous and unnecessary, and make sure you need every bit of those two paragraphs. Nothing should be wasted. I will discuss more of this on the upcoming Query Letter post.
 The third part of your Letter should discuss the marketability of your work and your qualifications to write it. An agent appreciates a writer that comes with their own marketing plan. Do you have 25,000 twitter followers? A million YouTube viewers, a popular website or blog? All of these things are assets, and this marketability will be the bulk of your work. Long before you get representation you should start building your own marketing platforms and getting your name out there (exactly what I'm doing with this blog). Interract with other writers and self-promoters, learn everything you can and put it into action. Also, in this part of your letter, you should describe your qualifications as a writer for this particular type of story. Are you writing a travel book and have been all over the world? Have you won any contests or awards with your writing? Have you been published anywhere? Do you have a degree? Whatever qualifies you as an expert on the subject matter of your work and writing in general will go here. Again we will discuss more of this in detail on the next post.

Querying Multiple Agents

The classic rule is only query one agent at a time to prevent conflict, but let's face it we all live in the real world. Do you have the time to wait 3-8 weeks for every literary agent to tell you NO only for you to start all over again? I normally query ten agents at a time and keep my fingers crossed. It's a numbers game, and it takes a while to get an agent to notice you, mathematically you have a higher chance if you give yourself more options. Some agents will forbid seeking others at the same time, but honestly, they should be lower on your list close to the "desperation" section. Now, if you are lucky enough that an agent requests a full manuscript, this is when multiple querying can get iffy. Many literary agents require exclusive viewing rights to the full manuscript so you have to decide on your own if you are willing to cross that boundary. If you do, my advice is speak to the second agent and let them know another agent is currently viewing your full manuscript as well. You don't want to get caught in a lie, so do your best to be as honest as you can in this department.

Full Manuscript Submission

So you are fortunate enough to have an agent request a full manuscript from you, congratulations! This step is pretty simple and yet insanely complex. Before you send the manuscript you will need to re-read it one final time. The agent is trying to decide whether or not to promote your book to a publisher, which means you need to make their lives as easy as possible. Most likely you will only have a few days between being requested a full manuscript before you have to send it in (DO NOT KEEP YOUR AGENTS WAITING, because of sheer volume of queries they may forget you from one day to another), and you need to use those days to do a final read-through of your novel. You don't want to forget some obscure note in there that says "this part is really stupid" like I did, or glaring grammar mistakes. This needs to be a finished product!
You will submit the manuscript, generally by e-mail (do NOT send the manuscript as an attachment unless specifically asked by the agent to do so), though some agents accept manuscripts through the mail. If you decide to go the traditional route and mail it, make sure you include and SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope) in with the manuscript unless you want it to end up in the shredder. Most agencies will mail you back your precious manuscript, sometimes with notes on it, but only if you make it easy for them. Once you have sent the manuscript in STOP CHANGING IT. If an agent decides they love your story and by the time they get back to you (it can take months) you've changed who the main character is, you're not delivering on the product you promised. Some writers like to keep different versions of their work labeled with the batch of agents they sent it too. 

Dealing with the Waiting and the Rejection 

I started college not as a writer but as a Theatre major. On the first day, in my first class, we were told by our very wise teacher that we had all made a terrible mistake in choosing such a difficult path in life. She told us for every ten auditions you go to, you may get one call-back and that's not a guarantee at a part. There are too many actors and not enough space on the stage for all of them. After years and years of this kind of rejection I felt well prepared for receiving rejection letters from Literary agents. Imagine my surprise when the first one came in and I was CRUSHED. I tried to tell myself all those great sayings about how you need to dust yourself off and get back on the horse, but the truth is I was heartbroken. The only thing to do when this happens is to let yourself feel it. Sure it sucks, and you feel like a massive failure because you expected to blow everyone away with your brilliance right off the bat, but this is a process. The second rejection letter will sting less and less, until it becomes manageable. Then one day you will only expect rejections letters, and lo and behold! Someone asks to see your full manuscript! The point is to never stop having faith in yourself and your story.
As for the waiting on responses, the best way to deal with all that, is to KEEP WORKING. Have something lined up right away, start thinking about your next story even before you finish the first. Even if you've written what you think is the best story in history and nothing will ever top it, you probably can top it. The point is: keep writing. Throwing yourself into a new and thrilling story is the best way to keep the rejection and worry demons at bay.

