Fired Up

What a week. The agent who loved the first three chapters of my book passed without comment. Such a drag. It was a week filled with rejection, but I've maintained an upbeat perspective. Sometimes I wonder why I'm in such a good mood when so many things fall short for me. Oh well. I spoke with Chris tonight. We had a great talk about everything. He loved Social Network, as did I. It's so well written and structured.

I joined Match for a month and have dates tomorrow and Sunday. It's time for me to go out more. I was thinking about Linda the other day. I still miss her sometimes.

The Giants won in a nailbiter. I'm so excited! I'd love to see them in the World Series.

The season finale of "Mad Men" was fantastic. The entire season was masterful and thoroughly original. It just may win another emmy for best drama. Jon Hamm deserves one, too. He was fabulous. The entire cast was fabulous. I so love this show. Good news! In Treatment is coming back for a third season. I'm SO HAPPY! Thank you, HBO, for answering my prayers!

Representation: A Numbers Game

The best chance of landing an agent is to query widely and get as many full and partial manuscripts into the hands of agents as possible. One of the great benefits of using querytracker.net is connecting with other writers who are also seeking an agent. A writer on the QT site known as “queryhater” just acquired representation with Brenda Bowen at Sanford J. Greenburger & Associates. He'd submitted 118 queries and received 38 requests for full manuscripts and 15 partial requests. He received an offer of representation last week. He waited a week to make his decision, and in the meantime sent an “Offer” email to the 20+ agents with his fulls and partials. He received another offer that day. Throughout the week, he received calls and emails from nearly every other agent, informing him that they’d read his manuscript that night or the next day. When all was said and done, he received eight offers of representation before making the decision to sign with Brenda Bowen. Eight offers!

This is how the query game is played. This was queryhater’s second novel. With his first novel, he sent out 187 queries and received 3 full requests and 4 partial requests. His request success rate was 3.7% and his first novel went in a drawer. He considered giving up, but instead wrote another novel. His request success rate with the second book was 45% (that’s amazing to me!). He never gave up. He queried widely. He now has an agent!

My current numbers are 78 total queries submitted with 6 full requests and 6 partial requests, for a request success rate of 15.4%. What queryhater’s numbers suggest to me is that I need to send at least 80 more queries out. I’m starting that process today.

I find queryhater’s story extremely inspiring. This is what it will take to gain representation.

Pinball Bliss

Spent Sunday at the 4th Annual Pacific Pinball Expo in San Rafael with Richard, Trey, Miles and Sophie.



We arrived 30 minutes before the doors opened, then at 10 we entered the facility like kiddies on Christmas morning. 400 pinball machines for us to play! All my old favorites were there, Paragon, Pinbot, Pinball Pool, Twilight Zone, plus a few new games I really enjoyed, especially the basketball pinball machine that gives you a free game when you reach 50 points.



Paragon was just as unruly as I'd remembered. I love this machine, but boy does it love to drain balls. So painful. I came close to clearing the Paragon letters but no luck.

We ate lunch at Barney's, the perfect feast between pinball sessions, then returned for two more sessions (caught a lecture on the geometry of pinball at 3) before attending the raffle for the Gorgar machine. We didn't win, but had fun hoping. We left at 6:30 with lots of great memories. I can't wait for next year!

Up and Down Week

This was a challenging week for me. My confidence was all over the place, up one day and really down the next. I confronted what I perceived to be inappropriate negative behavior at work, then felt bad about it afterward. I tend to go to the extreme when I'm not happy. I understand how out-of-balance I can sometimes behave, especially when my confidence is low. It impacts me in ways that keep me from functioning like a normal, healthy person. I used some of the tools I'm adopted, so I didn't stay low too long. I kept myself busy over the weekend and also rested. I watched "Date Night" this afternoon and wondered why it wasn't better when the beginning was so strong. The second and third acts were ridiculously contrived and silly. Really weak. So many comedies are weak these days. It's as if Hollywood has forgotten how to make a big splashy good film. I like Tina Fey. She's funny. I need to watch all episodes of 30 Rock. Gwen worked on my website this weekend and it looks really good. I hope to put it up when my book is picked up. I sent 15 queries out yesterday and today. The last month has been nothing but rejection. I've lost a lot of confidence in my story and that's not good at all. All I need is just one agent who sees the potential in this project. The full manuscript is still with three agents, but after the two prior rejections of my full I'm beginning to have doubts. I saw a good piece on Drew Brees on 60 Minutes. I love his attitude. Yesterday I played racquetball in a squash court with Spike. It was fun, though it's hard to hit the ball hard. The court feels crowded, but she had a good time. I made her run! I'm nearly finished with "Before I Fall." I love the writing. Great read. I'm very impressed. It's up there with Hunger Games as a really strong YA book. I need to put a list together, a YA Shelf of Fame. So far, I'd include three books, "The Hunger Games," "Before I Fall," and "The Other Side of Blue." All three books are fabulous.

No Agent Yet

Hmmm. Nothing but rejection, I'm afraid. Didn't grab me. Not interested. Didn't love it. Not for me. I have three fulls out, one partial and about ten unanswered e-queries. I'm sending more this week. I'll look everything over and modify if I have to. Meanwhile, the days go by. At least I'm being productive. I get up early and put in a full day. I kept my apt. relatively clean this week and I hope to keep it that way.

Weekend with Cousin Ross

Ross traveled from Alberta to stay with me for a few days this past weekend. He had a great time together.



We saw "Machete," went out to Spettro's, visited the Farmer's market, saw Rodney's art show, went bicycling, ate at Lynn & Lou's, went to Napa for the afternoon and had sushi.



He's going through a difficult time right now, so the visit was necessary to help Ross stay centered and consider his options. He'll do fine. He's such a positive and upbeat person.

Smile

I was putting together my top 10 Beach Boys songs of all time when I listened to Heros and Villains from Smile. I'd remembered the album had been completed a few years ago but never listened to it. I've been listening all week.

I watched the two-disc DVD last night. Very moving. I love everything about this piece, and totally understand Brian Wilson's inner demons. I have a few of those myself. I can see why everyone considers him a genius. This song in particular is so rich and layered. I haven't gotten tired of it at all, and I've listened to it probably 20 times or more. I love it. Good Vibrations will forever be my no. 1 Beach Boys song, but Heros and Villains is climbing the ranks. It may actually be no. 3, just behind Wouldn't it be Nice.