Sunday, March 22, 2015

Week in review 3/22/15



We were all very glad to hear that Amy is ok, and the boat likely ok. Less happy are the tidings from Vanuatu, which took the full force of the storm, and hadn't started out with all that much anyway.
Here's a link to how we can all help this tiny country with some much needed aid.


Bessie Stewart summed up the day's comments, which were largely about the efforts of those scallywags at Carkoon to take over Paradise, "This is the silliest best natured comment bunch ever. "Wow" may be an understatement."  perfectly.  At some point we're going to need a story Bible link for anyone brave enough to try to decipher the comment trail now.

On Monday, the blog topic was pre-empts and auctions, which is one of my favorite topics.

Craig asked
"Is it something that writers should aspire to? Or is it something that should cause an emotional Lesley Gore moment? Do these kinds of things happen to normal people or is it reserved for things like the Patterson Franchise?"


Well, James Patterson hasn't been in an auction for donkey's years because he's safely established at Little,Brown in what Team Carkoon would recognize as a branch office with his own publicist and editor I'm told. And probably his own royalty department.

Auctions are result of a lot of hot interest. It's a good thing. It's not something you should even start thinking about. If it happens, terrific, but most books are not sold at auction, or on a pre-empt.

Angie Brooksby-Arcangioli asked "How many books a year go to auction?" There's no way to know and it's not even a stat I keep here for my own books. A lot of VERY good books don't go to auction at all.

Donnaeverheart asked "I think the only question I have is this; if a book has been on submission for a while, is there any likelihood of either of these happening?"

Yes. Whenever the first serious interest comes in, the next step is a round of phone calls to all the other editors who have the manuscript. It's basically a "get this to the top of your reading pile, it's got legs" call. 

Colin set up an auction scenario:
Editor Penguin requests ms. QOTKU submits.
Editor SohoCrime requests ms. QOTKU submits (and indicates another publisher is looking at it?).
Editor Minotaur requests ms. QOTKU submits (and indicates other publishers are looking at it?).
All want the ms., so QOTKU sets up an auction wherein each editor vies for ms. The one with the best deal (according to the Agent and Author) wins out.

What actually happens is I send the manuscript to my first tier of editors. ALL of them get it at approximately the same time.  They all know this is going to everyone (I don't have to tell them.)

The first one who coughs up interest or an offer gets us off to the races. That can be days, weeks, or even months after that first submission.

And "the best deal" doesn't always mean the most money. More and more, we're asking for marketing and publicity input at the auction stage because that's a key component of being published well.

Donnaeverheart asked:
To clarify, does an agent chat up an editor about a ms to assess their interest, or, do they just investigate editors for suitable interests (much like authors search for the correct agent to read their work) and then simply send the submission package to them?

I get on the phone and talk to editors about the manuscript usually. Sometimes if I know they're looking for something, it's just an email.  BUT I've spent hours at lunches, conferences, drinks dates etc, talking to them about what they're looking for so that these submissions are not just scattershot. I know what they're looking for, but more important, I know what they're NOT looking for too.



And honest to godiva Craig's place on Carkoon is sounding damn attractive.


On Tuesday a writer asked about a call from an agent that was essentially "toss this and start again." I was stunned an agent called to say such a thing. Calls are normally reserved for good news, not that.

Shaun Hutchinson had some good advice: 
"When I was querying The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley, one agent suggested I add some paranormal elements to the story. I didn't think that advice worked with what I was doing, so I ignored it. However, nearly every single agent in my first round of querying told me I'd botched the ending, so I listened to their advice and completely rewrote the ending."

Consistent advice is worth paying attention to. One agent saying a book needs paranormal elements (and having read the book in question, that advice is crazypants) not so much.

Joseph Snoe had an interesting insight
I’m a third party witness to something like this. Except it was a written message not a phone call. An editor included a long critique with her rejection. I read my friend’s manuscript making comments along the way. I read the editor’s critique again after I read the manuscript. The editor was right on target (for the most part). The interesting thing is I can see what the editor meant but my friend currently cannot. She’s moved on to a promising new story (from historical romance to technopunk). I’ll encourage her keep the editor’s critique and return to the historical romance novel when she’s ready.

