Tag Archives: Agent

Tuesday Writing Tips: Here, There, and Everywhere

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So we’re skidding  into the last days of November, scrambling to finish what we started, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, back on the first days of November.

If you’re participating in NaNo, I hope your words have been many and mostly making sense. I completely forgot to mention my guest post over at Agent Courtney’s blog, but it’s not too late for you take a tip from that timely post.

I’m caught up (just!) for Picture Book Idea Month and I am not going to lie–I have been looking out the window practically every day to find an idea. So there are an inordinate number of picture books featuring squirrels, dogs, joggers, leaves falling off trees, decaying pumpkins… Well, I think you get the picture (Ugh. Sorry about that.). But honestly, there are a few gems in the file, so I stand by my tip: ideas are everywhere, if you just take a look around.

And I just zipped over to check out The Next Big Thing over at Sioux’s blog and Debra’s blog and I cannot wait to read these finished manuscripts! Not just because I really like both of these women and their writing, but also because they both came up with great synopsis lines for their works-in-progress. If you can write a great one-line synopsis of your manuscript, then you’ve got a great handle on what your book’s about. And what’s more, you know exactly how you want to pitch it to an agent or publisher.

That’s a golden writing tip, too. So take your pick of a tip–and cross that November finish line with a wow! (And maybe a whew, too!)

 

The Letter A Stands For Agent! Artsyletters! And Aw, Shucks!

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So here I am, home again, home again, jiggity jig. And I will tell you all about the Rutgers One-Plus-One Conference…er, tomorrow. But today is for the Letter A (she wrote, showing off her mad rhyming skills).

Agent Courtney shared “Lies Writers Tell Themselves” from Alexander Chee, and it’s absolutely worth dashing over there for a read. And then you must leave a comment for Agent Courtney as she will do a critique contest later in the month if she gets 25 comments. And not like certain folks (Ahem) who might leave a half dozen comments to boost the count (because I already tried that and she didn’t seem too keen on the idea).

Artsyletters–you remember Robyn Hood Black’s very cool new venture?–is still offering the October discount. Don’t forget that you can order anything and get a 15% discount as long as you include CATHY2012 at the checkout. I hope she still has the artsyletter available that I want. Although to be honest, there are lots of artsyletters I like. So a person (say like the Beneficent Mr. Hall) who was searching for a birthday gift for an October birthday girl (say like Cathy C. Hall), could certainly find a delightful present.

Aw, shucks, y’all, it was nothing. (My story, The Chocolate Cake Bait, was over at knowonder! in September. Somehow, I missed the Auspicious debut, but I wanted to give a shout out to knowonder! because they offer stories every day, and maybe you know a couple little readers who might enjoy The Chocolate Cake Bait as well as lots of other fun tales. And I also wanted to let you, the Authors, know that they are closed for submissions now in order to catch up, but will be open again in January. Which gives you plenty of time to write an Awesome story.)

I think that’s about it, except to say…Ahhhh. It’s good to be home again.