Queries

I actually have a few queries out right now, which is something I rarely do. I tend to send one at a time, wait, send that one elsewhere. This is, I know, not the way people normally do the work and it does slow everything down. So I have been putting more queries out. I try not to send to an agent more than once a month, even after a rejection. That means slowly working up both the number of queries I have out and the number of books I have written queries for. Right now, I'm mostly concentrating on three novels -- Glory, Kat Among the Pigeons, and Ada Nish Pura. I need to work on the queries for Vita's Vengeance, Paid in Gold and Blood and Summer Storm.

I have every faith that eventually one of them will 'catch' with an agent.

Draw the Line is up to about 98k and I suspect it's going to reach at least 120k. Interesting things going on. I've finally started to better understand two of the alien races in ways that I hadn't when I started. OH! Just right this moment came up with an idea that I need to drop into my notes!

It's going to be interesting when I have this one done and look it back over. I can see a lot of structural changes that I need to make, along with some plot 'corrections.' However, I also see some really good stuff that I've written that is going to make this a fascinating book in the end.

I keep wondering about Twittering a story, which kind of sounds like fun -- besides being an interesting exercise in limiting the way I write. 140 characters per entry, maybe no more than five entries a day? It's own Twitter page? I have been playing with a new story to see how it might work, and even if I don't do it, I think it is fascinating to play with.

Right now, however, I need to get back to work on the DAZ newsletter.

Here is a short scene from Rat Pirates. I'm about 40k into the rewrite of this one, and it's been a wonderful, fun experience. Sometimes just doing something for fun makes the work easy and the story often turns out the better for it. Still have quite a ways to go on this one.

Snippet:

Tia wandered up to the Control Deck before retiring -- and felt no surprise at all to find Angel still here, intent upon the computer. What did amaze him was seeing Ashur standing at the Rat's shoulder, totally engrossed in Angel's work. Neither even noticed Tia's approach until Tia put a hand on Ashur's shoulder, winning the Lindy's startled attention.

"What's going on?" Tia asked, though he couldn't be certain he really wanted to know the answer.

"I'm watching Angel do the impossible," Ashur answered with a bright smile. "And it's damned impressive, too."

Tia glanced at the screen where Angel worked. He wasn't a qualified computer tech, and it looked like any other screen of programming codes to him. Angel's fingers moved almost without pause, his face intent on the screen. Line after line of code ran up and off the screen -- which looked impressive enough, even if he didn't know what was going on.

However, he could see Angel looked pale and even this little work seemed to be leaving him slightly breathless.

"I hope you're almost done, Angelito," Tia said. "Because if Carmen or Lucia find out you're still here working, we're both dead."

"Almost done," Angel said, repeating the key words. He had a parroting ability that made some people think he might actually be listening sometimes.

Tia knew better, but despite his worry and questions about what was going on, he still stepped away from the two. He trusted Ashur wouldn't let the Rat do something that would put them in dangers. Besides, even if he could drag Angel away (probably not -- he still had his knife in the sheath on his belt), he didn't think it would be wise to stop him in whatever work he had begun. There was no use trying to reason with him; once Angel interfaced with a computer, even Carmen had trouble reaching him.