Being ready to hear the comments is one of the advantages of letting a manuscript sit for a while. I can't tell you the number of emails I get from people that start out "I thought you were wrong, but now I see you were right" but it's in the dozens at this point.  Fresh advice can be painful. Advice that's had time to sit might be a little easier to take.

I thought Poor Dead Jed would win comment of the day with this one:
Does no one else go on dating sites to massage ugly people? Nope? Just me?

But Christine Seine gracefully one upped him so deftly she scooped up the trophy:
"RUBBING TINDER, an erotic thriller about a man who stalks online-dating service users, only to rub them the wrong way on purpose, in a totally tubular deal, for publication in 2016, by Janet Reid on behalf of Fuzzy Print Literary Services."

And I think everyone should pay close attention to what Kari Lynn Dell said
 "I've never rewritten a book I loved. If I couldn't see the flaws, there was no point trying to fix them."

On Wednesday I was annoyed beyond measure that someone calling him/herself an "agent" was using Twitter to pitch editors.  Just FYI, that's NOT how you do it.

Mark Songer asked
What is an example of a good query letter FROM an agent (or however you get books before publishers? Let's say you have opted to represent Felix Buttonweezer's breakout novel Deep Greens about a CIA operative posing as a world renowned kale chef and you think this baby needs to hit the presses NOW. How would you pitch it?

Often I use the query letter from the client for the description of the book. My clients are GREAT writers. Trying to out do them is insane. 

However, what I ADD to the query are things like this;

"When last we lunched, you mentioned you were looking for a great kale novel, and I think this is the one."
Or 
"I notice that in your repertoire of great chef novels, you don't have a kale chef novel, so I hope you'll be interested in filling that gap."

Or, 
"you called me last week to mention a hole in your Spring 2016 catalog. I think this kale chef novel will fit nicely next to The Carkoonian Book of Sulphur Kebobs, and Pasta From Paradise by Amy Schaefer."

Or, 
"you've been sniffing around Felix Buttonweezer for years now, and his last contract is fulfilled. Here's the new book. Wheelbarrows full of cash will be fine."

It's not so much what we say about the book it's how we know what the editor is looking for, and what s/he published before, and which author s/he wants to sink her fangs into.

Jennifer R. Donohue asked "Is this one reason people were talking about "Schmagents" on Twitter the other day?" 

Entirely possible, but "schmagents" are a hot topic with editors and agents most days. Editors send us the most egregious examples of stuff they get from these guys and we all have a laugh. Generally we stop laughing when we realize some of these people have actual clients.

Jenny Chou makes an excellent point about small presses
For 17 years I worked as a bookseller. I ordered backlist (i.e. reordered books that sold) for the store and handled special orders. In my opinion, the best way to see of a small/Indie press is legitimate is to check out their distribution to bookstores. If their website says something like "Distributed to the trade by Macmillan" then they are legit. "Books available from Ingram and other wholesalers" also means bookstores can easily get their books and you should be fine. Make sure one of your first questions to whatever Indie press contacts you is about distribution.

A publisher's website can be a very valuable source of information, often for what IS NOT there.  Is there a way for libraries to order? Is there a way for bookstores to order? Is there a wholesaler or a distributor?  Is it geared toward selling books from the website?  Are the print books significantly more expensive than you'd expect ($31 for a hardcover means the press is using POD technology and NOT printing for inventory)



At one point Colin Smith was actually talking to himself in the comments column which made me laugh out loud then and now.


On Thursday I reminded you to follow up on queries if the agent says she responds to all queries. It was prompted by a querier who pinged me for a query that DID get lost to my great chagrin.

LD Masterson asked if this applied to agents who have "no response means no?" 

It does not. It only applies to those of us who think that query writers deserver the respect of a reply even if it's a form letter.  I'll spare you a rant on this. Well, ok, no I won't.




Colin asked if we've settled in to the new office. We have, but it's not ready for photos yet. We've still got boxes on the floor and some organizing to do. It's amazing how easy it is to get all your stuff IN to a box, and how time consuming to get it out and on the right shelf.

And just when Felix Buttonweezer was thinking he had it bad, CarolynnWith2ns posted this:
Elissa and Amy, I went to school with a Honey Potts and a Sundae Monday. What's funny is that Honey complained because they always spelled Potts with one T and Sundae hated that people always spelled her name like the day...hello...what do you think your parents were thinking of.

Why do parents make up such funny names?

