Went out for a nice afternoon with the family. After braving the mob at Costco to get gas, we decided to try a new place for lunch today. It was nicely decorated, the service was attentive, and the food was good. The prices are a bit steep, so it's likely to become an "occasional" place, but it was certainly worth the effort to try it out. We've known it was there for years, but it was one of those things we were "going to get around to trying". Well, now we have and it was worth the effort.

Swung by Borders to let the daughter-unit pick up the newest Black Cat manga collection. I saw a few things that looked interesting, but just couldn't pull the trigger. I guess I'm feeling guilty about all the other books on my shelf waiting to be read.

Ran some errands with wishweaver after that and then settled in to watch some TV with the family. Caught an episode of Numbers from the 1st season DVD and then I watched Avatar, the Last Airbender before relinquishing the channel changer so Wish and the daughter-unit could watch Forensic Files and Body of Evidence.

After that, I headed up here, read several agent's blogs that I'm way behind on, responded to a few posts on Absolute Write, checked the responses to the latest Writer Beware blog post and contemplated my next blog entry before settling down to write.

I was thinking I was going to have to rip out part of what I wrote last weekend for Chronicles of the Sea Dragon because I was afraid I'd started down a rabbit trail that was going nowhere. But, I figured, let's wait until I get to the rewrite stage first. No editing during the first draft is one of my rules. Get to the end before letting the inner editor out of his cage. And, 1578 words later, I think I've taken what I thought was going to be an unproductive change to the story outline and have tied it back into where I thought I was going originally. See, I have to keep reminding myself, let the story go and I'll surprise myself how much better the story gets when I'm "writing" it rather than "outlining" it.

Don't get that last statement wrong. I still believe in the initial outline to make sure there IS a story somewhere in there, but I'm not a slave to it. If something better comes along, I'd be stupid to ignore it because I didn't think about it when I wrote the first outline. Like stories, outlines come in many drafts also.

Tomorrow is looking like a laundry and writing day, so I better get some sleep tonight. Night, LJ.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1578 / 1000 words. 158%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

81477 / 100000 words. 81%

Words for 2008

87510 / 366000 words. 24%♠

O.K.

Laptop rebuilt and programs replaced? Check
iTunes library rebuilt? Not yet.
Stack of CDs standing by to start reloading iTunes library? Check
Drop Comcast Cable for internet connection? Check
Add Verizon FIOS for internet connection? Check
Replace all writing projects on hard drive? Check
Back up all writing projects on thumb drive AND external hard drive? Check

To Do:

Finish reviewing galleys
Start writing on Chronicles
Finish editing Lynx query letter for Val
Prepare The Demon's Head to submit to F&SF and/or Realms of Fantasy
Participate in Codex more
Get Bio put together for Victoria Strauss to be put on the Writer's Beware web site
Renew P.O. Box
Decide whether or not to renew SFWA membership

*sigh*

Got a great idea for a possible Doctor Who story the other day from one of my co-workers who's a big American Civil War buff. Been doing some research on it and I think there's just enough ambiguity to the actual incident that shoehorning the Doctor and Susan into the scenario could be easily accomplished.

Need to finish reading all the details and get the plot onto paper.

*rubs hands together, chuckling evilly*

Tomorrow, there will be four people in the office out of twenty-four. Unless all hell breaks loose, (which knowing my luck, it will), I plan on getting caught up on some paperwork that I need to get off to Dragon*Con and NASFIC, rework my query letter for Harbinger and do some typing on Chapter Nine of Chronicles. That and contact the hotel in NYC to cancel before I have to pay for anything.

OH, yeah, and do my "actual" job, also. ;)

First agentobscura decides to end her blog.

Now, misssnark ends hers.

At this rate, there won't be many agents left blogging out there.

Wow . . . just wow.

Well, I heard back from the agent who was looking at the partial for Harbinger of Darkness.

Nope, I didn't get asked to see a full. She included a handwritten note on the form letter, which was a nice touch. I certainly didn't expect that.

I dropped her an e-mail thanking her for looking at the partial. I wouldn't do that just for a regular query rejection, but I figure if they go to the trouble to review a partial or a full, the least I can do is thank them. I know agents don't want to get into a tit-for-tat letter exchange with the people they have to reject, so I didn't expect a reply. It was more just a "thank you" note than anything else.

So, I was quite surprised (and pleased) to get a reply back. Even though she didn't accept Harbinger, I'll definitely keep her in mind for other projects down the road if I don't place Harbinger elsewhere.

