Purgatory's Pit of Doom

i check my email every few minutes - so lame

((Cricket))

{{cricket}}

Sucky suck suck suck.

I got my intro email to the editor at House of Smut, so I sent her off an enthusiastic little hello! (And here are my wacky, smutty ideas.) Haven't heard anything back...

Okay I'll admit to being confused, is this a real place? if so Good luck, Red! (for real) if not and you're joking, Good luck and here's hoping you don't get the R I got when I tried to get a partner for drunken sex

It is a real place, though names have been changed to protect the smutty. A friend of mine writes for them, makes fair money at it. So she intro'd me to the editor. Who perhaps is less excited about buying my smut than I'd hoped. Typical.

Good luck, Red.

On my own suckage, I hate conflicting advice.

(((Cricket))) Weigh the opinions, then go with your gut. It's the idea and pages are what counts, not a word here or there.

kellion92 said:

(((Cricket))) Weigh the opinions, then go with your gut. It's the idea and pages are what counts, not a word here or there.

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Thanks, K. Yeah, I'm getting the sense that query aside, the story itself isn't piquing the interest of agents. Business as usual.

{{Cricket}} Not sure what advice you got, but I hate conflicting advice too. I agree with what Kellion said

Here's my gut feeling: (don't ask me how it got through all the tangled knots) Spiders don't bode well for queries.

So, being the masochist I am, I redid my query, for the 800th time, and removed the spiders. Feedback on my first five has been favorable. So I'll try this one.

Let the rejections begin. keep coming.

I think removing spiders from the query is a good thing to try. The anticipation of spiders freaks some (many) people --- who might love the delicious fright of them in the actual novel.

Yeah, what LKP said-I had a spider in an old WIP, let's just say most people did NOT like it (poor little guy haha)

{{{Cricket}}}

Are we using the term "spider" to stand for something else? If so, what is it?

Cricket, if you need another pair of eyes to look at your query, just ask.

My Pit moment of the morning: am running on 4-5 hours of sleep after getting home from a business trip last night. Was told by coworkers I must be at work early to present at a meeting this morning. Got my sorry butt out of bed, went to work, and got stood up by coworkers who decided to have a breakfast meeting out and didn't tell me where. I'll be borrowing the hellhounds to sic on them.

SteveCordero said:

{{{Cricket}}}

Are we using the term "spider" to stand for something else? If so, what is it?

Click to expand...

Oh.
I didn't think of that.
I just thought the spiders were spiders.
*is maybe dum*

LKP if you're out of the loop, so am I.

Ink man I'd soooooo kick their asses. NOT. COOL.

What's wrong with spiders? I like spiders, but I guess if you're a Cricket, spiders aren't so good.

Seriously, Cricket, I think your query is good. Try the new one and keep at it.

My story that just got passed up on was all about spiders. Now I know why it was R'd. Maybe if I change all spider references to "soft kittens with long whiskers" ...

(((cricket)))

(((ink))) I'd be so mad. Probably leave the hounds at home and do the dirty work myself.

Are you home yet, Ink? I hope so. Poor Ink.

Really, Madder? Spiders? Do people dislike spiders that much? What about Charlotte? Miss Spider? The Spiderwick Chronicles (is that about spiders? never read it -- I like longer books)?

Luckily, spiders are welcome in the Pit. They like maggots and they love the carrion flies that lay their eggs in the corpses of dead dreams.

(((Ink))) That seriously sucks.

kellion92 said:

Luckily, spiders are welcome in the Pit. They like maggots and they love the carrion flies that lay their eggs in the corpses of dead dreams.

Click to expand...

The spiders are symbolic...sort of. The antagonist is Aranea. (A human who is also part spider.) Her servants are these creepy, yellow-eyed spiders. (Small in size.)

However, this is a minor thread throughout the ms. It culminates at the end. The main thrust of the ms is that something was stolen from the Mercurial Mines. My MC embarks on solving the mystery: what was stolen, and by whom.

After reading this thread, I think it's probably a good thing to leave them out. I'm with you, Kellion. I like spiders...who knew?

I went home a little early, but I actually had work to do at work so... Meh. The best part of the whole day? Coworkers apologized for not telling me where they were meeting, and added: "But we didn't discuss work after all, so you weren't actually needed." *headdesk*

I had no idea spiders were so unloved. They eat other nasty insects! How can anyone who hates insects also hate spiders?! It's unnatural.

I think spiders are cool. I love to watch them spin and to see them in their webs.

Once again, we Doomsters are out of touch with the taste of the reader public. Today EB White would be forced to turn Charlotte into a fluffy bunny to avoid squicking out spider-hating agents and editors.

Arachnophobe here. I don't want to see them or think about them.