Purgatory's Pit of Doom

soulcascade said:

Octavia I think you're better off with your crit partners etc. I just think if you take their feedback and go to QLH it will be too many fingers in the pie. Just my 1 cent

2- I will get a choir of "this sucks" I'll ask can you explain why and usually that's met with a no or silence. Leigh you crack me up!!Leigh-Hey guys! Can you tell me why this sucks?
QLH-NO! Figure it out your damn self!

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Pretty much.......

RedScylla said:

I'm sorry, I can't hear myself think over how loudly your query sucks. You'll just have to figure it out on your own.

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kellion92 said:

How about "dragon's horde"? It's shorter!

Fun pitches, Amarie. Now get off that ledge and join us in the nice safe Pit, where there's nowhere to fall.

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Dragon's hoard sounds good!

And the way you guys describe the pit floor, I'm not touching it. It's safer on the ledge.

Amarie said:

And the way you guys describe the pit floor, I'm not touching it. It's safer on the ledge.

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Ah. You have been paying attention. Takes all the fun out of initiation

It's Friday. Have a maggotini.

kellion92 said:

How about "dragon's horde"? It's shorter!

Fun pitches, Amarie. Now get off that ledge and join us in the nice safe Pit, where there's nowhere to fall.

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Amarie said:

Hi guys, I lurk here on a ledge once in awhile (don't ask). . .

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My guess is that everyone ends up here eventually (sort of the way the coffin awaits us all). Publishing is brutal, and people flying high now . . . well, may I borrow from Herrick? This same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying . . .

I was about to say something optimstic about how I hope the stay here isn't long, but then stopped myself. I know the rules.

*waves to Cricket and Kellion and everyone else*

*runs back to purgatory before people throw maggots at me*

LOL Teriann! You've been paying attention to the rules of the pit too!

The silence is killing me today. And I expect only more silence throughout the Bologna book fair, so I better hope it kills me very, very slowly.

{{Kellion}} I guess that means we can expect a beat - down after the book fair is over

kellion92 said:

The silence is killing me today. And I expect only more silence throughout the Bologna book fair, so I better hope it kills me very, very slowly.

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Forgive my ignorance but what's the bologna book fair?

Also, sorry for the silence. I haven't heard so much as a peep since getting two full requests. Not on the queries anyway. I think I already whined about the passes on the requests.

It's vewy vewy quiet out there, indeed.

Leigh, the Bologna book fair is the big international children's event, so all the big MG/YA agents and editors are there, selling their existing clients instead of digging through the slush to find our brilliant manuscripts.

Nothing like a Sunday morning form rejection to make you feel your nobodiness. Bah.

{{{kellion}}} I hate it when silence gets broken in such an impersonal way.

I got two Rs on a short story yesterday. They were really nice though. One had three exclamation marks in it - I guess they really wanted to encourage me to submit again.

Aw, that's nice, Octavia! You can't expect a better rejection than that!

This particular rejection got to me because this agent is known for personal Rs, and I had a small connection that I thought might get me one of them. It's on top of a realization that some other writers I know who are in a position to be helpful are deliberately trying to be unavailable. It's funny how virtual strangers in the writing community reach out to each other and some people, who you know better, turn their backs.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Kellion}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} I'm so sorry to hear about the R and the friends of yours, I can't hug you hard enough


{{Octavia}} <- though an R with exclamation points counts as a win in the pit!

soulcascade said:

<- though an R with exclamation points counts as a win in the pit!

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Unless the exclamation points follow something along the lines of "NO!!! DO NOT WANT!!! GIVE UP NOW AND STOP BLACKENING MY INBOX WITH YOUR EXECRABLE MISSIVES!!!"

kellion92 said:

Unless the exclamation points follow something along the lines of "NO!!! DO NOT WANT!!! GIVE UP NOW AND STOP BLACKENING MY INBOX WITH YOUR EXECRABLE MISSIVES!!!"

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(((kell)))

(((oct)))

Silence for me too. Although I did get kind of a punch in the budgies because C!rcle 0f C0nfus!0n announced on their FB page that they decided to produce this new film. I read the synopsis, and it sounds terrible. Kind of annoying that I get no response, and this is the crap they like.

Though, my producer was having issues with something in the script, and I managed to use a terrifying personal experience to fix it, and she loved what I did. So that's kind of encouraging.

kellion92 said:

Unless the exclamation points follow something along the lines of "NO!!! DO NOT WANT!!! GIVE UP NOW AND STOP BLACKENING MY INBOX WITH YOUR EXECRABLE MISSIVES!!!"

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kellion92 said:

Nothing like a Sunday morning form rejection to make you feel your nobodiness. Bah.

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Isn't there some kind of law against that? "Thou shalt not dash hopes on Sunday" (or was is any day ending in 'y'....?)

One at a time, all bunched up, on your birthday, on the best day ever, on the worst day ever -- rejections are never much fun. Some hurt more than others though.

{{{Kellion}}}

Thanks, Amarie, those are great! I'm still trying to figure it out. A lot of good suggestions in the Pit.

'Unless the exclamation points follow something along the lines of "NO!!! DO NOT WANT!!! GIVE UP NOW AND STOP BLACKENING MY INBOX WITH YOUR EXECRABLE MISSIVES!!!" ' LOL! Kellion I second Octavia

(((Kellion))) You're right, R's are never good, but on Sundays they can feel worse. Maybe because when I'm at work and read an R, I think, "Whatever. I have a million things to do."

At home, relaxing on the weekend? "Thanks for raining on my parade, Agent."

Supposed to be doing my taxes now....

(((Kellion))) (((Octavia))) Sorry about the weekend Rs.

It was silent on my end all weekend. Hope that doesn't mean there'll be a Monday slaughter.

Mornin', Pit

{{{Octavia}}}

Thanks again for the great ideas with the pitch. I liked Amarie's idea of focusing on the alternate medieval Spain aspect. It's like how Homer and the other classical writers treated Greek history. Here's the revised pitch:

In a Medieval Spain of knights, monsters & fairfolk, 15-yr-old Alejandro must steal a fabled dragon’s treasure to save his sister’s life

Or I can use Kellion's suggestion of hoard:

In a Medieval Spain of knights, monsters & fairfolk, 15-yr-old Alejandro must steal a legendary dragon’s hoard to save his sister’s life

Forty percent done on the revisions. As I darkened the book's tone I realized I'm going to have to change the title because it might seem MG (Alejandro & the ...", while the book is dark UYA.

So I decided to do a play on the word dragon, treasure & gold. The difference between treasure and gold is important to the story.

I really like it, Steve. One thing: It does sound a bit MG (which I write -- not an insult!). If you say "Medieval," people think "knight" anyway, so could you replace "knight" with something darker? Or an evil-sounding adjective for "monsters & fairfolk"?

Years ago you could have said:

Alejandro must steal a fabled dragon’s booty to save his sister’s life

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Not today!

Although, that would make for an interesting twist.