I hope this was helpful, albeit long and ramble-y, but this is the concise information I wish I had found in one place rather than searching all over the internet for it. Now it's your turn. Please share with me your querying stories, best practices, and if you happen to be a literary agent, please give us all some advice because sometimes it feels like stumbling around in the dark. Tune in next time when I discuss the pros and cons of self-publishing and how everyone seems to disagree on this fast growing trend. Until next time:

WRITE ON!!

Faith, Charity and Writing Porn: An Opinion Blog

So today I thought I would talk about some of the things floating around in my overextended brain. I'll try to keep my ramblings short, and I would love to hear some of your thoughts on the matter.

Next time I promise to discuss Querying literary agents, query letter formats, tips and tricks I've learned about trying to get published and some of the pros and cons of being self published. But for today here are some of my thoughts.  

Faith

So before anyone freaks out, let me just say that I am not a religious zealot. I was raised in Romania, where religion was basically considered "the opium of the masses" (they were communist, what can I say). Because of this reason, we always made sure to turn off the lights at night before we prayed, and kept our faith in the home. I'm not saying religion was outlawed, but those with faith were considered high risk and watched because they had a high potential for rebellious acts.
These days I haven't been to church in years, honestly, at least not in the way Americans define it. I spent the last year traveling through Europe and visiting cathedrals, chapels, monasteries, and any religious structure I could. Romania, I would say, has more monasteries per capita then any other country in the world. Seriously, they're like Starbucks (is that a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks?). In these amazing places, overflowing with art, culture, and a sense of otherworldly wonder, I rediscovered my connection to God.
So I am going to define what I believe to be true. Firstly, Jesus is only my particular way to a Supreme Being, that is not to say that the Muslim religion, or Buddhist religion, or really any other kind of belief is wrong. We all find our own way to God, this is mine. I believe God will never turn away love, no matter how He receives it. So all faiths deserve not only respect, but understanding. Secondly, and most importantly, faith is a choice, not a gift divined from above. We, the faithful, make a daily decision to be so. Atheists and agnostics sometimes belittle it as ridiculous to believe without proof; they use faith as evidence of backward thinking and narrow-mindedness. In fact it is exactly the opposite. It takes courage to believe in something you have no proof of beyond your own convictions. I really love to use this example because it is the best version of how I feel about my faith.
Who did not love the show LOST? (if there is one of you here, I require you watch it again immediately) In the beginning of the second season, John Locke, a man well known for his unshakable faith has an argument with Jack Shephard, a doctor and man of science. In this argument, John asks Jack to believe, to have faith. John says; "Why do you find it so hard to believe?" to which Jack responds "Why do you find it so easy?" To that, John rears up and answers with what I believe is the best written line about faith in history:
"It's never been easy."

And that is the absolute truth. It never has been easy.

Charity

Some of these thoughts on faith propelled a discussion between my boyfriend and I about the American spirit. He believes, like many Americans, that we are not doing enough to help the little guy, to give to those at home. He, and many others I know personally, or have read about in the news, believe that America is backsliding as a world power, that we are arrogant and imperialistic, and those countries who despise us have a right to do so. I have a very basic argument for that. In my job, I am responsible for donations to various charities and auctions. In the last two months I have received (and answered) over two hundred donations from charities all across my city, for organizations that support education, children, animals, health care, lower income families, the homeless, and a myriad of others in need that I can't even remember due to sheer volume. This is the reason I love my country so much. Where else in the world do people do so much, give so much, and yet still feel like they're not giving enough? America is a world leader, a wealthy country with great social programs and still every day we hold ourselves accountable to make good decisions and help ourselves and the world more. This feeling is what makes me truly believe we are the best place to live in the world. (More on my experiences in different countries later).

