New Book

I write stories to answer questions. I have idea, a scene or image, and the story comes from the questions that I ask of that scene. I see a man driving a car, and I think, "Where is he going? Where did he come from?" Stories arise from those answers. And when two scenes meet at the intersection of the answers to those scenes...well, then I know I have to write that story. It was Stephen Donaldson that said first (at least, as far as I know he said it first) that every story is the intersection of two ideas - one common, one strange. For me, those ideas meeting at the crossroads always start with the answers to questions, and usually raise more questions of their own.

So now, I have two scenes, each with a host of questions. I have to write another book to learn the answers, because even I don't know them yet.

Contradictions

The art of submitting a successful query seems to be balancing contradictions. I've become accustomed to seeing conflicting advice: open with an attention grabbing question versus never open with a question. Also, difficult to reconcile advice: strictly professional and just the facts versus sell yourself and don't be modest. Give a full plot summary versus attention grabbing back of the book jacket details only. I understand that different agents look for different things. That alone makes it important to tailor each query to the agent in question. If they want different things, no one letter can satisfy them all. I get that.

But now and then you find the absolute stark contradictions that make it difficult to even submit at all. On one agent's site, a page directed prospects to email only, as snail mail wasted trees. One click over, on the same site, was the injunction that said agent deleted all email, and queries must arrive by mail with a SASE.

I begin to understand why so many authors are considered insane.