OK, I didn't have a great weekend of writing. OK, I had a really bad weekend of writing.

We'll put that behind us and persevere from this point forward.

I made it to Virginia yesterday to pick up the daughter-unit although there were several times it was in doubt. There was just enough snow and ice on the roads to make things treacherous and I counted at least sixteen accidents between here and there. Might have been more than that on the way back, but in the growing darkness, it was hard to tell. What normally was a two hour round trip became the five and a half hour crawl.

The worst part was dealing with the idiots who decided their time was too important, so they were doing neat things like driving on the shoulders because the four lanes of traffic were moving at about fifteen miles an hour. Of course, these were the same people I passed later, standing out on the side of the road, looking at their now not-so-pretty car with a dumb look on their face like "How did that happen?" I really just wanted to roll down the window and smack them as I drove past. Idiots.

Got home, collapsed on the couch and if wishweaver hadn't called, I might have spent the night there.

Had a fairly good day at work, all things considered. Got some writing in during my lunch hour, as well as getting a letter from the first agent about Harbinger. I anticipate hearing something, one way or the other, in a few days. Keep your fingers crossed out there.

So, unlike last Friday, I am a bit more motivated now. I added another 1204 words to Redshift tonight and it looks like I'm going to go long on the first draft. (What, you're surprised? You must be a new reader.) Still, I'm pretty pleased with it and look forward to going back through it and having time to tighten it up before the deadline instead of rushing through it.

With tonight's addition, I'm 1,593 words behind schedule. Grrrr. Hopefully, I can make up some time this weekend to make up for my lack of motivation/illness this past one. Oh, to be able to type quickly.

Been reading The Myths and Legends of Japan and drooling at the thought of doing some fantasy set in Medieval Japan. Course, I do have some other projects in line first, but that's never stopped me from prepping and doing the world building ahead of time. Still, Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, Troubleshooters Incorporated and Shattered Mirror have to come first.

Curse my overactive imagination.

Words for Today

1,204 / 1,000 (120.4%)

Progress on Redshift

8,146 / 10,000 (81.5%)

Words for the Year

20,407 / 365,000 (5.6%)

Dang.

Almost afraid to hit the check e-mail button again.

Got a rejection letter for one of my queries for Harbinger this morning. That's a great way to start the day.

Then, right after lunch, my favorite one-day show, FantaSci, in Chesapeake, VA, announced it was being canceled because the show was so successful, it couldn't be held in the Chesapeake Public Library any longer. Yes, that's right, a show to promote the library had to be canceled because it had gotten too big.

(Insert banging head on desk smiley here)

I think I'll go home and lock the computer away for a few days.

Before I started my writing session tonight, I went out and dusted off the Harbinger query letter. Fired off a query to an agent tonight and will start going through my list of agents I'm interested in trying to land over the next few days.

No, I didn't get a rejection from the agent I sent the synopsis and three of Harbinger off to back in September.

Trouble is, I haven't received anything.

I realize it's only been a bit over 100 days, but I've decided I can't just sit back and wait to hear something. Now, it's possible that the agent has tried to reach me and either the e-mail got lost in the bit bucket or (more likely) the SASE I sent wound up being misfiled at the Annapolis Junction PO. Still, I was encouraged to try this one agent because they were new and hungry to build a list and they came recommended by another writer I know and trust.

Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh. O.K., I'm being harsh, but I had given myself until the end of the year to hear something back. Then I waited another week and a half to allow for the holidays. Still nothing. Finally, against my better judgment, I sent as polite a nudge letter as I could, simply asking if they had tried to contact me because I've noticed some of my mail had been winding up in the person just below my P.O. Box's box and I'd been receiving theirs. Still nothing.

So, now I start querying in earnest and see what happens.

If I hear from the first agent, believe you me, I'll still be tickled pink. After all, this is my first attempt to get an agent and I don't expect it to be my last. Even if it's a rejection, at least I'll have something. Oh the joys of still being a newbie in this business. I know just enough about it to drive myself crazy.

The good thing, I still met my goal for the evening. Not by much, but 1055 words is over 1000, so I'm pleased that I was able to get my thinking organized enough to meet my goal. I had a lot of fun writing a bridge scene and I think the little tit for tat between Pulaski and Data went pretty well. She seems to have a knack for knowing just how far she can go before Picard will drop the boom on her.

Time to put the toys away for the night and get some sleep. Here's looking forward to a productive writing weekend. I hope to finish the Shattered Mirror bestiary on Saturday. Always helps if we know which specific mythological characters we're discussing in our story and who's version of them. Plus, I think we need to populate the town a bit better. More places for the protagonists to hang out when not kicking bad guy butt.

