Friday, June 01, 2007

Starter Wife

I admit it. I watched The Starter Wife on USA channel last night. Sometimes you just want to eat choclate and watch chocolate. The program was better than I expected, and it's fun to see trendy people, trendy restaurants, trendy Malibu, well, you know. Here in Boston we are NOT trendy. This was evidenced today at lunch at Harvest in Cambridge, where the most stylish women in the patio area, (except for Grapeshot, of course) were Italian. And they were no spring chickens, either. I splurged and ordered a lobster roll. Lobster is gold-plated this summer, and I figured I should eat some before it's all gone or costs $50.00 for a roll. Good rift on Caesar Salad, too. We forewent dessert, because this is (Ha Ha) diet week. Lots of folks in Cambridge as Harvard graduation is coming up any day now and the city is trimming the trees, fixing the streets and all the good stuff. It was a bloody traffic mess today, so let's hope everything is fixed by g-day.

I set scenes from a couple books at Harvest. Right now I am doing mega-soul searching about what tragic flaw (of mine) is keeping my novels from finding an agent/publisher. Everyone admits it's not the writing, in the sense of bad writing. But obviously the plots, aka, stories aren't turning any heads. The computer must have changed life more in the last forty years than anything else, but it sure as hell doesn't sell novels. Who would have thunk that computer crime would be such a hard sell?

I should have been writing about quilting or cooking or gardening or something else I knew a bit about. Cats? Hey, that's been done to death. I have started a new rule that I don't bother to query any agent without a web site, because that agent would not be cool with computer stuff.

My main character is sympathetic. She is always taking care of people and so on. Of course there is a tad of promiscuity, but when did that ever stop a book from selling? Casanova?

The plots are ripped from the headlines with computer crime and downsizing and outsourcing all that good stuff. I'm really wracking my brain and it's wracking back. "They" say write what you love and I used to think I loved technology. Not so sure now. It certainly paid the bills for many years, and has given me (I think) some great plots and some cool characters.

It ain't working.

I'll give Festival Madness my best shot, but right now pessimism rules. The next two books will have NO technology. Not one bit. Not one byte. Luddites R Us.

Ludmilla

1 comment:

  1. Lud,

    Don't give up - you'll find the right agent who'll be able to appreciate your books. How about trying to find out who the agents are for people who have published books in a similar genre, then sending your work to them, they might be more savvy. As for "The Starter Wife", isn't it like eating chocolate, though! Just perfect for a summer night's fluffy entertainment. Writing could be better and the plot less predictable, but they still got me hooked.

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