Miscellany

Last night I stared at the spread sheet with all my queries. Five queries about the East German book, World of Mirrors, went back to December-January, still unanswered. Folks, December was a long time ago. I googled around and found the e-mail addresses of three of the agents and wrote polite inquiries asking what happened? One of them actually replied today. Apologetically. Some of the biggest names in the literary agent world are also the nicest.

Did I ever mention the really rude one in Ohio who said he would look at my book? I sent the whole manuscript AND a prepaid postage sticker with $10.00+ on it for the return of the manuscript. Months and months went by. I wrote and e-mailed. No answer. Finally I wrote and asked for my postage to be returned. He answered rudely and did not return the postage. Later, I found his name with unflattering comments on the Preditors and Editors page. He never looked at the book. Probably used my postage for something else. A scumbag, par excellence.

Another agent that I met at a mysery conference said to said him the whole manuscript of Promiscuous Mode. I did, 26 months ago. No reply. Didn't take phone calls, didn't answer e-mails. I always send a SASE. At the very least these people could send out the AHFL. Hint. FL stands for Form Letter.

My new book, Festival Madness, starts to look like a real manuscript with almost 100 pages. It's fun to write about Burning Man, which I will miss terribly over Labor Day, but instead I am off to Bouchercon in Chicago to network with other writers and try to get another toe in the door. I've even been assigned to a panel. But I won't be on the Black Rock Desert, and that will be hard.

Suck it up. As usual.

Grapeshot.