So What's Been Going On?

By Michael Seese

It's been a while since I've written about writing. So let's get you all up to speed.

First, I'm sad to say that I won't be going to Paris (not yet) because Eiffel didn't make the short list at the American Library In Paris. It's a bummer, to be sure. But, I still have another novel to my credit.

Looking to shake things up a little, I'm going to try a different tack for a bit. One of the agent blogs I read is by Chuck Sambuchino. A regular feature of his posts is "How I Got My Agent." Most authors offer tales of perseverance, or luck. But last week, I read about a different approach.

Michael Poore is an author whose debut novel is Up Jumps the Devil was praised by New York Times bestselling author Patrick deWitt as, “Part fable, part warped historical travelogue."

In Poore's own words:

I didn’t get my agent the traditional way.

I tried the traditional way, of course. I sent queries, I sent chapters, I sent samples and stories and clever letters, but they didn’t work.

In the end, an agent approached me. You could say this was an accident or a gift of chance, but you’d be wrong. The fact is, I concentrated on getting my work published in smaller markets, and it got noticed. You can make this work for you, too.

Poore's fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Fiction, Talebones, Southern Review, The Pinch, and other magazines. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Fountain Award, and the Sturgeon Award.

So, I'm going to try a Poore man's version of his tack. My goal for October is to submit something, somewhere, every day.

To be honest, I really don't think I'll be able to do it.

To be certain, I do have a lot of poetry and flash fiction I can use. The challenge is finding the places to submit it. But I'm going to give it the old college try. So far, though, I'm off to a good start. Here is what I've done.

October 3: "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" (flash fiction) submitted to Pseudopod, which makes podcasts of literature they like.
October 4: I posted "Past / President / Future" (which I had submitted for an NPR contest) to Readwave. It's a website which puts your work "out there" for others to see, read, and comment on.
October 5: I submitted three haiku to Haiku Journal. Later that day, I learned one already had been accepted. And today (Monday) another was. They rejected the third. But what did Meatloaf say? "Two out of three ain't bad." Both appear in Issue 19.
October 6: "No Blues" (flash fiction) submitted to The Broken Plate.
October 7: "The Finest Life Yet" (another flash piece) submitted to 100 word story.

Yes, I'm giving myself a bye for October 1 and 2, since I didn't read about Poore until the 3rd.

Let's see how it goes...

The New Phone Book Is Here!

By Michael Seese

 

This is a pretty accurate depiction of how I feel. 

A while back, I gloated...um...casually mentioned that I won author / editor  Chuck Sambuchino's inaugural WD’S TUNESDAY contest. If you want to try your hand, he has another contest open until December 19. I'm not allowed to win; nonetheless, I gave it one pass and scored 9 out of 12.

In addition to allowing me to now mention in my agent queries that I won -- adding, "it proves nothing about my writing ability; it just says that I ROCK!" -- I earned an interview in Chuck's blog.

Here it is.

So, as Mr. Martin said, "I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this every day! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity...your name in print...that MAKES PEOPLE." 

So the emails from agents should just start pouring in.

They will...won't they?

Please?

 

.

I ROCK!

By Michael Seese

I believe it was Richard Starkey who said, "I get by [and other things] with a little help from my friends." Today, I can say the same.

Working for a bank, as I do, I had the day off on Columbus Day. I had planned to go to the Cleveland Museum of Art. I have a novel-in-progress which will be set there during the renovation project. As of right now, in order to reach the galleries you need to go down the main stairs, across the basement, and then come up on (what I believe are) new escalators. But the construction is slated to end in a week, give or take.

So I wanted to walk through, take pictures, count steps, and make copious notes, in case those areas later are off-limits. As an aside, on Martin Luther King Day this past January I took my seven-year-old to the museum. But not my camera. Grrr.

As I went to bed on Sunday, I had a thought: Isn't the museum closed on Mondays? The next morning I checked online, and sure enough, it is.

Did I mention GRRRR!

So instead of a trip to University Circle, I plopped down at my PC for a writing session. Before I did, I checked the usual agent and author blogs. One that I follow is Chuck Sambuchino, an editor and published book author who runs the Guide to Literary Agents Blog. In that day's post, I read about a contest he was offering up.

Enjoy a little rock & roll music from time to time? Who doesn’t? Well I’m trying something fun and different today as a Monday pick-me-up to try and get your week going. It’s my own crazy variation of NAME THAT TUNE and I’m calling it WD’S TUNESDAY (possibly Volume 1, if people dig it). The rules and the gist are simple. Watch the video. I play 15 riffs on my guitar. You try to name as many of them as you can, and e-mail me your answers.

I got about half by myself, then enlisted the help of my good friend Michael. He dragged in a few co-workers. And in short order we had:

#1 Owner Of A Lonely Heart
#2 Talk Dirty to Me
#3 Cat Scratch Fever
#4 Machine Head
#5 Jessie's Girl
#6 The Bleeding        
#7 Poker Face
#8 Hey Jealousy
#9 I Love Rock And Roll
#10 Thunder Kiss '65
#11 Fell On Black Days
#12 Leave Me Out
#13 Paranoid
#14 Hammer To Fall
#15 Connection

And we were right!

Chuck announced the winner Monday. (BTW, I'm an "awesome dude.")

For our efforts, I get (sorry friends, but I really can't split this) a critique from Chuck, an interview on the WD system of blogs (forthcoming), and a one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.  All of which I can use.

So I wanted to publicly thank Michael B. and the geeks at Sherwin Williams Global Supply Chain for helping me out.

And say that I -- make that we -- rock!