File it Under “Whoops”

I made a lot of mistakes when I queried my first novel (you’ll notice that I never drew interest in it; there’s a reason). A lot of it was inexperience, along with a dash of ignorance. I didn’t know how to write a query well (okay, whether I can do it now is still up for debate), I didn’t understand what really went into a novel, and I thought my idea was AWESOME. Needless to say, it was not.

I wish I could find an old copy of that query to post on here as a warning. But I’ll have to settle with telling you of my journey from that to…wherever I am now (I’m honestly not quite sure : ).

When I first tried to write a query, I pretty much typed “query” in a search engine and looked at the result. I’m probably lucky that AgentQuery is so far up the search list. While its advice didn’t exactly leave me with an unputdownable letter, it did help. More importantly, it gave me a list of agents, many of whom were online with their own query advice.

But that was only the first step. I also learned a lot from all the bloggers I’ve met here. There have been query contests, query critiques, and nice people willing to tell me why my letter doesn’t work.

This is where I am now. Does that mean this is the end? Far from it! There’s still a long way to go, but thankfully, there are many other tools to get me there. There are conferences, critique sites, and many other people and places to learn from. The journey to that place where your query is accepted? It never ends.

Distraction Friday

It’s in the title. Be prepared.

Today’s distraction is a cute little game I found on Newgrounds called William and Sly. In it, you play as the fox Sly and your job is to activate these rune stones all around William’s house.

Overall, it’s a simple game where you run back and forth exploring the area. While the main point of the game is to gather “fairyflies” to activate the rune stones, there are a lot of little extras to do. You can gather mushrooms, open chests, gain “wings” to float a little when you jump and use the brief charges from the rune stones to destroy monsters known as darklings. These have nothing to do with the main game but rather involve the wonderful pastime of gaining points.

Visually, the game is quite stunning. The fox’s movements are fluid, the scenery detailed. It doesn’t look like a flash game! And it’s a lot of fun to play, but not too distracting (I suppose it depends on how obsessive you are about getting points ;). So enjoy!

Random Thoughts

---The Humpty Dumpty rhyme was originally a riddle. That’s why it never mentions he’s an egg. But since it’s so popular that everyone knows what he is, it’s kind of lost the “What is he?” punch.

---I read an article in the paper that called ATLAS SHRUGGED TWILIGHT for conservatives and libertarians. I could not stop laughing for a good five minutes.

---Remember the last time I did this I reported that the last American WWI Combat Vet died? Yeah. Now I'm sorry to report that the last WWI Combat Vet period died, in his home in Perth. Thank you for your service, sir.
---There is still one non-Combat Vet left, a lady from the UK named Florence Green. Thank you as well, ma'am.

---It's a complete coincidence that I'm doing another Random Thoughts post at the same time as another WWI Vet's death. I had this all set up to post when I saw the news and added it. A bit eerie.

---I miss Law and Order.

---To make this perfectly clear: REAL Law and Order.

---I cleaned out my closet today. It’s amazing the junk one can accumulate over the years. I have copies of books I’ve never heard of.

---Irony: finding my long lost cat’s cradle next to a copy of Vonnegut’s CAT’S CRADLE. True story.

---ANIMAL FARM will always be my favorite thinly-veiled social commentary.

---“Spaghetti squash” tastes almost exactly like spaghetti (with the sauce on, I couldn’t tell the difference at all).

---Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper died together in a plane crash.

---I can never tell sans-serif l apart from I. This drives me nuts on Twitter because without fail, I read it wrong the first time.

---Mother’s Day is coming up. At least my mom isn’t as difficult to shop for as my dad. She’s close, though.

---Oh, crap. Then Father’s Day is coming up.

---USA Network. Why is it okay to say bitch on television but not balls? I don’t see why derogatory words towards women are all right when slang for male genitals is not.

Ice-9!

Encyclopedia Grammatica

It’s a word. I just wrote it, didn’t I?