My brother-in-law the teacher, had a kid in his class, (the name was pronounced as Sha-theed), spelled Shithead

On Friday, the topic was your writer's notebook, which I hope you're keeping.
I was delighted to see Kitty is reading THE DEVIL IN HER WAY by Bill Loehfelm. I'm a devoted fan of his work, and just finished the latest one DOING THE DEVIL'S WORK which I bought at Left Coast Crime.

Madeline Mora-Summonte had a lovely quote from Jack Canfield "Everything you want is on the other side of fear" which I liked so much I made it the blog sub-header.

Colin asked if I had a preference between Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines. I do. AHMM. I have better luck selling client work to them, and I find more unagented writers there. EQMM seems to have more established writers. Both are very affordable though and I have subscriptions to each.

CarolynWith2ns gave us this, reprinted as it was posted, no comment from me needed:

Karen Diamond, an amazing young woman and a beyond-talented writer, shared two quotes with her blog readers when she knew her battle to survive was near over. In my writer's notebook and on my desk, I have tattooed those quotes to my soul in the hope that I may assign their sentiments to my own life. I try, I really do, but sometimes I fail because wanting more, often stands taller than the mountain of what I already have.
The quotes, the first by Joseph Campbell and the second, an edited form, ascribed to Buddha.

“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to live the life that is waiting for us.”
“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

Karen, my son-in-law’s sister, was 27 and very wise to share with all of us these answers to human existence. I am privileged to have known her.

And at some point in every blogger's life, it's clear that your long time readers remember WAY TOO MUCH:

Bonnie Shaljean-
What that horse trader JetReid doesn't want you to know is, she once bought two sheep. Yes, she did. Hee hee hee

On Saturday we turned to how much to reveal in a query letter. Turns out that "include everything in the query" generally means include a synopsis with the query, rather than tell the entire plot in a query letter. I was very relieved to see this because I've tried to make QueryShark useful across all sorts of agency requirements rather than just what *I* want to see.

And yes, synopses are the spawn of Satan, but you'll do well to have one. We need them ALL the time for film deals, and translation deals.

Not much else happened here at The Reef this week. Recovering from a week plus out of the office at Left Coast Crime took every extra minute I had. And the last snowstorm of this miserable winter landed on Friday. I can't wait for spring to REALLY arrive.








38 comments:

Kitty said...

I'm now reading Loehfelm's latest, "Doing the Devil's Work."

JulieWeathers said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dena Pawling said...

Well this is proof that I am NOT a member of Team Carkoon, since I had NO IDEA that Little,Brown was a branch office! Carkoon has James Patterson! Maybe we should all pay attention when Colin talks to himself.

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

Did you repaint the office? Did I miss what colors you'd selected? We've got paint chips up in the circulation room of the library, but no consensus yet. One of the orange-y colors was called "Pompeii Clay", which I thought perhaps not in good taste, but I found a nice gray to pair with it (they did not call it "Vesuvius Ashfall"). My coworkers do not agree.

Good to know that synopsis thing meant Query + Synopsis.

(no, I haven't written one yet)

(it's okay, I've only been getting forms so far anyway. Including one "Dear Author")

DLM said...

My uncle used to tell us about his schoolmate, Wayne Dwopp.

Who else remembers who Toppie Smellie was ... ? :)

Okay, as to the WIR, I got nothing of use to add. Obviously. Must be tome for me to head to the grocery store. Hi, all!

Dena Pawling said...

I like my synopsis now. It's 900 words, 3 double-spaced pages. Does anyone think that's too long?

I've received two form rejections so far. One didn't have any salutation at all, not even “dear author”. The other said “Dear Dona”.

angie Brooksby-Arcangioli said...

Always great information from the snowed in Shark. I hope the crocus peep up soon through all that white. Thanks for the clarity on the auction questions.

JulieWeathers said...

Dena,

I'm sorry to hear about the rejections, but remember the right agent is out there. You want the right agent not an agent.

That sounds about right for a synopsis. I have three versions, so I can give them whatever they want, but that certainly fits brief synopsis.

Lisa Bodenheim said...

Glad to sit down with the WIR and a hot cup of tea (as well as trying to warm up my toes and legs after REFUSING to wear boots and leggings with my skirt this morning. It IS March).

