Attention humans

I am Cyrus the Conqueror. I am not Mr. Whiskers. I am not Kitty the Conqueror. And I am most asuredly not Wittle Whiskers the Wonkerer. If you must speak, address me as your majesty, as you should every cat whose presence you are fortunate enough to be in. It has come to my attention that one of your ilk had the good sense to include me in his manuscript. I will overlook the fact that he did not ask my permission. The quality is such that to execute him would be a waste of human talent, what little your species possesses.

The story does not focus on me, and I am thankful for it. It is unlikely a book could adequately capture the wondrous life a cat leads. No, this monkey scrawl focuses on one of your own, Cy Lekkas. He is extraordinary in comparison to the rest of you and not just because he buys me gormet cat food. He can speak to me in the majestic language of cats, not that gutter language you use. He can speak to other things as well, doors, stoves, ceilings, anything really. He is called a Speaker. His kind has been known to my people for millennia. They live forever, speak in tongues, and eat strange foods that fuel their powers.

They are still humans despite themselves, and monkeys will be monkeys. They play games, steal from one another, beat their chests, and fight. Really, if you hadn't shed so much of your fur, I don't know if I could tell you apart. It seems that Cy stole a pearl from another Speaker, Christian, who then sold the pearl to antoher Speaker, Seth, who discovered it a fraud. Seth demanded that Christian find Cy and retrieve the pearl, hence the fall of dominos that lead to action-packed fights, daring rescues, and an epic faceoff of immortals. I watched the whole thing from the top of my couch and was quite impressed.

The whole thing is 110,000 words. How a human assembled 110,000 coherent words, I do not know. But there it is. He calls it contemporary fantasy and titled it BLACK MAGIC AND BARBECUE SAUCE. His name is Joe Selby, and he has written coherent words before. Perhaps he is a genetic anomoly. His ten-minute play was produced in Sioux Falls, SD, as a finalist in the Kennedy Center ACTF. He wrote the role-playing rule book, Dangerous Denizens for Kenzer & Co. in 2003. And he wrote 33 role-playing adventuures for Kenzer & Co. and Wizards of the Coast. This will be his first commercial novel. I am told he also follows your blog. I do not see the appeal. Your inclusion of a dog marks it as an inferior endeavor. Perhaps if you were to feature a cat, you might garner some success. I may be willing to make an appearance if your tribute is worthy.

That is all.


Your benevolent feline overlord

Cyrus the Conqueror

I should be focusing on the final revision for Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce. I received feedback from Peggy on the first five chapters of such worth that it has proved all the impetus I need to delay. Want: Chosen One has had a phenomenal start. I'm through chapter 9, have over 19,000 words, and am not slowing down. Every time I think I need to take a break or pause and reflect, I sit down and knock out 2500 words. I don't want to stop and lose all that momentum.

Also, and this is totally wrong of me, I wanted to work with the Nelson Agency. I know there are plenty of good authors out there, but none that do such a good job of selling themselves. I believe that NLA has the right ethos toward agenting, its relationship with authors and its relationship with publishers. Wanted: Chosen One is more mainstream, I think. It still has flawed characters, but not as abysmally depressed as Cy. Ironically, between the two, Wanted has the sadder ending, but I still think will be more widely accepted. It toys with generally accepted fantasy paradigms in a way that reminds me of some well established authors in the genre. And really, I have trouble figuring out what genre Black Magic falls into. Some agents would call it fantasy, some would call it literary fiction, others would call it commercial fiction. Wanted: Chosen One is most certainly fantasy without reservation. So, if my progress continues on such a heavy clip and I finish the manuscript by the beginning of November, perhaps I'll shop it out to NLA before returning to Black Magic.

That's a slippery slope, and one I'm keeping an eye on. Get a rejection and make excuses to work on something else. This isn't denial. I have a large list of agents at home to submit Black Magic to. This is opportunity. As long as Wanted: Chosen One continues to come so easily, I'll keep writing it.

