Practice makes perfect!

My Goal is to not go more than a week without giving an update on this blog. That way, my faithful following of five will not have to suffer in anticipated silence for another posting!

And in all actuality, I probably could have--and SHOULD have--posted an update around Thursday last week. That was the day I met with Professor Dooling to review my query letter. But alas, I switched apartments (hallelujah chorus!) this weekend and was in the middle of a big move. That's my excuse anyway. But fear not, faithful fans, I haven't forgotten about you!

So on Thursday, I met with Dooling to review my letter. I won't lie, as I made my way slowly up the stairs to his second story law office, my palms were sweating with anticipated dread on the horrible criticism he might have to say about my writ ting. There's nothing like having your work go under the scrutinizing gaze of an "all knowing" already-published-author! Although I've had several people sample sections of my book for feedback or editing, I'd never actually had a real-life author judge ANY of my writing. It was a tad bit nerve wracking! I felt a little bit like I was heading for this sort of situation:a bit mellow dramatic, you might say, but then there you have it. An imagination does have the tenancy to go wild in pressurized situations... I suppose it's good practice to go through this kind of thing. After all, the road to publishing is fraught with perils of editors and critics such as these! And practice makes perfect ( :

(Ahem) anyway, you'll be happy to know that I wasn't beheaded like the poor guy in the comic. Actually, Dooling was quite pleasant and complimentary. And thankfully, he thought that overall, it was a good letter. I particularly remember him saying that the topic sounded fascinating and that one thing I have going for me right now, is that the subject matter of my book is pretty popular. The market is ripe for a good "bad government" thriller of sorts because of all the governmental controversies hitting Fox on the 6pm news. His suggestion was to "own up" to the fact that my book is about the United States government going bad. He said that agents and publishers don't really care about publishing controversial material, because all they see are dollar signs running through their heads. If the book sells, they don't care if you're desecrating the Pope himself! Its all about money in the publishing business. Which is good to know, because if you'll note in the letter I posted, I tended to shy away from actually saying that it was a story about our government. Now that I have that suggestion, though, I'll be changing it to make it more bold.

The other change we talked about making, was combining my query letter with my book synopsis. A book synopsis is like a short summary of the book. Not like the Barnes and Noble book flap summary... no, the synopsis is more in depth, explaining plot lines and characters a bit more thoroughly. At first, I was thinking about keeping my synopsis and query letter separate, but Dooling suggested that it would be easier to combine them. I think it might be a good idea. So my next task is to try my hand at "beefing up" my query letter to make it an acceptable summary of what a synopsis would be.

Wish me luck!

Oh, this also means that my faithful editor (Anut Chrysta, who so fabulously and nobly volunteered to edit my query letter for me) is going to get some new changes to edit! If you are reading this, Chrysta, and want to wait until I get you a new draft to work with, that is perfectly fine with me! Although, any changes that you've made to the original letter would be very helpful as well.

So, it is with the great task ahead of me of combining the query letter and synopsis, that I must leave you again. I know you are salivating at the chops for more updates (haha, yeah right!) but alas, my dear fans, I can only work so fast! So it is with a heavy heart that I must bid you farewell... adieu, my friends, until I write again!