And I appreciated Christine's comment, was it yesterday, about synopsis, synopsese, and I can't remember all of her creative spellings. No wonder it seems evil if even its name eludes a writer's ability to spell and/or pluralize!

Speaking of difficult names...try out the name Bodenheim with non-Germans. Interesting spellings and pronunciations.

Anonymous said...

In the midst of a rather bleak day, after talking to Mom and trying to offer emotional support (it's going to be a long tough road for some time) I took a few minutes to read the WIR.

Which made me both laugh AND cry. The teary part was 2N's contribution re: Karen, her son-in-law's sister (whose blog I read - all the way back to when she'd yet to be diagnosed, and how she puzzled over the night sweats, etc)and those quotes. I think I'm going to print those out for Mom - and me.

And I had to laugh at Ms. Janet pointing out about Colin talking to himself, plus Dead Jed's statement, followed by Christine Seine's RUBBING TINDER... I laughed when posted and laughed again.

Of course my favorite parts are the answers Ms. Janet supplies to all our little worrisome woodland creature questions.

Thank you again, for what you do. Can't say it enough.

Colin Smith said...

Another great WiR, and another great week of questions, answers, and comments!

Thanks, Janet, for breaking down the auction process, at least according to QOTKU (which, of course, is the way everyone should do it--that's why she's QOTKU!). Very interesting. And another reason I would like an agent. All that calling and meeting with people is something I have neither the time nor the inclination to do. I'd sooner be writing! :)

And that's an interesting insight about AHMM. I've been enjoying EQMM, but I've never been clear on how they are different. I might have to have a look at the *other* mag.

As for synopses, yes, I hate them as much as the next person (though I have come across people who ENJOY writing synopses--it takes all sorts I suppose, as Bertie Bassett used to say [Brit humour, sorry!]), but for this last novel I wrote two: a one page and a five page, because I've seen both kinds requested. I hate exercise too, but I do it. :)

I'm glad you made it back safely to NY, Janet. And I hope this really is the end of the cold season, especially for you all up North.

Looking forward to another week of great questions! Just an FYI, it's my birthday on Tuesday and I'm taking the day off work, so don't expect any comments from me before 10am! Okay, Lisa? ;)

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Lisa, I too sat down with my cup of tea to read the WIR. Have felt a chill all day. The tea and the WIR warmed my heart.

Janet, that you quoted my comment about Karen Diamond is an honor beyond belief.

And Donna, I remember you mentioning once, that you read Karen’s blog all the way back to diagnosis. It’s nice that someone else here knows her too.

During the last year of Karen’s life she took her blog posts and put them into one document. I remember her writing, “…there’s a book in there somewhere.” I believe there is. Like all of us, it was her dream to see that book through to “the end”. In this life, that was not meant to be. Yesterday I was told that her mother is attempting to carry on Karen’s project - the meaning of her life, with all the joys she experienced after diagnosis, along with the fear and the fight, and the acceptance that we all die eventually, will be a hell of a book, something that will make us laugh, learn and lament.

Janet, thank you again for quoting my comment. Honey Potts, Sundae Monday and Sha-theed, aka Shithead, thank you as well.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Colin, I realize you like AHMM and EQMM but have you ever branched out and tried IASF? From time to time I have enjoyed them all.
I used to read RD until, they changed the cover, making it just like all the others. Even YM, once small enough for a pocket or purse, is so big it's almost like D or CM.
Remember L and L and SEP? Best pics and SS ever.
Now all I seem to have time for is WD or PW.

Jed Cullan said...

Everyone is awesome. The end.

Colin Smith said...

2Ns: My! All those acronyms. You make me feel like I'm at an IT conference! :)

WD and PW I know. But the rest...? Yes, and I don't carry a writer's notebook either. Shall I hand in my writer's credentials at the desk?

Thanks for the tips, though. I'll look into them, as soon as I've decoded them. Didn't Alan Turing come up with a device for that? :)

Anonymous said...

Ha! Colin, I'm with you on the IT thing. I used to sit on conference calls and when I would speak, my hubby sometimes happened by (since I did quite a bit of WAH - ha, know that one I betcha) and he'd always comment when I got off the phone, "I have no idea what you just said, or what it means, but I hope it had nothing to do with dinner."

