Tag: publishing

It’s Been A Few Years…

I may make this quick. I don’t know. At this moment, I’m going through perimenopause at age 46 and will be going to the doctor soon for tests. It sucks, but it’s life as a woman.

In other news, on the writing front, I finished my fifth manuscript. It’s been tough finishing it after my cat died last autumn and the year before that my brother was murdered in August. Yeah, you read that right. It’s been a tough few years. BTW, I’m typing this entry right on my page. I would usually type it on a separate file. Sorry I’m all over the place on this entry. I’m just being real. I haven’t updated this blog in maybe 3 years? All that time I have been writing my author textbook for all my books I plan to write and writing the fifth manuscript and many short stories and studying the craft from the books I have bought over the years.

About the newest novel…it’s an Adult Portal High Fantasy trilogy. It is a complete rewrite from the first original back from 1996 when I was sixteen. I’ve edited the manuscript into a Draft 2 and gave it to a friend to beta read. Then once I go through the edits she may find, I will be querying to agents. This has been a long, long passion of mine like any writer, but this is extra special because now, in my mindset as an adult who has gone through enough of life, I know what to write about more seriously. The studying I have had to do to write better than I did in 2009 and having that book published in 2015 has taught me SO MUCH! You have no idea. I have even rewritten that book, too. It’s far better. That duology is on the back burning for now, but it is prepped for further work.

The most fearful part now, is all that god damn Anthropic AI shit! Like, what the fuck?! I’ve been watching what the Author Guild has been doing to combat Anthropic at every turn. Because of this AI slop, inshitifcation of art, that dictators, oligarchs and Nazis hate about civilization is the art that comes out of it no matter if it comes from painting, sculpture, music, acting, plays and novels and non-fiction. Without art in all its human made forms, there is no civilization. Without thinking to create said art from human minds, tears, hands and our souls, there is no civilization. That’s what these dictator assholes want to do-destroy civilization from the inside out.

While all of this goes out quietly or loudly, in front of us or inside the electronic; internet infostructure of civilization, I must not stop working on my magnum opus. For my novel and other authors who are just as stressed and scared, we must not give up on our souls. The time is now to pump out the art that makes us human and alive.

I hate it more with this AI nightmare is that we must prove what we write is real. These ‘AI detectors‘ are TRAINED on AI programing DUH!…that means they don’t fucking work! DUH!! So, if any editor, agent or publisher reads this entry, know that if you use AI on my manuscripts, I will come knocking at your door with every single printed draft, old and new manuscripts, short stories and poetry, logbooks and cataloging of my work for you to read through. AI can’t catalog the blood, sweat, tears and soulful energy that is put into the work of art. I have 30 years of work cataloged and if you fucking DARE to call my manuscripts AI, you won’t have me as a client. Let that sink in for all authors who are just as fuming pissed off at this shitstorm these techno-oligarchs have caused.

Oh and don’t get me fucking STARTED about Anthropic, ISBNdb with their ‘Project Panama’ to scan old books, chopping off the spines, scanning them and tossing them like dead bodies! FUCK YOU MOTHER FUCKERS STRAIGHT TO HELL!! Fahrenheit 451 novel was a warning, not a playbook! Oh oh, and you know, if the worlds dictionaries were scanned through, it would still spill out AI SLOP YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!!

Creation comes from hardship, experience, love, life through the minds, eyes, hands, blood, tears and the power of the soul of every living human being! That’s the law of nature! FUCK YOUR AI programing straight to HELL!!

Now, back to my work. To any author or writer, singer or any artist that read this-get back to work, but please take your breaks when needed. Don’t allow yourself to give in to despair. Keep writing. Keep painting. Keep reading real books!

Don’t give up! I won’t either!

Queries Sent On Wings

With editor Leah B done with her copyedits and going through my synopsis to try cutting out one page worth, I’ve taken the next step.

Tonight, at 8pm I went on Query Tracker, paid the Premium version and went through my agent query list. I found a few new agents. Altogether I have 51 agents on my main list. Sent out 21 of 35 queries. The others are closed for now. I’ll send out the other 15 later this week.

In other news, the donation for paying for an editor flopped. Only one friend donated $30, so I put that into my savings for the editor. After, I canceled the donation period only 20 days in out of the 72 days.

The other pride I had to swallow was to get back into the work force after seven years away reverting back to a teenager for a time to heal from all the hell I had been through for 35 years of my life. Since going back to work in retail I was able to save up the funds for editor Leah B. She did a wonderful job in copyedits. She found POVs I didn’t notice. One made me laugh, because how could I have missed that obvious issue? I love learning from my mistakes so I can be a better writing.

So, here I am relaxing listening to Enya on my computer as I type this entry.

Now the hard part, wait six weeks or more for replies from agents all the while I’m back into retail. However, once I get a notice from representation from an agent, I’ll only be able to focus on the book at hand. The deadline from the possible agent is important to me. There would be no way in hell I could focus on my day job and the deadline of edits I’d have in front of me. When that day comes, I’ll have to quit my day job. At least my boyfriend is able to support me during this as he has for the last nearly 8 years we’ve been together.

I want this book Echoes of the Lost to make it at all costs. No matter what it takes!

Publishing advice…

Wrote this reply to someone on YouTube who asked me about publishing advice. Thought I’d share the love.

I sent in 9 query letters to different publishing agents and all 9 agents rejected my book (Soul’s Little Lie) cause ‘they didn’t know how to publish something so unique‘, that it was out of their range that they publish for. My first manuscript, that I wrote when I was 16, but finished in my late 20s, I sent it in to Baen Books of just 3 chapters and they loved it, that it had potential, but their current publications for the next ten years was backed up pretty majorly, so there was no place for me at that time. Every rejection letter you get, keep them. They are a badge of honor. Tack them on your ‘I Love Me Wall’ or put them in a scrapbook to look back on them when you finally do get published. You’ll wonder why you may have cried over the first few rejections. I’m grateful for making friends with Robert when I moved back in with my parents, I’m 35 now been back with them for two years, and cause of Robert he hooked me up with Eden Glenn an author with RIP (Rebel Ink Press). You’ll find your tactic that brings your book to life. There is a MASSIVE market for children’s books right now. Go to Writersdigest.com for more info and look into their Writer’s Market catalog books at any book store. Keep reading and keep writing, it takes work, but it’s full of love and fun. Remember, each rejected query letter is a stepping stone to your goal that much closer.

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Mind, this is only my first novel that is being published. I’m still on the learning curve.