Well, that backfired.

Perhaps the agent would like to learn more about The Infestation in book 2 of the contract that s/he will offer, hmm??

Congrats on catching their interest!

sanremoave said:

Perhaps the agent would like to learn more about The Infestation in book 2 of the contract that s/he will offer, hmm??

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Actually, this is exactly what I would say.

It seems there's a lesson in fishing here, something like: If you're gonna hook 'em, you ought to reel 'em in.

Queen of Swords said:

Thanks, but I hope I can make this realistic. I first thought of humanoid insects, then I gave myself a mental smack and said, "Listen, you are not writing Attack of the Bug Men. Come up with something better!"

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Do some research on insects. There are some nasty, nasty plagues out there without resorting to humanoid insects of any kind. Army ants. Locusts.

You don't even need insects. Right now there's some kind of tropical fungus that killed a few people over in the Pacific Northwest and is currently roaming around Whatcom county in Washington state. Sometimes nightmares come unbidden in tiny spore form.

In the meantime... good on yer for hooking your agent!

If it is the future, why not make it a mutating computer virus that extended to humans as well. That is pretty funny though...heh. And totally something I would do. I always have a large backstory for the plot and characters, and sometimes I get carried away.

Ava Jarvis said:

You don't even need insects. Right now there's some kind of tropical fungus . . .

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mmm, fungus . . . cool suggestion. Mold, spores. Then there's the world of centipedes, invertebrates . . .


http://entomology.unl.edu/images/centipedes/housecnt.jpg

I'd advise you to not explain it. Ever. Tell the agent it's something that happened in the past, and should remain there.

You have to be careful with things like that. When they mentioned the Clone Wars in Star Wars, it was mysterious, but organic enough that the viewer could fill in the blanks. The viewer didn't HAVE to know anything about the Clone Wars, because the phrase itself, and the matter-of-factness behind it, told them as much as they needed. It was an understandable character detail.

But it's easy to push it too far. A phrase like "infestation" leaves almost too many questions for the reader. Too many loose ends that the reader can't quite tie. Instead of building a fuller world, it could easily smack of artiface. This is especially true if you mention it multiple times. It could make the reader feel like you're holding something back, and the reader could get frustrated at not having a resolution.

There's a chance the agent was intrigued by the idea of an infestation, and liked it. But there's also a chance that it disrupted your actual story, and seemed more important than it is. That's bad.

Not having read your work, I don't know which way to point, but it might be worth your time to go back and verify two things: the infestation is clearly represented as a historical element, and not an ongoing issue; and it clearly has little to do with the current plot, other than the unique character it adds to your setting.

When I read "Infestation", my first thought was "Plague". There's a LOT of different directions you can take from that first step. Just a thought!