IP, VoIP, HTTP, HTTPS, WAN, LAN, MCS, OC, and on, and on, which are only a handful of the industry's common acronyms. There was that tech side, but as well the company's own sort of acronym lingo. I kinda miss those days. It was kind a like knowing pig latin.

Colin Smith said...

Donna: Talk about internal acronyms. I work in IT for a very large organization, and different departments will use the same acronym for different products. If your project happens to cross departmental lines, you can get VERY confused! :)

And, yes, my work does afford me the opportunity to WFH (we use "from" not "at"), for which I'm grateful. Six kids and one car, or "bus" as my co-workers call it (it's a Ford Excursion, and the salesman said it was the first time he had ever sold one to someone who truly needed it), means that it helps a lot if I can WFH so my wife can run errands or take kids where they need to be. :)

Lisa Bodenheim said...

Colin: (big sigh), All week?! Are you kidding? !ll right Colin! We'll see you at 10 am these mornings.

Christina Seine said...

Hi folks! What a great WIR, as always. I'm so honored to get a mention! Squee! =D

I want a Team Carkoon t-shirt. And mug. Colin, do we have someone on this already?

@Dona/Dena (lol), hang in there. The right agent is worth waiting for!

@Donna, ((((hugs)))). So glad you were able to find some laughter today. ♥

Funny how things happen. A few days ago Janet talked about notebooks, and I felt like a total loser for not having one. Lo and behold, last night our monthly writing group met, and since my birthday was earlier this month a dear friend gave me a lovely gift bag full of goodies. The highlight was a gilded journal! The very first thing I wrote in it was a line I heard today while watching the "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" - (to paraphrase): "Everything is going to work out alright in the end. If it is not alright, then it is not the end yet."

Just seems like a quote we writers should hold on to.

Dena Pawling said...

I've never tried commenting from my iPhone. If this works I'm in big trouble lol

All those acronyms sounds like when I'm talking with my navy son. Every few words I have to ask for a translation.

Thanks Julie for the info on my synopsis. The agents on my list don't specify how long the synopsis should be. They just say to include synopsis and first three chapters. I like this one so I'll include it when requested.

Colin Smith said...

Lisa: Not all week. Just Tuesday. :)

Colin Smith said...

Christina: Sounds like a great plan! Perhaps that's a mission for Craig. He could probably make them. :)

Craig F said...

Sorry Colin but I am diving next week. I didn't have to blast because the folks from the third book stopped by with a plasma augmented laser. It not only opened things up enough for a hydroponic garden it about tripled the space I was looking for. It also opened up an aquifer So I'm thinking a beach volleyball court and a swimming pool.

The Krytian dragon turned out to be a good guy when he found out about the beer. He is going to heat the pool for us. I'm a Florida boy so I am a wimp about water temperatures.

The dragon said something in the water guards the start map. I have to check it out. If you don't hear from me for a week I'll pass the property on to Dena for surprising her last week. I only paid twenty four dollars worth of Gasparilla beads for it but its worth a lot more now.

On a serious note. I got two gold stars. Hot diggity damn. Son of a biscuit eater. I got two gold stars.

JulieWeathers said...

Dena,



Unless you do a Diana Gabaldon synopsis (26 pages), I think you'll be fine. Most say 1-5 pages. Some are very specific, in which case you follow that, of course.

Julie

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Oh Colin, my acronyms are as pedestrian as they are elementary. Most are the magazines stacked on my Nana's hassock, given to her by some of her eight children who made sure she had reading material. That often-replenished stack is what made me love magazines and want to write like magazine (and newspaper) writers.
Readers Digest, Yankee Magazine, Downeast,Connecticut Magazine, Life, Look, and my favorite, Saturday Evening Post.
You got the last two but I'll leave IASF for you to figure out. It's just out of this world.

Amy Schaefer said...

Most of the guidelines I've seen ask for a one or two page synopsis, so I have one of each ready. I kind of hate them both.

We at the Paradise branch are dedicated anti-acronymers. I gladly left a life of acronyms behind when I hung up my lab coat. It took a while to train my husband out of the habit, but we got there in the end:

"...but of course, the EFI report was bogged down with the AWT--"
"What does EFI mean?" I asked. I already knew the answer to this question.
"Extremely Frigging Important. Then Charlie--"
"And AWT?"
"Awesome Wonder Team."
"Right. Carry on."
Rinse and repeat. I never let an acronym pass without asking about it. Ever. And eventually, Dear Husband stopped using them. And thus I pass my sure-fire training method on to you, dear commenters, to gently guide the acronym-addicted in your life to a new world of actual words.