Words for Today

1,055 / 1,000 (105.5%)

Progress on "Shadows"

3,499 / 10,000 (35.0%)

Words for the year

15,660 / 365,000 (4.3%)

. . . just probably about stuff you're not interested in reading.

Since September, I've written 4 research papers, two position papers, 27 critical responses to short stories, 3 letters for my short story class (re: the Tolstoy rejection letter for one), and read 19 essays on ethics.

Additionally, I've written seven tie-in story proposals, received rejections for five of them (sigh) and sent out a synopsis and a partial of Harbinger to an agent. I'm still waiting to hear back on a possible Corps of Engineers story that was accepted by the editor back in October, 2005, to see if and when it will be slotted.

Upcoming, I have a 8-10 page research paper, two short stories (one about 1200 words and the other between 2-3000 words) and a paper on how to write essays for one of my professors for honors credit by 11 December.

So, no, I haven't been writing on new fiction lately, but it's more from a lack of hours in the day than from lack of interest. As soon as I get this last splurge of writing out of my way this semester, I'm going to devote some time to getting my earlier projects (Shattered Mirror, Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, Troubleshooters Incorporated and Rouge and Noir) back out from under wraps and see which one will be competing with Shattered Mirror (since I'm co-writing that one with April, it gets some priority) for my writing time.

So, don't take a lack of blog activity to mean a lack of writing activity. It's just not really bloggable activity.

As I said before, it's just an opportunity to stretch writing muscles I might not have otherwise.

Actually, the last day of the convention was the most relaxing for me. I packed out of the room, stored my stuff at the front desk and headed to the convention center. Ran into Haley Garwood and visited with her in the Dealer's room for a while before going around to find the were-guild . . . I mean, the presents for wishweaver and the daughter-unit. I picked up some nice tee-shirts (A Dragon reading books for Wish, a Cowthulu tee for my daughter and a "Girl Genius" shirt for myself). There was another tee I'm going to have to order from them (they were out of my size by Sunday). It's like those I (heart) something shirts except this one is black with red letters that says "I (Godzilla) Tokyo". What can I say, I'm a sucker for the big guy.

After a while, I ran into Les Haven, the pro coordinator, and he hooked me up with a ride out to the airport. Unfortunately, they were leaving at 2:30, so I had to cancel out of my only panel on Sunday. Probably just as well, I was starting to feel pretty brain-dead by that time after all the Saturday panels. Caught up with some friends and just hung around the con until about noon. Then it was back to the hotel to get my stuff, wait for my ride and watch some football.

Arrived at the airport so early that they wouldn't check my bags at the self-serve counter (no more than 5 hours ahead of your flight, in case you're wondering). So, after getting my boarding pass, I had to go stand in the regular line and they had to contact their supervisors to see if they'd let me check my bags that early. Luckily, they agreed to take it. My gate was only four from the security checkpoint and there was a sports bar next to it, so I hopped up on the bar stool and immediately wondered what the hell was going on . . . Arizona 14, KC 0? That had to be a misprint. No . . . once again, the Chiefs have decided that I need to die of a heart attack well before I reach 50. I must say, the final score made me very happy (Chiefs 23, Cardinals 20), but as wishweaver will tell you, I take my football a little too seriously for her taste.

After the game, found a place near an electrical plug and finished up my college homework while we were waiting for the plane to arrive. Once we reached altitude, I turned on the iPod and listened to Boston Blackie solving crimes and telling bad puns all the way back to D.C.
.....................................................................

I probably should have taken Monday off too. I went into work and since we couldn't go to the client spaces to work, one of the people thought I should read the project requirements documents and the System Architecture Document (there's a reason it's called the SAD, people). OH, MY, GOODNESS. I was reading through these and I had to keep wondering "And this has WHAT to do with my position on the project?" It was a painful day and I wound up taking off early just to save my sanity.

At least class went well Monday night and I turned my Animal Farm paper in. I don't know what kind of grade I'm going to get on it, but at least the teacher liked the title of my paper.

Now, I'm doing some minor tweaks to the finished Harbinger manuscript and hoping to hear back from the Agent. Well, I'm really hoping the Agent will reply asking for the rest of the manuscript. Heck, I'm hoping I'll get positive request from all my currently submitted proposals and such, but that might be a tad optimistic.

Back to the grindstone.

