Friday, August 7, 2009

The Odds and Ends of Today

We finally have a day that isn't going to fry my brain. We've had two months of 95-100 degree temperatures and not a drop of rain. It's all parched and crunchy, and I'm not just talking about my brain.

Today it will only reach 80 degrees and I'm actually going to be able to take Marley for a walk. Yes, I am going to get a little exercise. Shut up! No one likes a smart ass.

I'm also getting my head shrunk at 3:00 this afternoon. I'll come home and take a picture so you call tell me how my smaller head looks. There will be a few errands run on the way home from the therapist's.

Phillip of Sitenoise is stopping off here for a very short visit, so I'll be baking brownies and getting questions written so while he's here I can get a wee bit of help with my first submission to a Literary Agency.

It's a busier day than usual, so I'm off to take Marly on her walk.

17 comments:

Sherry Pasquarello said...

i'm glad it's cooling down there-it's finally starting to warm up here.

if your friend has any tips, could you let me know too. thanks. : )

Utah Savage said...

I'm learning so much from twitter. For instance, I'm following a number of literary agents and writers. So any agent info I got there. I'm working on my query letter and have found an agent that will accept a packet in an email that contains the Query letter and the first 25 pages of the book. For me, that's roughly the first four chapters. Now I have to figure out how to clip those four chapters from blogger to word and then to an email without fucking the whole thing up. If and when I getting it done, I write all about it.

One of the things I've heard from agents talking on twitter is that you should probably send ten query letters at a time to ten different agents. You'll expect to wait at least 6 weeks before hearing anything back. The expect to get 100 rejections before you reach success. We'll see about that!

Fran said...

sounds like a good friday......
best wishes on the book getting published.

Saoirse in Spokane said...

It has finally cooled down here too. Sounds like you had a busy day. Anything fun for the weekend?

Gail said...

Hey Utah-

Ya, it cooled off here, as well. phew.

My son is on the literary path as well, marketing his book to agents. Big ordeal, huh?

Well, enjoy your evening and Saturday and Sunday too. :-)

love Gail
peace....

Utah Savage said...

Guys, the only thing on my plate for the weekend is sending out 10 query letters. I also need to find places to send short stories and poems. This is going to be my new mission. That and walking Ms Marley.

BrightenedBoy said...

I kind of envy you your weather. In a state known for its scorching-hot summers, we're having an unseasonably-cool August.

I wouldn't mind this if we had any type of real winter, but we just usually get bitter cold and no snow.

Utah Savage said...

BrightenedBoy where is here? I'm guessing West Coast or East Coast. Midcoast which ever side, so sort of temperate. Tell me, am I even close? I'm delighted to have a new commenter.

Spadoman said...

I sold a couple of stories once. 1992 it was. I wrote non fiction about losing my daughter and what I did with the insurance money. Bought a Harley Davidson by the way.

The American Iron magazine published it and sent me a check for $100.00. I cashed it, but still have a photocopy to remember the experience.

I sent out many stories and articles to many different kinds of magazines. I was rejected constantly. I started to write a fiction novel. A character I lived through named Joe Nighthawk, it wasn't me and my life but we shared the same first name. I never sent that to anyone. Did you read that story on a recent blog post?

Best of luck. It is a lot of work to write it, edit it and then send it. You almost want to read it to them so the inflections can be heard, the genius of the idea explained. Remaining patient through it all might be the hardest part, it certainly would be for me.

Peace

Randal Graves said...

One hundred rejections, huh? That'd be like living with 100° inside the noodle. But you've got tenacity with the whole thing, so I figure we'll see you in print at some point.

themom said...

Woohoo for the "cool down." Hope the shrink left enough of your head to work on the query letter and all. Enjoy yourself and do not work too hard! Marley will truly enjoy the walk I'm sure.

Comrade Kevin said...

It's been so hot here. It's the hottest it ever gets here, and I'm expecting fully for it to finally crack the 100 mark next week.

I'd love 80 degree weather.

Stella by Starlight said...

And there's no such thing as global warming...

[Hello, Utah. Sounds like a lovely day to me.]

Utah Savage said...

I keep working on the query letter. I'm not sure I ever edited my fiction as much as I've edited this letter. It's a page and 2/3. Guidelines for Query are min 1 page and max 2 pages. Part of the trick of getting published seems to be finding the right agent for your kind of story. There are a lot of agents out there but they all say it's a hard market for a book that isn't extraordinary. I say bullshit, since I see a lot of recently published books that are crap. I don't think my book is crap. And with so much help, I think I fixed all the little problems like my tick of putting an apostrophe for its when it's a possessive pronoun. And MRMACrum did a really good edit of the first three chapters. And as I posted it again here, I edited it again.

Utah Savage said...

Stella! Woohoo! So good to see you.

Mari said...

I hope you enjoyed the shrink and got your letters mailed! This weather is incredible!

Utah Savage said...

Mari, how nice to see your lovely face here. The shrink was great. Fred is my therapeutic safety valve. And like any good catharsis, we smoke a cigarette together before we part. Pretty civilized for a Utah therapist.

Pre-therapy and post-therapy my day was a mad dash from one thing to another. I had an out of town guest making a pit stop at my place on his way east. I know he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy so I planned to cook a little pot-roast for him. He was supposed to get here at 9 PM, he arrived at 8. It really screwed up my timing. We at at 11:30. I had somehow managed to make it through the day without making time to eat. So I was very screwed up by the time we actually sat down at the table. It's taken a good 20 hours to get back to normal brain chemistry. I feel a little like I got real drunk and am having a lost weekend. I did not consume a drop of alcohol, I swear.