Huge Books and Long Lists.

The 2010 Writer's Market

is a BEAST.

the Writer's Market comes out annually, and it's the giant bible of publishing. Just like praying, there's no guarantee that you'll get what you want. So I guess comparing the Writer's Market to the bible isn't so off. The difference is, the Writer's Market is definitely updated more often.

And the agents and publishers don't try to tell you what meat to eat or the correct way of sacrificing oxen.

But...it's scary.





TERRORRRRR!!!!

I bought this thing yesterday, and let me tell you, it's an absolute monster. Here's what I gotta do:

1. Look through the list of agents.

2. Pick which ones I got a shot with (accept new writers, accept fiction, accept MY GENRE of fiction, accept unsolicited pitches...)

3. From these, pick the agents I'm going to send letters to.

4. Begin the painful query process.

A query letter is a one-page summary of the book, basically. You're selling your book to the agent. You have to put the genre, target audience, length of book, description of book, description of self, and qualifications of self. In really short paragraphs. Lots of words.

Luckily, I have a helper.

Uh-oh, guys!!!

So I was denied for a loan for school, and I don't have any cosigners.

This is bad.

I have one semester left, and now I'm afraid that I may not be able to finish.

Nooooooo...

My iPods have been properly named: Homer and Maggie. Maggie is the iPod Touch, and Homer is the blubbering old iPod. Why? They work as a team. Maggie is always the silent partner, protecting her father from rooftops with rifles, shooting her dad's boss and making it look innocent. She even saves him again in THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. Maggie is very specialized, and yet she is a baby. She needs help even to eat. Hence the pickiness.

Homer is the breadwinner. He does the dirty work, but he's not as skilled. He's just kind of a body that does the necessary, grungy, unspecialized stuff. He's a body. He takes up room. He can lift stuff. This is Homer. Also, Homer is older, and a little beat up. Maggie is a newer model, but the kinks still have to be worked out. She's gotta grow up.

Homer and Maggie, please get me through these tough times!!!

Best of both worlds.

So, my iPod Touch crashes when I try to do too many things on it. It gets confused, particularly if I play music while writing. Understandable. It's a lot to remember.

So I'm busting out my old, 30 GB iPod from 2005. It's the first color iPod EVARRR. This is back when having pictures on the iPod was a big deal...it was my high school graduation present. This iPod will be for music, and the other shall be for novel-writing.

Two iPods, working together towards one goal.

Beautiful!!!

I'm thinking of naming both of my iPods. Suggestions? Something that says something about their personalities. I'll give a brief description of them.

The Touch - Black, sleek, sassy, but very picky. Got a lot of funk. High maintenance. Definitely the brains of the operation, but doesn't have as much memory. Specialized.

The old iPod - Durable, a little bigger and tougher. Older, but doesn't let that get in the way. Does a great job doing what it does best - playing music. Not as fancy, very down to business, very down to earth. The down and dirty worker.

That's right, they have personalities now.

Together, they are unstoppable! They are yin and yang.

Name-deciding will happen soon. Ideas appreciated.

Technology is not without its flaws...

So I have encountered a semi-serious issue, and I am begging my more tech-savvy friends to help me out here.

Microsoft Word for iPod Touch apparently gets really confused a lot. So it will randomly shut down, and usually when I've got a good flow going. It's absolutely crushing, because it doesn't always recover anything. I would hate to have this put a damper on my iX. So far, it's been nothing but roses. But I really can't be writing with the constant fear that I'm going to lose stuff!

Psychologically...just not possible.

So, at work, someone asked me a really dumb question. They asked where the Staten Island ferry goes. My response? "The Staten Island ferry goes to Staten Island."

And they actually seemed to appreciate the response.

My Precious...

I left my iPod at work. In my prop bag. For those of you who don't know, I give tours. I've started taking the iPod with me so that when it's slow, I can do some scribbling.

I left it.

In my prop bag.

And I can't get it until Wednesday.

Help...

I pay homage to thee, sweet iPod. May you survive.



I'm going to try to contact Apple about this whole thing. If I'm going to be drawing and paying homage to my iPod Touch, I might as well let them know how nuts I am.

Luck <333

Shock and awe.

I am still recovering from what I just discovered...


I am less than Internet savvy. Less than technology-savvy. I tried to change the channel on my friend's TV and fucked up the cable. So really, I dunno why I'm doing this whole thing...or maybe that's MORE reason for me to do it, who knows.

So I was bitching to my friend that I wanted a netbook, one of those mini-laptops, because I want Microsoft Word on the go...

Me: what are those really small laptops called?
Friend: They're called netbooks
Friend: And theyre pointless
Me: why are they pointless?
Friend: Because for the price you pay for one of those, you might as well buy yourself an iPhone or blackberry.
Friend: It is not worth spending 200 on a netbook...
Friend: When you have pen and pencil. And a good laptop already in your possession. And an iPod touch...where you can buy a word document program for 5 bucks
Me: what?
Me: what?
Me: what?
Me: WHAT?
Me: WHAT?!?!?!?!
Me: why didnt you tell me this before?!
Friend: You shouldve asked or looked yourself
Me: i thought apps were just fuckin...waitress and airplane games!
Friend: You're stupid
Me: you knew i was writing a book on an ipod! why wouldnt you tell me this?!?!


So apparently...yes....there is Microsoft Word for iPod touch. Wow, I'm an idiot.

I'll let you know how this works. Technology, don't cease to amaze me now!!!