What have I been up to?

I haven't updated this blog in a long time - and the longer I put it off, the harder it is to start writing again. (Funny how that works!) But I've been working on finishing and editing last year's Nano effort, and trying to decide if I'm even going to participate this year. If I don't, it'll be the first time in four years since I haven't, and so I probably will, but...

It's frustrating. I'm currently waiting on two agents to get back to me - one who has had my book for nearly a year! - and I just want to sell the thing and move on to the next. I've been advised by at least two big-name authors, both of whom I have huge respect for, to send directly to the publisher and avoid the agent, but somehow I haven't done that yet. I want an agent. (Now, please, as opposed to later, thank you very much.)

And thus I keep plugging away.

Too Long

It's been way too long since I've updated this blog, and I'm sorry about that. If I made New Year's resolutions, I'd resolve to do better in 2007 - but since I don't, I'll just have to make a concerted effort to actually write in this thing more than once a month!

Nano went alright this year. 50k wasn't too difficult, but finishing up the novel is proving to be challenging. I have everything worked out, and I just need to put it down on paper. November and December, however, are busy months, and I just haven't done it. I guess I'll be tackling the ending in January.

So how is everyone out there doing? Do I even still have any readers left?

Six Weird Things About Me

I found this on another blog and thought I'd answer it on my own:

Each player of this game starts with the “6 weird things about you”. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you are tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

And here are my answers:

1. I'm the useless psychic. I always know mundane things just before they're going to happen. About a year ago, my son turned the thermostat on the refrigerator to the maximum level, freezing the line that dispensed water. A few weeks later, I dreamt that I got out of bed, walked into the kitchen, and pressed the dispenser button. Something inside the fridge clinked and, finally, the water worked again. I woke up and followed the pattern from my dream and, sure enough, everything happened exactly as I'd seen. Even the "clink." I also knew the exact moment my first wife died, though I was nowhere near the hospital when it happened.
   
2. I'm the owner and webmaster of the Official Chris de Burgh (think "Lady in Red") website. That's not weird in itself, but most people in the US have no clue who he is.
   
3. When I was a kid, my friend Brad and I were putting together a tent in the front yard when we decided to put all the tent poles together and see how high we could make them. We hit an electric wire and nearly electrocuted ourselves. The bottom of my feet were burned.
   
4. I collect action figure from the 1970's, and probably have more toys than my five-year-old son does.
   
5. I'm double-jointed in the second-to-last finger in my right hand. I can "lock" that finger into place, pointing straight out, even while the rest of my fingers are balled into a fist. I've never met anyone else who can do this, and you can't either. Go ahead, try it.
   
6. I can recite all of the phone numbers, driver's license numbers, and credit card numbers that I've ever had, but have a hard time remembering my anniversary.
   

Want to join in the fun? Reply to this post and tell everyone six weird things about yourself!

I've been busy...

I'm sorry for not posting to this for so long. Both my wife and I have been down with a killer cold for the last two weeks - and then there's Nano. I've participated in NanoWrimo every year since 2003, and have reached the requisite 50k every time. It's going to be hard to do it this year, though I'm going to do my best to prevail.

I'll write more later when I'm feeling a bit better.

Thanks to everyone who left comments, suggested names, and what have you. I really appreciate you reading!

Agents

We were discussing literary agents in the comment section of another blog, and the discussion was so interesting that I thought I'd bring it over here. Agents, like people in general, range from the nice ones to the dreadful ones, and I've encountered all three. Some will blow you off with a tiny slip of paper essentially saying "Thanks for wasting my time." Some will ignore you completely. But the worst will blow you off while also trying to sell you their "editing services," and those are the agents I have absolutely no respect for.

I've been a full-time non-fiction freelancer for twelve years, but have yet to even get my foot in the door in the world of fiction. I've written three novels, the first of which has gone through multiple revisions to the point where I believe I've honed it into something to be proud of. Scratch that: I am proud of it. But that's not enough. I want to sell the damned thing, and its sequels. And, in order to do that, I need an agent.

And it's frustrating. I've been trying to find an agent for going on three years now, which is why I can lay claim to having encountered all of the types mentioned in the first paragraph at the start of this entry. Now I just need to encounter one who'll take the time to actually read the book, and who can hopefully see the potential in not only the novel but in me as well. I'm willing to work hard to make them and the publishing house they sell my novels to a lot of money. I just need to be given the chance.

So, gentle reader, (I always hated that phrase, but it somehow seems appropriate here!) what are some of your experiences - good and bad - with agents?

I need help choosing a name

I'm working on a novel and I need a surname for one of the families I'm writing about. Without revealing too much, I'll outline this --

Bernard "Bernie" Noname is the father of the family. He's twice divorced. He's also recently dead. Born and raised in a small Midwestern town in Illinois, he has many secrets about his family's history that apparently died with him.

Connor Noname is the product of Bernie's first marriage. He's in his late twenties, disgruntled, estranged from his father, came back to the town he grew up in for his father's funeral but mainly to see his half-sister from his father's second marriage, Sabrina.

Sabrina Noname. Sixteen, coming out of a bit of a Goth girl phase but sweet underneath. Very intelligent. Popular in school, but has had a tendency to "go along with the crowd" to gain that popularity. Missed her brother, happy to see him but at the same time resentful that it took the death of their father to bring him home.

Here are some of the last name I'm been considering:

Blake
Black
Hawthorne
Underlay
Wayne
Murdoch
Madison

So what do you think?

Help me out with this and, if I use the name you suggest, I'll list you in the "thank yours" when and if the book is published.

You can go home again, but just for a while

I went to the Carthage, Illinois (population: 3,000) school system from Kindergarten through 11th, then moved to Dallas, Texas for my 12th. As you can imagine, I never really bonded with the kids in 12th, so always considered Carthage my school. Even though I hated it. (More on that later.)

Anyway, I found out a couple of weeks ago that they were having the 20th high school reunion. I vacillated on going, and finally decided last Monday to take the eight-hour drive. And I'm glad I did!

I didn't have a good school life. I was a chubby kid and constantly picked on. My dad was a violent alcoholic and so I had that to contend with at home. All in all, it made for a rough life growing up. And having not seen these kids in 21 years, well, I had no idea what to expect, and was nervous as hell going back there.

But my first instinct was that, if nothing else, the experience would be cathartic, and my first instinct was right. All the pain and grudges I felt over school have pretty much gone away. Everyone was happy to see me, I was actually one of the most gregarious of the bunch at the reunion (I was painfully shy in school,) and had a great time.

But, more than that, it was great to reconnect with friends and classmates. I even confessed my school crushes to each of the crushees, something I'd never done in high school. It was very freeing. And, amazingly, all five of us that bowled together on a team were there, so we managed to take a bowling picture together.

Here are some pics of the trip:

http://www.sparkynet.com/1986/

So what's all this have to do with writing, you might ask? (You there, in the third row. Yeah, you, wearing the hat, I just heard you.) Well, my first two novels are set almost entirely in Carthage, and Carthage makes a cameo in my third novel. There's a lot of material there, in my past, and even more now that I've made the trip home again.