Oh, and a final note on unfortunate names. A friend once had a boy named Athol in her grade one class. He even had a lisp. The poor kid.

Craig F said...

Hopefully Athol is a native kid in your corner of paradise. In my corner most of the natives fled when the place was overrun with expatriates from elsewhere. Those expatriates are leery of treading the toes of local custom so it would nor be as bad as a kid named that in a snowbound urban setting.

I forgot to sing my Yabba-dabba-dos for getting two gold stars.

Dena: I worked hard to get my synopsis down to a page and a half as bare bone. Chucking some of that writerly crap back into it fluffed it back to two pages. That is a decent brief synopsis. I also apologize.

Donna: Try to stay on your toes. Sometimes a long, slow slog is the roller coaster car chugging up that first slope. Wish you the best.

Amy Schaefer said...

Craig: Nope. Immigrant to Canada. I hope the kid managed to tough it out, or get a nickname.

Colin Smith said...

Craig: I've got you on the list to host potential editors. Sounds like the perfect place to wine and dine. Be sure you make a note of their likes and dislikes. Especially if they want kale memoir. :)

2Ns: Thanks. I figured IASF has something to do with Sci-Fi, so I'm going with Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

Dena Pawling said...

Craig - I have no idea what you would have to apologize about, but granting that you probably know better than I do, I accept your apology. Hopefully it comes with homemade brew :)

Right now my synopsis is 1-1/2 pages single spaced, which equals 3 pages double spaced. I tried to get it down to 1 page single, but it fought me too hard. So I'll just hope its current length is acceptable.

Amy - When I ask my Navy son to translate his acronyms, I don't understand the translations either.

I can comment from my iPhone. That's scary.

Lisa Bodenheim said...

Amy: anti-acronymers? Does that rhyme with astronomers? And is that antee or antye? Godo to know pronunciations.

Craig: What a lovely sounding place! Only for Carkoonians or VIPs?

oh oh, Athol... Don't think the Dukes would appreciate that!

I had always liked the way Blair Atholl fell off the tongue. And its setting in the Cairngorms is gorgeous.

Craig F said...

Amy: hopefully he was a sturdy fellow. Not like the lisping bed-wetters who like to torture small animals and play with matches. The kind so many writers like to pick on.

Dena, I apologized because I'm paranoid. You are an attorney. I retain three of them but they aren't aware of the several hundred page file on me in the FBI office.

Colin: Still think that a literary agent promoting an editor is rather dodgy.I'll accept the third place if you find two others.

Ah, Lisa: It is getting closer but a few small problems. The aquifer water is kind of high in deuterium. That might explain the looks of the band. I have a way to remove it and start a gas or plasma station for starships. We can pick you up from you roof in a just over a week. It would be an even week but I have to find a sound-proofer to cut our Colin's eternal mumbling at himself.

Christina Seine said...

AAA - anti-acronymers anonymous? Awesome!

Sam Hawke said...

The most common synopsis description I've seen is 1-2 pages - but I did just have to do one in 3-5 paragraphs, which was a challenge! Covering the entire book in that little space, and have it make sense, was doing my head in!

angie Brooksby-Arcangioli said...

@Christina "AAA - anti-acronymers anonymous? Awesome!" That made me choke on my tea.

I volonteer to do a comic for the carkoon mugs and Ts. Any ideas? does it have to have legos? I haven't seen any shark legos.

Like Jed said, everyone is awesome, especially the Snow Shark. Always a thrill to catch her interest and merit a mention.

BTW, I know someone named Fanny who wants to go to the UK to find work. No joke.

Kate Larkindale said...

Love the weekly reviews! Even if I've read every blog post all week, there's always something in the review that makes me smile.

And don't talk to me about acronyms! I've just started a new job, and after 23 years at the finished end of the film production chain, going back to the beginning of it has been like learning a new language.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Synopsis length, ah, is that single or double spaced.

Unknown said...

I've been reading and enjoying the blog and comments for some time, and I heartily second this story Bible idea. In the meantime I might start putting together a rough glossary (for myself if nothing else). You're a silly, sharky crowd, you lot.