Archive of Our Own

So now that I've come off as a lunatic Christian with serious patriotism issues, let's talk about smut. I recently became a contributing member of the Archive of Our Own website, an independent database for fan fiction. So I finally gave in (let me tell you I fought it like Robert Baratheon vs Rhaegar Targaryen) and read Fifty Shades of Grey, a book which appalled and disgusted me and none of it had to do with the mediocre sex scenes. Since I was a hormonal young teenager, I've been reading romance fluff and smutty stories. I cut my teeth on A.N. Roquelaure (a pen name for Anne Rice) whose Sleeping Beauty trilogy could easily be defined as the most grotesque and audacious interpretation of BDSM since the Marquis de Sade. I read the story of O and many others who left a deep mark on my budding sexuality (probably why I'm dating a long haired manly man who looks like he's been plucked off a romance novel cover). But the difference was that those authors made debasing sexual acts into an art, they used their talent like a magic spell, convincing you that maybe it was okay to be drug around the bedroom by your hair as foreplay. E.L. James succeeded in none of these things. Not only did the book feature a disappointing amount of e-mails, but there was no magic, no enticement, no spell. She plopped the whip on the table and told you to take a ride. Even worse, she was marketed as such an innovative, provocative and controversial writer when in the end, (spoiler alert for anyone who even cares) THEY DON'T EVEN DO ANY OF THE BDSM STUFF THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT IN THEIR E-MAILS. If Christian Grey was an ugly man with no money, saucy Anastasia Steel would be running from his basement to the nearest police station.
Anyway, like any good reader, I did my research and saw that both these "novels" and the City of Bones trilogy, started as fan fiction. I've always loved fan fiction, been reading it since I was a kid, and knowing that fan fiction writers are now being considered as true writers, I decided to join the ranks (not that I imagine I'll be the next Porn-Fic box office smash) and there is something freeing and wonderful about taking characters you've fallen in love with on journeys devised entirely by your own mind. Of course 85% of the stories involve Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy going at it Brokeback style in the public bathroom of platform 9 and 3/4, the writers really do get involved. Even if it's just mindless, smutty porn, some of these writers have entire novels in there, with character arcs, journeys of self discovery and original plots. I think what makes them so interesting is that people are writing what they love and putting as much care into it as possible. I am dabbling with my own few series, and have decided it's the perfect spot to write the book I've been thinking about for ten years: the story of Lilly and James Potter at Hogwarts. I am in the process of studying the history and re-reading the books but I will be working on some of it throughout the year, while focusing on other projects.
These are not books that will ever sell, nor writing that will stand the test of time, but seeing so many people, novices and skilled alike, putting so much work into writing and reading, is a balm to my aching heart. I had started to lose hope in the written word, but now it is renewed, even if it is by mindless porn. So thanks Fifty Shades of Grey (even though you are still the worst book in history), because you got people to READ.
If you're interested in Archive of Our Own click HERE for their website. 

Until next time when I tell you how to navigate the scary world of Publishers and Literary Agents, I look forward to your thoughts on this and anything else.

READ ON!

I fell in love with JK Rowling in 2002. It was the week of finals my junior year and we had an overwhelming amount of homework. Of course, I ignored most of my regular school work and lugged JK's first four books in my backpack for two weeks (don't ask me why I absolutely had to have all four with me at the same time, I never said I was sane). That's how long it took me to read them. I read them during lunch, breaks between classes, bathrooms and hidden surreptitiously under my desk during lecture. They changed my life forever, and her story makes me believe in the power of miracles and that one day (when I grow up) I can be a REAL writer. 

Subsequently, I would definitely recommend the Lifetime Original Movie "Magic Beyond Words" the story of her life. Highly underrated movie. 

My favorite comic growing up giving writers some good advice.

I think one of the hardest things I face when writing is editing myself down. I am so certain that every word I set down in my original draft is absolute and irreplaceable, but any good editor or publisher will tell you the same thing: EDIT EDIT EDIT. They don't want thousand page books anymore, unless you're George RR Martin, of course. 

Also, does anyone remember making half of this stuff up in College? I must have written thirty papers on the subliminal messages in Beowulf. Why does anyone even read that anymore? 

Beating Houston Traffic and the Bay Area Writers League

Well folks, I have returned to the blog, (is anyone even reading this stuff?) with a vengeance. I know last week I promised you I would review the writing on one of my favorite shows The Following, but truthfully, I'm reserving judgement based on their new season. They have a lot of opportunity, both to make it amazing or a royal flop. Once I've made up my mind I promise to update you on that.

Normally I do a book review at the end of my blog, but today I'm going to start with it becaue it comes with a story. I recently started a job which takes me into the heart of downtown Houston. Anyone who has spent more than ten minutes on Houston roads will tell you that our worst problem is traffic. Houston is a major metropolitan area, and it sprawls like a languid fat whore, taking in anyone and anything on the outskirts of its smelly folds (that is not to say that I don't love my city more than anything). Because of this, and the massive amounts of population, one can never predict how long it will take to get from one place or another. On any given morning it can take you an hour for a ten minute trip or fifteen minutes for something that normally takes half an hour. Therefore everyone in Houston is always late, rushing and annoyed with absolutely anyone and everyone else on the road. Which makes for mighty poor drivers. This means that by the end of the two hour commute from anywhere to anywhere during rush hour traffic (yes, even if you're running to the corner store for a pack of smokes, it may take you five minutes, it may take you sixty-five), you are not a very pleasant person to be around.

