The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

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Hathor

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Mmm, rum cake. Yumm, pudding. I just remembered the brandy-infused pumpkin bread pudding in my fridge. I'll share.
 

Moonchild

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Brandy-pumpkin bread pudding? I'm in! Yum! Thanks Hathor! Also, you're the first on the second page here... Must be a good omen for someone who just finished an R&R! :)
 

Funaek

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Good job on finishing the R & R, Hathor.

Sorry for R's already in this new thread. And Moonchild, please pass some of that rum cake. Yesterday I made homemade chocolate pudding and it came out fabulous! It's a recipe from theKitchn.com website by Faith Durand.

Pudding for everyone!
Oooh I love chocolate pudding and I love the Kitchn! I've made the coconut chocolate pudding before and used it to fill pancakes shaped like fish (bungeoppang/taiyaki). The pudding was so good I couldn't stop eating it separately!
 

Australian River

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Australian River - I edit by reading the manuscript in my head, also! Not in David Attenborough's voice, though. In Morgan Freeman's sometimes, and sometimes in Meryl Streep's. :ROFL:

:(

Aahhhh yeah, Morgan Freeman is another good one.

I participated in Pitmad or something similar once, then realised I used the wrong # (!!!).

I'm still waiting on a full but the agent was lovely and advised it would take 8-10 weeks so there's a while left to wait. I found another agent I really liked on Sunday and sent 1 more query, but even then I have only 2 out at the moment and am happy to take it easy for now. The new kitty is taking up all my time.

I'm toying with the idea of a YA story, however it has to be set during the first year of university, so I'm wondering if that would be more NA?
 

Moonchild

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I'm toying with the idea of a YA story, however it has to be set during the first year of university, so I'm wondering if that would be more NA?

That would seem natural to me, but from what little I understand of the NA category, it seems to be at the moment more of a sub-category for Romance. On the other hand, I read somewhere that for a book to be considered YA, the MC has got to be 18 at the oldest. Then again, I've also read there are no hard and fast rules on the subject, as long as a YA MC is a teenager.

I also saw somewhere (Twitter? Agent interview? Sorry, I can't remember), that the whole NA category is still not fully accepted in some circles, that it hasn't really taken off all that well.

Personally, it'd make sense to me to just use it like YA is used now: as a marketing category to describe books aimed at a specific age group, whether they're romance, horror or what have you.

Maybe just write the story and see where it takes you, then go from there! :)
 

Jeneral

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NA is still such a new genre, I think they're still trying to figure it out, and figure out if it's even at thing at all! But I think I'd place a university story in a NA category. NA seems to be more about transitioning to adulthood with more adult issues. So I usually think upper college/just out of college?

More crickets today, but I'm looking forward to PitMad. Even if nothing major comes out of it, it's fun to follow the feed all day.

Rum cake sounds good. So does rum. And cake.
 

Australian River

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I've had this story in my head for a while. The tone is definitely YA, but I can't think of any other location but first year Uni....arrrghhh. Thanks for the advice Jeneral and Moonchild. I'm kinda stuck...don't want to start writing until I can place it somewhere....
 

Moonchild

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Could it be set at a university campus, during the summer leading up to the first year? Madeleine Roux did that with ASYLUM and from reading it, I got the sense that she wanted YA characters and general feel to it, but needed the story to take place in a college dorm situation, so she set the whole thing as a special summer program for prospective university students. A lot of universities have things like that, so it didn't feel forced or anything.

Or your characters could be 17-18 and in first-year university. That happens.
 
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Funaek

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I like Moonchild's suggestion. I did that the summer after my junior year. It was definitely a similar feel to freshman year in college, but a bit more innocent (no on campus parties). One of the best and most memorable summers ever.

Or what about a boarding school?

2 Ns rolled in today. Bleh.
 

Roxxsmom

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Yay on finishing, Hathor, and sorry about the R Funaek. Commiserations about the crickets for those who are having fun with those. I'm thinking of doing pitmad, and SFFpit later on this month. Why not. Annoying that both coincide with days I won't be home a lot, though. The east coast time frame is already incompatible with my lifestyle, as the things have already been going on for hours and hours by the time I roll out of bed (I'm not a morning person by the standards of any time zone).