So I've started to get deedback on my draft. I'm very enthusiastic about this because it was very strong feedback. A lot of the time I'll get feedback and wonder if the person even read what I wrote. In this case, there were some very relevant questions and observations. Of the two most important suggestions, I am adding back in a chapter I origionally removed, thinking I had too many flashback chapters and that it slowed down the pacing. Turns out it's too vague what happened between Christian and Cy, so I'm reinserting the chapter where he kidnaps Matty and forces Cy to steal the couer de la reine from the tower of London. I'm adding it much earlier than I origionally planned (it's now chapter 19 rather than in the high 30s/low 40s.

The question I still want additional input on is whether any readers like Cy. It was always a concern of mine that he wasn't likeable and so far that's been affirmed. I need more input on that one.

Because of this necessary revision, I'm not submitting to any more agents until I have a finished ms. Chapter 19 isn't coming as fast as I'd like, though and will probably have to be rewritten before it stops sucking.

I do want to say that I appreciate the support I received when NLA rejected my query, but that support was unnecessarily negative toward NLA. Sure I wish my work appealed to them, but it didn't. I want an agent that will get behind me and my work. A query letter is only 2-3 paragraphs, so a rejection after two days is great. It could have been MUCH longer without any more time spent considering it. It's only a couple paragraphs after all.

So, when I get my next rejection (and I'm sure I will), keep in mind that that's part of the profession and unless they are rude in their rejection, they should be treated respectfully. Thanks.

On yet another new story note, Good Ken and I talked a lot during his visit. One topic we dwelled on was the Pathfinder Society and that conversation lead me to a new story idea, one that I find much more exciting than Sandwich Notch Drive or Jehovah's Hitlist. I have already written chapter one of WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING. This first chapter is significantly better than my first chapter of JH.

Writing on my blackberry, so I'll save a description for a separate post at a later time. If the book keeps up at this quality, not only am I certain that it will be published, but it will be quite successful.

Rejected by the Nelson Agency. *sigh* Rejection feels so good but hurts so bad.

Today I submitted a query letter for Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce to the Nelson Literary Agency. It is the agency I hope represents my work, so I'm waiting the ten day grace period (their average reply time) before submitting to others. Fingers crossed.

If you know everydaypanacea, then you're used to a man whose interests change frequently. This happens to me with my writing, as it does with many other people. I try to keep it under control because I really get annoyed by amateur writers who can't keep their focus long enough to finish anything, but still call themselves writers. Writers finish their stories, people!

I've made more progress on Dyv8-05, and I'm anxious to have it finished, but even when it's done I have more Living Greyhawk to work on. This is rewarding but, any more, disappointing. I have my own stuff to work on and D&D writing isn't it any more. I'm good at it, but I want millions of fans, not just hundreds (or hopefully thousands ;). And of course, fiction writing me allows me a larger pallet on which to work. One of my last modules had a robust amount of box text. :) The one I'm working on now is far more measured and the interactive is mostly a BI, so won't have much beyond local descriptions. Three rounds is a lot of work, though.

Anyway, what propelled me to write this rambling post was is an agent's blog that I follow. I don't follow too many agents. In fact, she is the only one whose blog I follow. I don't want to put the cart ahead of the horse. No reason to spend my time searching for an agent when I haven't even finished my novel. This one, though, is fun and uplifting and gives me hope. She mentioned urban fantasy repeatedly lately and it makes me feel like I should fix "Black Magic and Barbecue Sauce." I really trashed it trying to revise the second and third acts last time (mostly the second act). It can be fixed into what will be a very good short story, but everyone that reads it tells me I should make it a novel. I've given it some thought a few times, but I just can't make it work. I'd like to, though. It might be more marketable than the epic fantasy I'm working on now (why does urban fantasy seem to be such a focus of the market right now?).

I won't. I'll finish Bliss, but eventually I'll put my attention back to BBQ. But we must remain focused, precious. One story at a time. One story at a time.