The continuing chronicle of Wesley's quest to be published; plus comments on popular culture, family life, and whatever else falls out of his head.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Nothing new to report...

Got a couple more rejections in the mail yesterday. Nothing personal, nothing signed. Oh well.

The two agents who have the manuscript are still reviewing it. At this point I would be very surprised if I heard back from either one before we leave on Friday.

We're mostly packed up now and preparing ourselves mentally for the trip. I've been thinking about the trip a lot lately, trying to figure out how I want to deal with the Internet situation. There's part of me who wants to log on regularly every night to upload new photos and journal about the event. Then, the other part of me is screaming to stay away from any and all computers for the duration. I spend way too much time--that would be better spent writing--online cruising the message boards.

I can't remember which agent's blog, either Kristin Nelson or Miss Snark, said this, but one of them mentioned that you probably can't live off your writing until you have at least five books in print and earning royalties at the same time.

I keep telling myself that I will do a lot of journaling in New Zealand and promise myself that I will start writing 1,000 words a day as soon as we return. In the meantime, I do have a couple different ideas percolating. Carrie's been thinking about starting her YA series about her days in boarding school, and that's gotten me thinking about my unstarted YA novel about my own glory days in the drama club. I'm toying with the idea of setting it in the same small town as Carrie's story.

It really coalesced last week when a title finally popped into my head. "Exit, Stage Left." If this were to be a continuing series, I could name each book after a different stage direction. That's when I personally get hooked on a story, and I know that eventually I'll get it down on paper. For me, when I come up with a title, it somehow makes it real to me. Suddenly this unnamed project has an identity and character all its own.

I've rambled. The other idea is what would happen if a guy in the witness protection program for years and years had a son who became a stand-out star in college football. At first I envisioned it as a serious thriller, but then Carrie suggested the mob wouldn't fare well against the OSU Booster mafia, and all of a sudden I've got visions of Carl Hiaasen's books dancing in my heads. Thrillers--for that is what Hiaasen writes-- with a comedic touch are some of my favorite books.

Regardless, now I've got those two story ideas percolating plus the second Springer book vying for attention in my head. I've got to start putting some ideas down on paper soon, but I just don't know if I'll have time before we leave on Friday. I've packed three or four books for the flights down and back, but I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a LOT of freewriting on the plane.

I doubt I'll have anything new to report before we leave, so either I'll post again in a couple of days, or my next post won't be until I return. Regardless, I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about by then.

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