My six random things
Apr 21, 2008 The Story of My Life
Cynthia tagged me!
- I just got a gig I was wanting! I don’t know what the job is or what the hours are or how much of it is on-site because I haven’t found that part out yet. I interviewed three times and am still not sure. But I know it pays on time and I know it’s not full-time (although it may be 40 hours some weeks) and that’s good enough for me. Whew! This is going to take some of the pressure off, lemme tell you! (And I think the job will be fun.)
- I am five foot four but people usually think I’m taller. At least they seem to remember me as taller. My mom is five foot eight and she always thinks I’m taller.
- My eyes are getting lighter as I get older. Bummer. They used to be as blue as Noah’s but not so much anymore. Anyone else experiencing this?
- I have a weird memory. I can remember song lyrics to songs I haven’t heard in decades, outfits that friends wore at parties they don’t remember going to, and phone numbers from my childhood but I will forget your name ten minutes after you tell it to me. Those three interviews I had? I have no idea who they were with because I can’t remember names. But my best friend’s phone number in third grade? Oh yeah, I could still dial it.
- I’ve written this before but what the heck. I’m a lucid dreamer. I usually know when I’m dreaming and will sometimes discuss this with the people in my dream. I also will sometimes wrench my dreams around to better suit my purposes. In my nightmares part of the nightmare-ish of it is that I know I’m dreaming and I wrench the dream around but the other people (bad guys) in the dream will wrench it back.
- I am unable to return phone calls in a timely manner (if at all) unless it’s work-related and I have to. My friends know this about me and seem to accept it. I’m also not prone to calling people to chat because I hate to bother them. (The exception to this: My sister.) It’s worse with cell phones. I hate to call people on a cell phone because I know that they can always (theoretically) answer it and if they don’t want to, they might feel obligated. I hate to put them in that position; I’d rather just not call.
I tag all y’all. If you don’t have a blog (and why in the world wouldn’t you by this time????) then you could always answer in the comments. I mean, why not? It’ll be fun! Try it!
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Tags: dreamer, dreaming, Erica, Friends, interviews, lucid dreamer, lucid dreaming, lucid dreams, memes, my mom, Noah, sister, wordpress
A bunch of my archives are missing
Apr 21, 2008 Blogging, work work work
So I’m downloading them from my desktop wordpress and uploading them here. But I have work stuff to do today, too, so I don’t know when they’ll be back up. I also don’t know how they went missing. My archives are HUGE and tipsy. There’s just no telling what they’ll do next.
I spent the weekend finding places I’d like to submit to this year and reading In Cold Blood for the first time and a bunch of travel stories from an anthology. I’m not a huge fan of crime writing but I figured I shouldn’t let that stop me from reading a classic. I’m more intrigued with Capote himself now, though. Now I want to see the two movies that came out about him. I’d only read his fiction before.
Ok, I have to get to work. Sorry to be so dull!!
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Tags: anthologies, archives, in cold blood, truman capote, wordpress
Do you want my picture password?
Apr 18, 2008 Book work, work work work
If you do, just ask. I have yet to say no to anyone. I just want to control who looks at ‘em because I had issue with people swiping them or hotlinking. Keeping them behind a password means they won’t show up on google searches and that anyone wondering through my blog will have to make an effort to browse. But if you read her and want it I’ll be happy to share. (You can also friend me on facebook because I have pics there but on myspace, there aren’t any of the kids’ faces. I don’t like myspace all that much.)
It’s 10am and I’m already halfway through my must-do work for the day. Is this because I’m super-quick? Or because I’m low on work? A combination of the two, my friends. I am speedy but I also only have two jobs to get done today and I already put one to bed.
Thank you for the comments and emails in support of my book efforts; they are very appreciated! My plan as of now is to print out the table of contents and stare at it for awhile to see what I want to write in it. I may hit up another agent on my list but I think I want to write another chapter first. Way back when I had an agent approach me after reading an article I wrote (and it was one logic board disaster and a couple of email systems ago so I’ve lost her contact info) so it makes sense to try to place something from the book and see if it scares up interest. No rush. I’m working on ZEN CAREER MINDING. Seems like urgency and fear aren’t the terrific motivators I’d thought they might be.
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Tags: literary agents, platform, working from home, writing books, writing life
Agent news
Apr 17, 2008 Book work
I’ve been on the hunt for an agent but not talking about it here because I didn’t think any agent would appreciate being live-blogged but I’m going to go ahead and talk about it now.
I got the names of several agents through editor/writer friends and decided to just run through the list. I’ve made it through four now and think I’ll stop. This was the feedback:
- First agent had no comment about the proposal but said a couple of snide things about open adoption. Obviously she passed on the project.
- Second agent LOVED the project, thought it was terrific but also thought it would end up on parenting shelves and this is not really what he represents. He was very encouraging and gave me the names of four other agents who have represented complementary projects. Note: these weren’t referrals but still, his response made me happy.
- Third agent sent a form rejection.
- Fourth agent wrote me several times over the course of the last month or so expressing excitement over the project and letting me know that it’d gotten over each hurdle. Last response came on Monday: they really love the proposal and think it has legs. BUT. It’s a memoir. They think I need to write the whole book before they can pitch it. If I’m willing to do that, I should get back to them. (In other words, there’s no guarantee that writing the whole book will get them as my agent but it will help.)
And this is probably true. I probably do need to write the whole book. Yes, people get book deals on a narrative, memoir-ish book without writing the whole book first but it’s a harder sell.
I’m processing this need to write the whole book. I was wringing my hands about it when I got the letter. (Ok, actually I was crying.) I don’t exactly have a lot of spare time to write a book because of this whole need to pay the bills thing but then who does? I know a lot of writers and most of them are writing books they don’t have time to write. I mean, it’s not impossible. And it might be fun. So I’m feeling better about it.
I figure I’ll work on the book and maybe look for markets to place some of the chapters as I go. I’m thinking smaller lit magazines to cement a stronger creative nonfiction reputation. I want a respectable career that lasts. I can always make money writing about socks for fashion purveyors so I’m less worried about trying to make money in my creative writing life. Yes, it’d be nice but for the kind of career I want, it’s not really about money.
I thought about going to the next name on the list of agents I’ve still got sitting here but I’m going to try this on now. I’m going to try writing some more. It makes me alternately excited and exhausted to think about it. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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Tags: agent, agents, career, creative, creative nonfiction, memoir, open adoption, proposal, rejection, Writing, writing books, writing life