I don't expect a lot from them, but eh, you never know.
 

Funaek

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Good luck Roxxmom! You can schedule your tweets in advance if you sign in through tweetdeck. That's what I did so I don't have to worry about it while at work.
 

Hathor

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Brandy-pumpkin bread pudding? I'm in! Yum! Thanks Hathor! Also, you're the first on the second page here... Must be a good omen for someone who just finished an R&R! :)

I'll take whatever good omens I can.

Recipe is here We use almond milk and a full can of pumpkin (what the heck can you do with the last little bit if you use one cup out of a 15 oz. can?). All the brandy (plus a touch more). Not terribly boozy result, but it goes nicely with brandy :) Haven't tried making it with rum or bourbon, yet.

NA is strange. Some don't like the category at all. Others think it has to be romance (that's what an agent told me when my Persephone book was originally called NA -- she told me NA Mythic Fantasy didn't exist). Still others think it can be any genre.

Boarding school is a possibility if it isn't the age but the dorm situation you want, AR. Also some universities have multiweek college-level courses in the summer for high school students where they stay in the dorms. Or your protag could be in college but really bright and admitted early.
 

lenore_x

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Both the requests I had out turned into Rs today. :( That's a blow. At least I got both bandaids ripped off at once...?

One of the Rs was super nice and very complimentary; she said the quality of my writing was excellent (yay!) but just didn't connect with the MC. The other R... well... she thought I was trying to write straight horror, and I wasn't. Oops.

What is the prevailing wisdom on sending thank-yous in response to personalized rejections? Don't bother or nice touch?
 

Moonchild

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Oh man, lenore_x!!!! Sooo sorry!!! :Hug2::Hug2:Two Rs on requested materials in one day? That's just cruel! Have a rum cake. Heck, have ten! :( And some rum to go with them. So, so sorry.

As for thanks, if it's on requested materials and the Rs are definitely personalized, I always make a point of sending a quick thank-you note. I've heard advice from agents going both ways: there's the "thanks, but we get enough email as it is" camp, vs. the "thank-yous are lovely and make me want to keep giving feedback to writers" camp. So, I guess it's your call? :Shrug:
 

Nova Odyssey

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Aahhhh yeah, Morgan Freeman is another good one.

I participated in Pitmad or something similar once, then realised I used the wrong # (!!!).
Oh that would have gotten me real upset! Then I would have laughed at myself. Hope you did the same, after a day or two.
Both the requests I had out turned into Rs today. :( That's a blow. At least I got both bandaids ripped off at once...?

One of the Rs was super nice and very complimentary; she said the quality of my writing was excellent (yay!) but just didn't connect with the MC. The other R... well... she thought I was trying to write straight horror, and I wasn't. Oops.

What is the prevailing wisdom on sending thank-yous in response to personalized rejections? Don't bother or nice touch?
Oh wow sorry you got two... So Moonchild said it, I think. In the past, if I notice the agent made the effort to personalize it I thanked them. Form, no,for the reason Moonchild said, with one or two exceptions because they had such a quick turn around or I really liked them and just wanted to thank them. So I go with my gut.

Moonchild thanks for the cheers, I need them! I go back and forth every day about how I feel.

Hathor congrats on finishing your R &R (or draft?)!
I thought I'd be done with my first look over today for my own, but found some new material to add in. This thing keeps growing... But I have to think I'll be done with some form of a first draft by the end of the week.
 

noranne

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No bananas here, just another R and a couple where the clock ran out. Ah, well.

I had a really hard time getting up and writing this morning. I only ended up writing for 10 minutes! Total fail. Only one day into June and I am already behind! Oops.
 

HoldinHolden

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23k words into this quick edit of the MS before giving it to my editor (EEP! Luckily not due for a few months), aaaaaand 4400 into my fiction work. Haaaaaaaa! I don't know why, it just makes me giggle. I'm so used to talking about my real life, I think, that I get stuck when it didn't actually happen!
 

