Still here. Somewhere. *makes attempt to emerge from underneath pile of manuscripts*
A writers conference *and* BEA all in less than two weeks. And for the exceedingly reasonable low discount rate of living on 15% you, too, could lead the exciting life of the literary agent.
Thoughts on the writers conference:
Good group of writers. Lots of talent in there. I wait in fear and trepidation (okay, not really) for the resulting number of submissions. Location, location, location: well, it was very pretty outside. And very historical inside — including the plumbing and the peeling wallpaper and the broken blinds and the older-than-me-by-far mattress. I went to this same conference five years ago, and I really don’t remember the hotel having *quite* that much atmosphere. Heh. Post-con I was thinking about their chosen theme for the year: “In the Company of Writers.” I’d meant to write something long and introspective on that topic, but other things kept me from getting to it. Maybe once I catch up on everything that is awaiting me here in the office now that I’ve paused for a few days, I can get back to that.
“Impressions of BEA:
It made impressions on my feet, which are still tender. Miles and miles (literally, I’m sure) of booths with books and promotional items designed to attract the attention of book-sellers and librarians everywhere. My prize find? A galley of the Julie/Julia Project book (not that it was hard to find). Fangrrl moment: Standing in the autographing line for Neil Gaiman and getting a copy of the Anansi Boys chapbook. And I have a couple of war wounds (that coffee table hates me). Lots and lots of meetings. Productive ones. With film people and some of our foreign reps. Very pleased to have made the acquaintance face-to-face with Gray Tan, our associate from Taiwan. Also got to see four of my authors who were in for signings — too brief meetings with most of them. Friday morning, the New York Hilton witnessed the meeting of six like-minded agents at the breakfast buffet. Much interesting conversation on the state of the industry and our pet peeves regarding authors followed. And the lovely Harlequin shindig at the Supper Club on Saturday night was a fun way to finish things off.
Too short run-downs on events that took lots of time and energy, but unfortunately I’ve miles to go in terms of paperwork and emails to answer and so on and so forth. My take-over of the publishing world is not yet complete, so it’s back to it for me. In the meantime, if anyone is looking for something to read, might I suggest the following books that have been recently released:
*Jim Butcher’s Dead Beat
*Brenda Hiatt’s The Runaway Heiress
*Anne Kelleher’s Silver’s Bane
*Syne Mitchell’s End In Fire
*C.E. Murphy’s Urban Shaman
*Laurin Wittig’s Daring the Highlander
And it’s not too early to pre-order…..
*Laura Anne Gilman’s Curse the Dark
Et in arcaedia, ego. 
Oooh, I didn’t know END IN FIRE was out! *runs off to e-mail Liz*
This month! And it is a damn good SF/thriller, regardless of my biased opinion. We got a *great* quote from Greg Bear: “_End in Fire_ is a lean, tense thriller set in a very plausible future. Real characters, real science, and lightspeed pace.”
That is an awesome quote.
So what are your writer pet peeves? Can we get a list? For *chuckle* reference?
Disclaimer: Okay… I love working with writers. I wouldn’t be doing this otherwise. Honest. But….genius/madness – ’nuff said. *g*
I’ll give one example — and then I simply must get back to work (a full list will have to wait). Here’s a peeve — the amazing bouncing submission (made out of rubber pages). To elaborate: making a suggestion for improvement on a work and receiving back the fully revised material within a few days. Even better when the suggestion was made on a partial but the new material is a full manuscript. In almost every case, this means that only a surface attempt was made — not usually what I’m after. It also tends to make me cautious about working editorially with the author in question on future projects. I understand they think they might have the hook in and they want to reel in before I jump the line. But I’m a smart fish. It’s more that I’ve been swimming past and thinking it is intriguing looking bait. Wow — look at that analogy — I think I’m still post-BEA punchy.
The coffee table doesn’t hate you, specifically… it’s just anti-flesh.
But revenge has been taken — one of the felines threw up on it yesterday, I am informed.
Kitty pretty. Coffee table bad. Caffeine good.
A new Syne Mitchell? OOOOhhhh. I have called Maria and added it to the stack she’s getting (which will include that, _Urban_Shaman_ and _Silver’s_Bane_ when they all come in tomorrow). Read/loved _Dead_Beat_. And Maria already knows to grab copies of _Scardown_ and _Curse_the_Dark_ for me when they’re out. I’ve developed my own personal subscription service!!!
Bumped into Maria (and got to tell someone new our early adventures in the book world on the retail end of things)…. in the Neil Gaiman signing line….
Neat! She just mentioned on the phone that she’d been down there and it’s so huge I hadn’t even thought of you guys bumping into each other! The trip’s part of why my books aren’t in. Oh, she also said she’d had a few copies of Syne’s book come in but they were all gone already (yay!), so she’s adding it to the order coming tomorrow.
oooooo i was in the Neil Gaiman line @ BEA, too! (jumped to you from suricatta’s friends page, sorry for the randomness!) i thought he was kinda geeky-cute, actually, and i dreamed about holding hands with him the next night. LOL
And it’s not too early to pre-order…..
*Laura Anne Gilman’s Curse the Dark
Um – it’s not too early to pre-order Matty Groves, either.
Well, sure — pre-orders are great for everyone. I just hadn’t moved past the summer list on today’s short selection.
Heh. I’ve *already* pre-ordered Curse the Dark. Next time I see , she gets to sign mine for me.
I figured there was probably a good reason you hadn’t been around for quite awhile. And it’s nice to hear that pwerful agents still have to stand in line like everyone else to get Neil’s signature. 🙂