Grand Hyatt 3--Janet 0

I'm not sure what it is about the Grand Hyatt in New York City, but I seem to lose stuff there. At the Edgars I lost my red feather boa. Sixteen minutes on hold with housekeeping, three calls to various lost and found wranglers all to no avail.

This weekend at Thrillerfest I lost two brand new hardcover books I'd just bought at Mysterious Bookshop. I know I had them in the bar. I didn't have them when I got home.

I'm going to have to start bringing an intern with me to parties just to make sure I get home with my shoes next time.

And the really snarly part is I was really looking forward to reading Brett Battles new book this morning. Phooey!

Sheepicide

Sheep are stupid.
I've known this ever since I made the mistake of buying two at a farm auction once, long long ago.
Looking into their eyes was just like looking at a taxidermy specimen.

I didn't keep them long enough to experience what Kari Dell describes on her blog this morning.

Here's the line that made me snort coffee: At some point, you become resigned to the fact that if a sheep isn't dead, it's because he hasn't got around to it yet

I'm in awe

I joke around a lot about Barbara Poelle of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. We've been friends for a good long while; I adore her, and I admire her taste in writers (Sophie! Jamie! Graham!)

Tonight though, all kidding aside, I just want to go on record saying I'm in awe of Barbara. She's always been a workhorse; she makes the rest of us look like slackers even on our best days.

On Thursday, Barbara was one of the many agents at the CraftFest segment of ThrillerFest. She listened to 75 pitches. 75 three minute pitches. No breaks. No pause. That's 225 minutes of listening to people talk about their books without a pause for a drink, the bathroom, or just to reorient herself to reality.

If you were to look at this on a graph here's what it would look like if you were at the end of that line:

++++++++++
++++++++++
++++++++++
++++++++++
++++++++++
++++++++++
++++++++++
+++++


I'll bet a cold hard hundred dollar bill that person #75 got the same smart, fresh, enthusiasm that person #1 did because Barbara gives her all to people coming to this kind of event.

I thought I had set a land speed record of 50 at the BEA pitch slam--and I was a drooling idiot at the end of that.

At the end of 75 pitches, Barbara merrily went off to a meeting with her clients.

I can't think of an agent I admire more right now than Barbara.
Please don't EVER tell her I said so of course, or I'll have to turn in my shark avatar for something with a pink kitten.

Just remember this: when you're on the hunt for a ferociously talented agent, you'll want to make sure Barbara Poelle is on that list.

Repeat After Me

I had the pleasure of attending a reading given by Rachel DeWoskin recently. She's the author of the non-fiction narrative about her time in Beijing as an actress on a Chinese telanovella Foreign Babes in Beijing, and now she's turned her hand to writing novels.

I hadn't read Repeat After Me before I attended the reading so I didn't know much about the novel. The excerpts she read from the book got me pulling out my credit card, then her answers to some of the very thoughtful questions afterward cemented the deal.

The discussion focused a lot on language since Rachel had worked in Beijing on a TV show filmed in Chinese and one of the characters in her novel is a man coming to America speaking English as a second language. Thus, Rachel had to recreate her experience of being a non-native speaker for her character--but in her native language.

I like thinking about those kinds of things: what wouldn't you know if you were just learning English. Well, you wouldn't know cliches! "Raining cats and dogs" would sound delightfully fresh and metaphoric!

I was reminded of the first Aleksander Hemon novel I read Nowhere Man. I made a list of all the words I had to look up when I read that novel. Each was the absolutely perfect choice, but they were not words I'd seen enough of to recognize on sight. I think only a non-native speaker would have used them with such ease, because only a non-native speaker wouldn't know not to.

Aleksander Hemon has gone on to great critical acclaim; I hope Rachel DeWoskin will as well!

customer service in the electronic age

Never piss off really creative people.

It's hilariously ironic that I was watching that youtube video when a guy in the customer service department at GoDaddy.com called me. He just wanted to make sure I was a happy customer.

He went over the domains and urls I have with GoDaddy and ended up refunding the cost of a website I'd forgotten about and changing my renewal plan to save me money. His call COST his company money, but you can bet I'll never switch providers and I'll recommend them to every client and friend looking for website hosting. Short term loss, long term gain. Smart thinking.

United could learn a thing or two from GoDaddy!

Eric Stone interviewed by Megan Kelley Hall

There's a terrific interview with Eric Stone about his new novel SHANGHAIED on the International Thriller Writers Big Thrill blog.

He's interviewed by Megan Kelley Hall whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Grub Street conference a couple years back. I knew she was a terrific book publicist, but now after clicking on her site, turns out she's a terrific writer as well!

Just to be clear

There are some emails from prospective clients I do not feel obligated to answer. They are:


1. Are you accepting queries?
This falls into the category of TSTL.

2. Can I send you a query?
Not only TSTL, but incorrect use of can/may, thus improving your chance of a form rejection anyway

3. Do you consider children's/fantasy/zombie romance books?
Now, this might not be quite as obvious as 1 and 2, but here's the thing: just send the damn query. If I don't want to proceed, I'll reply.



If you send me an email about your work, assume it's a query. Compose accordingly.

For more genteel advice on the same subject, check out Jessica Faust's post.

I love my job, yes I do!

Remember where you first heard about Colin Campbell?
Right here, in fact.

And here's one of my favorite pictures of some of my favorite clients (the picture is cropped I think or you'd see all the guys have some of what Eric is holding!)












Well, Colin Campbell's book BLUE KNIGHT, WHITE CROSS is coming out just in time for Christmas.

Colin Campbell is a ferociously talented writer. Lee Child recognized it first, and sent him to me. I was instantly enamored of his writing, as Lee was.



Here's your chance to read a terrific new author!

So, what are you?

I'm hearing from query letter writers who describe themselves as "pre-published."
I'm not sure where that term or even that concept came from, but I'm post-annoyed by it.

"Pre-published" is meaningless. Is that like saying you're pre-dead? (thanks Harry Hunsicker for that great phrase). And if you've been published and are now out of print, does that make you post-published? Abandon this thinking post-haste.


Quit dreaming up new and motivational self-help ways of describing yourself, and focus that energy on your work. I know what you are: you're a writer.