Previously on j’s Journey… I have a theory. We attract people. All of us. All the time. We talk and tweet and blog and write, and we attract people. Best to attract people to the real me – not the neurotic, half-crazed me who worries about whether an agent will turn me down because I…
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By Judy Clement Wall My agent search continues. Slowly. In two weeks, I’ve queried six agents. I tell myself that’s because I’m doing it right. I’m looking for good fits, searching out the agents of authors who write books like mine. I diligently read agency websites and agent interviews, and only when the stars align…
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By Judy Clement Wall I did it. I sent my first query letter to an agent. It was an email, actually, constructed according to guidelines – a description of my book, a bio, the first five pages of my manuscript embedded (no attachments). It was as easy as hitting “send.” Which of course wasn’t really…
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By guest blogger Lisa Kilian When I got out of school, I knew I was going to be a writer. I read all the books on craft and salivated over contemporary fiction novels with pictures of beautiful women authors on the back. I followed all the most important industry blogs; Nathan Bransford, Query Shark, Miss…
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By Judy Clement Wall On April 5th, my journey began. I was hoping to come back here and tell you that the series was over because, in two weeks, I’d found an agent, sold the book at auction for a gazillion dollars, and would subsequently be writing posts about puppies and rainbows. Instead, my first…
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By Judy Clement Wall On March 10th of this year, I made the final revision on the final draft of my literary novel, Beautiful Lives. Sometime before that final keystroke, as I neared the end, I told Milli, “I think I should blog the process of trying to get BL published.” I’m not sure what…
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(Manqué: short of or frustrated in the fulfillment of one’s aspirations or talents—used postpositively; i.e., a poet manqué) Guest post by JW Rogers Dinner was winding down and I’d just gotten into an unlikely conversation. A man I didn’t know had been sitting across from me all night and I’d written him off because of…
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By guest blogger Tricia Superhero-Sutton This pancake is so packed with good stuff, it will give you super powers. I use all organic ingredients. What you might think is more expensive buying organic is really cheaper in the long run by not buying ready-made pancake mix. So here goes. (All measurements are approximate.) Basic recipe…
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By Judy Clement Wall On Twitter, there is this big (kind of wonderful) ongoing discussion happening. People are answering the question, “Why do you write?” (You can scroll through the tweets using the hashtag, #whyiwrite). It’s weirdly beautiful and touching, the honesty (cleverness, humility, cynicism, earnestness, narcissism, generosity) with which people have responded to the…
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By guest blogger Bob Wilson I graduated some years back from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). While I was there, UNI implemented a writing competency exam. All students had to pass the test in order to graduate. I thought – no problem, as I’ve always done well in school and been good at taking…
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