Australian River

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Could it be set at a university campus, during the summer leading up to the first year? Madeleine Roux did that with ASYLUM and from reading it, I got the sense that she wanted YA characters and general feel to it, but needed the story to take place in a college dorm situation, so she set the whole thing as a special summer program for prospective university students. A lot of universities have things like that, so it didn't feel forced or anything.

Or your characters could be 17-18 and in first-year university. That happens.

So you reckon it's ok to have an 18 year old first year? The MC is doing a medical degree and lectures are important to the story (dissection, pickled bodies ect :p)
 

Hathor

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Both the requests I had out turned into Rs today. :( That's a blow. At least I got both bandaids ripped off at once...?

One of the Rs was super nice and very complimentary; she said the quality of my writing was excellent (yay!) but just didn't connect with the MC. The other R... well... she thought I was trying to write straight horror, and I wasn't. Oops.

What is the prevailing wisdom on sending thank-yous in response to personalized rejections? Don't bother or nice touch?

Oh, gee, I'm sorry. That's tough :Hug2:

I send thank-yous when the feedback is useful and I want them to know I appreciate their taking the time to help me. However, I wouldn't view either of these Rs as particularly useful. The first sounds generic and the second mistaken. I save my positive reinforcement for behavior I want to reinforce. Maybe I'm a crotchety old lady :Shrug:
 

WendyN

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Happy Tuesday, everyone!


I got a short story acceptance last night! This one for a steampunk anthology. And yesterday one of my stories was published in the latest Third Flatiron anthology.


Besides that, I had more people show up for book club than I was expecting (yay!) and have been so busy reading a certain story that now I have the most torturous song in the underworld stuck in my head (again).


Jeneral - Ooh, very exciting that you get to go to a RWA meeting. Is that local for you, or do you have to do some traveling?


Australian River - Ditto what others have said... if the tone fits YA, you might be better off to do a boarding school/prep school (I know of a few high schools w/ dorms just for international students) or special program for high schoolers at a university campus.


lenore_x - Heaps and heaps of consolation cookies for you! What an awful day! IIRC, I did send short "thank you for taking the time to give feedback" kind of email when I got personalized Rs on requests.


Nora - Consolation cookies! And hey, ten minutes of writing is ten minutes of writing! Ten minutes' worth of words you didn't have before!

Okay, back to reading (and maybe listening to some music to get This is Hades, After All out of my head.)
 

Hathor

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Happy Tuesday, everyone!


I got a short story acceptance last night! This one for a steampunk anthology. And yesterday one of my stories was published in the latest Third Flatiron anthology.


Besides that, I had more people show up for book club than I was expecting (yay!) and have been so busy reading a certain story that now I have the most torturous song in the underworld stuck in my head (again).


...

Okay, back to reading (and maybe listening to some music to get This is Hades, After All out of my head.)

Congrats :banana: And you have the first banana of our new thread!

You're zipping right along, aren't you? That's a good sign, I guess. And don't worry. Soon you'll have the theme song from Mr. Ed in your head, assuming you know it :evil

I'm going back to reading about dragon paintings, myself.
 

lenore_x

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Thanks for the consolation and tips, everyone! I think I'll at least send a note to the one who complimented me, lol.

Congrats on your acceptance and publication, Wendy! :hooray:

Australian River, from what I know of the YA market (which is a lot, but tainted by cynical glasses :p), an MC in college is a very difficult sell. The only times I've seen it done are by established authors (Scott Westerfeld and Rainbow Rowell). There are some agents who rep NA, but NA has other genre conventions than just the protagonist being college-aged--for example, it's almost always contemporary romance. But... you won't know 'til you try? :Shrug: I don't know why there's not a bigger market for college stories. I would've eaten that up in high school.
 

WendyN

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Annnnnd R on MS4. I know my request rate thus far has been really good, but MAN, this stage is such a roller coaster.
 

HoldinHolden

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Sorry to hear about the R, Wendy! I hated the rollercoaster, but all the ups and downs make that acceptance THAT much better! (says the oddly optimistic me)
 
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