In general, grammar is a set of agreed upon rules passed on from generation to generation in order to facilitate communication. While little things, like ending a sentence with a preposition or subject-verb agreement, don’t make the sentence incomprehensible, it does make it more difficult to read. And if every region started using its own rules (even more so than they do already!), we’d soon find it difficult to communicate in the same language!

So grammar does have its place. No matter how annoying it might seem. But what of its origins? Why do we have grammar?

English grammar was heavily influenced by Latin, mostly because that was the linguistic influence on the clergymen of the country. The language formed around the fifth century CE when those in the Germanic region conquered England and their languages spread to the native peoples. It formed what we now call Old English, which stayed until the eleventh century Norman Conquest, when the French brought with them a slew of new words and grammar rules.

In the fifteenth century, there were many different dialects of English spoken. No one considered this a problem since the written word was rare and scholars, those who could read, wrote in either Latin or Norman French. Then William Caxton decided he wanted to print a book in English and make it accessible to everyone.

With so many different ways of speaking, he had to choose one and work with it. He picked the most popular form of English (what we now call Middle English) and gradually, as more and more people learned to read and write, it became the standard. With one form of English and its rules accepted, it made it easier to find books to read, which prompted more people to learn, which meant more books…so grammar accelerated intellectual advancement.

I guess it’s important after all.

Sources

English Plus+

English Club

The Historical Grammar of the Old English Language

Work in Progress

That’s me! Also, it refers to all the ideas I have to write. My ideas seem to come in clusters and I can’t type them down fast enough. I’m not quite sure where to go with some of them, so what do I do? I start writing.

Hey, I’m a pantser. I get my best ideas as I’m writing them.

It’s fun to be at the beginning of a new project. For one thing, there’s no boring line editing. Plus, I love going to sleep at night imagining what I’m going to write the next day. I keep asking myself “What should happen next? What would happen next?” until I fall asleep. And. It’s. Awesome.

Can you tell I’m in a good mood? Another benefit of diving into a MS.

How do you feel when you’re starting something new? Exhilarated? Full of anticipation? How much of the story do you know going in? And how in depth do you outline?

Just curious : )

Websites for Writers

Why…what’s this? I know you can’t hear me right now, but I’m giving off a high pitched squeal.

I don’t know how many of you follow Colleen Lindsay (and I can’t imagine why you don’t) but for a while, she’s been talking about a Sekrit Project and, well, here it is. Book Country—a gathering place for writers, a place to learn about publishing, a feedback site!

This is exactly what I’ve been dreaming of! It’s like Authonomy without the shameless self-promotion in order to increase your rank! I haven’t joined up yet (I’m a bit busy with other things right now) but I’m going to jump in as soon as I can.

Unlike the aforementioned Authonomy, you have to comment on other books before you can upload your own. But it’s only a few (three, I think, but I can’t find the link) and honestly, it seems like a fair trade. Besides critiques, you can meet new people (like a social networking site for writers) and read articles on the publishing industry. Awesome.

Twitterites, find Book Country here. Everyone, if you haven't clicked the link already, find the site here.

You Know What ‘Memoir’ Means, Right?

So there’s another hoopla over a memoir that isn’t entirely truthful, this time THREE CUPS OF TEA, about a man who built schools after being lost in Pakistan. Yeah…not true [http://www.slate.com/BLOGS/blogs/trending/archive/2011/04/18/60-minutes-calls-author-greg-mortenson-s-memoir-three-cups-of-tea-into-question-video.aspx]. Although I suppose he can get away with it since he doesn’t actually have “Memoir” on the front. 

Because—correct me if I’m wrong—but isn’t a memoir supposed to be factual? Why are people making up stories like this and marketing them as truth? The LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE book series didn’t market itself as truth, but as fact based. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA let everyone know upfront that it was a novel, not a memoir. Isn’t that enough?

Apparently not. True, the story of building schools after being rescued by Pakistani villagers loses its punch when you learn most of these schools don’t exist. But how can you go around acting like it’s true when it’s so easy to do a Google search and find out it’s a lie?

Of course, it did take five years for people to figure it out…