Well fear no more, I have the solution. We spend all of our money on phones and tablets, GPS's and on-board communications, and we use them all (sometimes concurrently) while driving. The reason for this being that sitting in traffic for two hours can get downright dull. Of course this causes more accidents, more traffic and more annoyance for everyone involved. The Solution?

AUDIO BOOKS!

Before you go EWW those are for my Grandma, just give me a chance. First of all, who doesn't watch Game of Thrones, or isn't waiting for the new Insurgent release? You don't have to listen to Pride and Prejudice or Beowulf anymore, the world of audio books has expanded. There are books on every subject read by some of our most famous actors of stage and film. It's like being read the plot to your favorite movie by Morgan Freeman. Choose something that will hold your interest. Consequently, your nearest Half-Price books has Clearance audio books for no more than two or three dollars! What a bargain!

I was really concerned that I would not be able to survive the two hour drive (which should only take me fifteen minutes) every day on my way home. Now that I have audio books, I don't even feel the time pass. If you can arrive home relaxed, inspired and having learned something, instead of feeling like you just wasted hours of your life sitting in a car, I promise you will feel much better about driving, in Houston or anywhere else. I actually look forward to traffic now, because it gives me a chance to catch up with my favorite characters!

Audio books are now available on all your favorite listening devices and some even come free. Tired of Disc Jockeys and commercials? Not enough money for Sirius Sattelite Radio? Can't stand the latest Taylor Swift song (they play the damn things every two minutes I swear)? Then invest in an audio book on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Nook, Android and a multitude of audio book apps. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

REVIEW

That being said, I've been listening to this audio book by Sam Cabot named Blood of the Lamb. I read the synopsis and felt so excited to read this book. As those of you who know me can attest, I Loooooooooooove Dan Brown. He cannot write fast enough to accomodate my addiction to his work. When Cabot's book was described as a Dan Brown type thriller with vampires, I had some minor reservations but was thoroughly excited.

Well......... What can I say about Cabot's work except that I'm on the seventh CD (out of eleven) and I honestly would prefer the traffic. Dan Brown's genius (am I gushing?) is that he's constantly propelling the plot forward. It takes him one to two chapters flat to give you all the exposition you need and then it's right into the thick of it. There's always some kind of ticking clock and insidious villain ready to impede Robert Langdon's progress and we absolutely NEED to know what happens on the next page. With Cabot, I'm over halfway into the book and the most that's happened is they found a secret notebook. By now Robert Langdon would have solved the mystery and run off to some exotic place with his stock attractive female sidekick. Cabot is too busy waxing poetic about how judgy religion is and how they don't accept vampires to keep us going. I'm going to stick it out simply because I have a masochistic streak, but I can't say I highly recommend it.

NEW WORK

I recently joined the Bay Area Writers League. We meet every two week at Barnes&Noble to share and critique our work and I have to say they are a wonderful group of people. Sure they tend to talk over each other and sometimes bicker like a little family, but their individual talent and unique voices make for a strong critique group. I was truly impressed by some of the work I read from them and honestly can't believe some of them aren't published. I have asked a few of them for a full copy of their work as I can't NOT know what's going to happen next in their story. That is one of my top pet peeves (are you listening George R R Martin???? What about you ABC?), is gripping me with an outstanding and exciting story, and then either cancelling the show or taking your sweet time publishing the next book. It makes you a cock-tease. Don't do it. Just don't.

Anyway, I've started work on a novella entitled "Diary of a Caveman" (a copy of the first few pages is under the Short Stories & Blurbs section, and I am hoping to finish it in a few months. I will be self-publishing this novella on Amazon and you will be able to purchase the entire thing for no more than three dollars when it launches. I will post excerpts here as I go.

Next time I'll talk about my forum WritersBeat and one of my new favorite sites Archive of Our Own to which I am now a contributing writer. If you want to check out the Bay Area Writer's League follow them on Facebook Here

Until Next Time

READ ON!

I Defeated the Dreaded Blank Page

It has taken me a long time to decide what to post as my first actual blog on here.  I have started at least three blogs and abandoned all of them in the past, as I’m sure some of you have as well. The idea of blogging is extremely alluring, “I’ll just put all my opinions and thoughts on there and everyone will love me for it!” So you spend three hours customizing and decorating your blog, deciding what to name it, writing your biography, all that great stuff. Then that terrifying moment comes when you are faced with a blank page and all you can ask yourself is “what ARE my thoughts and opinions… on ANYTHING?”

