At 04:11 PM 4/29/2003 -0500, BarbJ wrote:
(in response to my statement)
 >> Either you have the suspense and urgency, or you have pages of angst-ridden
 >>inner monologue.
 >Not necessarily true. They CAN go hand-in hand.
 >Look at the Hammettesque Detective Novels.
 >It's NOT either/or, but balance.  Hand AND footholds on the mountainface

Yeah, I'm kind of making a sweeping statement.  In general, you have a 
suspense novel, or you don't, you have an action novel or you have a novel 
with a theme that does have some action.  Know what I mean?  And this 
particular novel is not majorly action.  I suspect that this agent has 
found it much easier to peddle suspense (The Day After Tomorrow, and so 
forth) than this kind of thing that I write.

 >musing<

Sure, I can see where some novelists do manage to have a good balance.  I 
always think that I do, when I'm writing it.  I did try to cut down on the 
constant "thinking" and "analyzing" for that particular
book, just let her 
"be," which is a departure for me.
Welllll . . . I have a bit of interior monologue in there.  Yet it's not 
coming across as to why Camille's not fretting that much.  I mean, maybe I 
just remember being sixteen better than people who are more mature (and I 
mean that in a good sense--they're lucky, because I am out of sync.)  When 
I was sixteen, I had a good intellect, but my emotional development was not 
that great.  I could bumble into something and really not realize there was 
danger.  Or I could see danger that wasn't there.  I could be hysterical 
about nothing, then the next moment perfectly happy dealing with a 
crisis.  It's just . . . different.

 >And there's where writing becomes the big headache of pleasing the reader

Yeah. . .and I've already acknowledged that my readership will be a 
vertical market.

The friend of ours who's working on our roof and patio cover (totaled in 
hailstorm) had me ride over to Home Depot this morning with him.  He said, 
"So how much do you make off one book?"  He didn't think the 
time/effort/payback was nearly worth it.  He'd like me to get my butt up 
and do something that actually saw some benefit!  If I lost faith, I would 
be able to see the value in just building a patio cover for one little 
patio rather than this writing thing.  It's a big headache.  If it weren't 
for the creative drive or the artistic whatever-it-is, I'd find something 
else to do--knitting, or sewing, or raising carrier pigeons.

 >I, for example, have no patience for many of the Cozies (of my direct
 >experience/sampling) because I find characters are acting too
 >unrealistically, snapping my suspension of disbelief. But that doesn't
 >bother my husband a whit -- he soaks 'em up, over and over again.

Yeah, I like cozy mysteries.  They're just shorter than the one I 
have.  The major prob cited in that one was just the length.  They're a 
pain to plot, though I have another lined up in outline form.

 >And, yes, wailing and gnashing of teeth is allowed (just don't kick the dog

Dog looks up soulfully, wondering why Mama never seems to be happy. . . .

 >matters, unless it falls under the Travelling Salvation Show altar call
 >my father-in-law at 13 was forced to "answer" (his
Grandmother SHOVED him
 >into the aisle). He still regrets the little dog with the bad timing --
 >but the rocket of yiping dog hitting the "ConFESS your SINS"
Evangelist
 >directly in the chest was priceless. Especially for his (couple years
 >older) uncles, who said, "WE'LL take care of Rupert, Mom" and allowed
 >them all to beat a retreat. And if ANY of you use that I expect payment

  We may need to talk prices later on. . . .

 >=sternly= That's like saying complementary colors can't work together.

I've been said to be color-impaired before, wearing purple and pink or 
orange and pink together.

 >Is it simply a stylistic thing, or is something I'm doing or not doing
 >not getting my intentions across? Usually it's a mix of the above

Well, I'm wondering about pulling out this scene with the antagonist and 
making it the prologue.  But it starts the reader off in the wrong head . . 
. some might say I haven't got the right head YET . . . anyway, they won't 
meet the gal they're supposed to be rooting for until the first chapter.  I 
think the prologue thing is way overdone and is a little cheesy.  Still, I 
may have to resort to that.  Something else may come to me.

 >OTOH, the protagonist needs to be emotionally accessible, or readers lose
 >interest.  They need something to hook into in the tale to carry them 
along... their
 >"belief" needs to be fed enough that the suspension of
disbelief doesn't 
slosh.

Right . . . right . . . I mean, *some* readers will understand that the 
character is just putting on the armor.  Like putting on the armor of God, 
but in this case it's the armor of pretending not to care.  It's a 
vulnerability not on the surface.

 >Or doomed to keep trying other doors in the labyrinth.

Here's where Ariadne's thread would come in handy.

 >The director that didn't cast me as Hamlet's mother nor Beatrice lacked
 >imagination, too (hell hath no fury like the woman who didn't get the part).

Idiot.  He's the one who staged "Richard III" with King Richard as gay, 
right?  (As in "The Goodbye Girl")  I don't know what's wrong with people.

 >But beware the impulse to wallow in it.

Oh, no--I just vent for a while.  Today, though, the contractor/friend was 
standing there while I'm reading this e-mail and he's saying, "Who are 
these people?  If you can't work with them, go somewhere 
else!"    Somebody outside this particular industry just can't 
understand why things are the way they are.  I just told him that I'd have 
to think on it a while.

Yet another agent (one I met at a conference) said, "Okay, so you can write 
well and you have no trouble with the mechanics, and so what you need is a 
little direction.  So go and buy this book and that book (naming some 
best-sellers), and then if you can write one like that, I want to see 
it."  I have to laugh now, but at the time I eagerly scribbled down the 
titles and headed for the bookstore.  Sure, make some more of those 
bluejeans just like the samples here, and I'll buy 'em.  Only thing is, 
this doesn't work that way for me.

 >There are those of us who flip the world off and keep dancing, because we
 >LIKE our idiosyncratic drummer.  Others leave the floor and only dance 
when no
 >one's watching.  Others still decide it's important enough to learn the 
steps of the
 >latest rag.

Call me Klutz, 'cause even when I think I'm copyin' the steps, I'm still 
out of step here.  I'm *trying* to figure it out, which is a job in itself.

 >Still and all: We *DO* care.....

Thanks.    I *really* don't come here *just* to make 
somebody try to figure out what to say to me . . . although it helps a 
lot.  I am always thinking that sharing the journey might be interesting to 
some of the others out there who are considering starting the climb.

Truth is that if you go out on other lists, or read the "Publishers Lunch" 
thing that somebody cobbles up every morning and sends out, there are a 
HECK of a lot of people not finding it hard to sell at all.  For whatever 
reason, they've got the beat and are on the wavelength, and the first thing 
out of their typer, they sell to the first person they send it to.  Mostly 
they're romance and chick lit writers.  But they're in on the vibe.  So it 
is not always the struggle that you see here.  You're prolly seeing one of 
the worst of the struggles here.  Just a warning label for those who may be 
reading.

Really, thanks for caring.

Yours truly, I remain, &c.

"There will be another song for me, and I will sing it; there will be
another dream for me--someone will bring it." Jimmy Webb, "MacArthur
Park"

- - -
The only thing that flies faster than an F-16 is your guardian angel
- - - -
Nine out of ten doctors recommend reading my books.  The tenth is a quack.
Shalanna Collins   http://home.attbi.com/~shalanna/>
_Dulcinea: or Wizardry A-Flute_  (e-mail me 4 excerpt)  ISBN 0-7388-5388-7
New!  I'm trying out a blog/jrnl http://www.livejournal.com/users/shalanna/>

--- Rachel's Little NET2FIDO Gate v 0.9.9.8 Alpha