                So instead of endless ramblings about my beginnings and what I intend to write on this blog, I’m just going to jump right in.

                CURRENT PROJECT

                I recently completed my first novel entitled CHANGERS, about a dystopian world in which people are neither male nor female, but can alter their sex at will. The idea started in the back of my best friend’s car, as we were driving from Huntsville to Houston. At the time we had been religiously addicted to the show “Misfits” on HuluPlus (if you haven’t watched it, DO). In the show several teenage delinquents are struck by lightning and receive superhero-like powers. One of them is given the ability to change sexes but still maintain his consciousness. In our fervent discussion of how that would work in real life, the idea for CHANGERS was born. What if there was a world, without sexual bias or gender prejudice whatsoever? What if our minds could fully comprehend the nature of both sexes and make no distinction between the two? What if two people could pledge themselves to one another without the label of gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bisexual, etc. What if we didn’t need those words anymore, because gender was only an unimportant bit of flesh? The physical body could manifest itself however you want it, but it did not define the soul inside. Two hearts could unite in absolute equality because they could be together in any sexual form, erasing the dominate and submission lines which are characteristic of our everyday lives.

                This is the entire idea behind CHANGERS, and to facilitate this sense of unification, I needed a word which would erase the ugly “he/she” label and stand for the person as a whole, regardless of their sex. The word I found (and by found, I mean completely invented) is “eyh”. It does conjugate in a familiar way, (eyhm, eyhself, eyh’s) and it is a word we desperately need in our modern world.

                Of course this world I have described, so far carries no conflict, (and who the hell wants to read that?). So my peaceful utopia of Changers is ravaged by an epidemic called “The Great Affliction” which causes some to lose their ability to shift and become trapped in either male or female form. This creates what are crudely known as “Genders”. Social injustice and upheaval ensues, and soon my little corner of heaven is plunged into civil war.

                If you are interested in reading CHANGERS, please use the CONTACT form and shoot me an e-mail, or check out the CHANGERS section where I will be posting excerpts from the novel.

                FUTURE PROJECTS

                I recently joined the Bay Area Writers League, and we meet every Thursday to discuss and critique new work and help each other progress in our writing. As such, I can’t just keep recycling old sestinas or CHANGERS excerpts so I have started work on a new novel. It is an idea that came to me a while back, when I watched a documentary on the early beginnings of mankind (thank you National Geographic).

                The novel is called “Diary of a Caveman” (working title), and it quite literally delivers on that title. Portrayed as a translation of one of the oldest records of written word in history, the journal chronicles the attempts of a caveman to invent language and describe his everyday life. Of course in the beginning it’s a lot of hunting, gathering and descriptions of the animals he interacts with, soon his world becomes more complicated than he expected. With the arrival of a female of his kind, and a ferocious predator who stalks him with intent, his life becomes less and less manageable.

                I will post some excerpts of Diary of a Caveman on here after I receive some feedback from the League. As always any responses, critiques, comments or rude remarks are welcome. I am always looking to improve.

                REVIEW

                Normally, on this section, I will post a review of either a book, show or movie I have recently experienced. The review will mostly focus on the writing, but I can’t help but have some opinions on acting  because let’s face it, actors have opinions on acting.         

                This week I am reading Michelangelo’s Notebook by Paul Christopher. It’s the first appearance of heroine Finn Ryan, a beautiful Art History intern with a nose for trouble. This book focuses on her discovery of a page she thinks came from Michelangelo’s famous and supposedly lost notebook. The discovery sends her on a Robert Langdon-esque hunt for the truth which ends in the bowels of the Vatican.

 Honestly, so far I’m trudging through this one. It should be an easy, breezy read, because it flows really nicely and jumps right into the action. Finn Ryan is a predictable heroine, in my opinion. She is young, smart, attractive, spunky and so far completely flawless except for being verbally combative. She comes across as one dimensional, and (dare I say it?) cliché, paling in comparison to Dan Brown’s exquisitely complicated and ever flawed Robert Langdon who is always a joy to read. I guess the moral here is write compelling characters, which come across as real people. If they’re all statuesque blondes with a PHD, we’ll give up on the second page because we can’t relate.

Later this week I will do a review of the writing on the popular show “The Following”, which I am currently marathoning on Netflix. The new season just started and I wanted to catch up. If you have any thoughts on “The Following” or Michelangelo’s Notebook, or if you have any ideas on what you would like me to review next, use the CONTACT form and I will take a look at it.