I haven't done this in quite a while so I figured I was due:

( The names have been changed to protect the innocent )

Oh, and speaking of college, I was extended an invitation to join Phi Theta Kappa (the Junior College/Community College Honor Society). Induction will be sometime in November. You know, considering my less than stellar G.P.A. the first time I went through college (Central Missouri State, History 82), to be considered for an Honor Society makes me wonder when Rod Serling is going to step from behind a bush and the spooky music start . . .

0750

Time to take the daughter unit to school and the synopsis and three to the post office.

We have reached the Rubicon.

Now the waiting starts and the next project gets underway.

Heard back from two of my three beta's tonight. Got their comments, critiques and general thoughts and am much heartened by the input. Lots of very good suggested changes (probably accepted about 70% of them) and I think the first chapter is much stronger than it was a couple of nights ago.

That's the chapter that gave me fits because there's a reveal at the end of the chapter that I've had to dance around. They had some good suggestion on how to pull it off and I'm happier with the way it reads now.

My last beta (one of my college professors) promised her feedback by Wed Evening. I'll incorporate her suggestions, let it percolate overnight and come hell or high water, this synopsis and three are out of here on Friday.

Personally, I think writing the synopsis (even with an outline already in place) was harder than writing the frelling novel.

Sigh.

You know, I always considered myself a very confident person . . . cocky at times.

Now that I'm getting ready to send in my synopsis and three chapters to an agent, I'm definitely getting a case of nerves.

The synopsis is out with my last two beta readers. Once I hear back from them and review their suggestions and correct any errors they find then it's going to be bundled up and shipped off just as quick as I can get it out the door.

I think I'll be less nervous once it's gone. Then, there's nothing else I can do to it. It either sinks or swims and either way, it's time to work on the other proposals/stories/classwork I have staring me in the face.

Still, I'm probably more nervous now than I was standing on the berm in February 1990, knowing that less than three kilometers away was Iraq and a whole bunch of people with weapons pointed my direction and that in less than 24 hours, I'd be going over the berm into Iraq with the rest of the 101st. Maybe it was a little too surreal, or maybe I was just younger and more invincible then.

Now, I'm nervous.

_____________________________________________________

Speaking of classwork, it was rather bloody in my Ethics in Literature class tonight. We got the first batch of papers handed back and well, the class average was a 2.2 out of 4 for a class of 22 people. (1 A, 2 Bs, 16 Cs, 2 Ds and 1 F) Based on some of my classmates' body language, I have a feeling there'll be some empty seats next class period.

Class discussion was good though, even if Aristotle and Frankna did kick my butt in the reading over the weekend. There were a lot of interesting points brought up in class, talking about morals and virtues and utilitarianism. Now, I just need to get the rough draft of my essay on Animal Farm done before Monday. (sigh)

Just finished reading Aristotle and William Frankena argue about the values of virtue and ethics. I think after going through the forty pages of Aristotle, it can best be summed up as "Be Moderate in Everything . . . including Moderation."
I'm going to have to read Frankena again tomorrow night (after I finish the readings for my Tuesday night class). It was only 10 pages, but to be honest, it went in one eye and out the other. I couldn't summarize it if I wanted to (and actually my Ethics in Literature instructor will probably want me to summarize part of it for the class discussion Monday night.

The fun part about the Ethics in Literature class is the books we're covering. I need to start working on my 3-5 page paper on Animal Farm and I just finished the first section in Farenheit 451 tonight. I hadn't read the book since my first time through college (1977-82), so it's bringing back interesting memories.

But, today was a good day. wishweaver and the daughter-unit went to a Fidos for Freedom event where they help out at an agility trial. They left at the ungodly hour of 0545 this morning to get there and got back around 1800. I was surprised that the daughter-unit was still functional and awake at 2200. I expect it'll catch up with her tomorrow.

I managed to finish the first draft of the synopsis tonight and turned it over to Wish to wield the Red Editing Pen of Doom (pat. pend.). My crit group went over my first chapter with a fine-toothed comb last night trying to find any remaining clunky sentences or fat that could be trimmed before we send it out. If this book does get picked up, they're getting a nice mention in the acknowledgments for patience above and beyond.

And, it appears I''ll be joining Tee Morris at Arisia this January. Yep, already starting to plan the convention circuit for 2007. That is, providing I survive Archon this upcoming October. I'm actually expecting to enjoy the heck out of myself at Archon, but I can see I'm going to be dragging the college books with me to the show just like Dragon*Con. (sigh - One more semester . . . one more semester)

I think I'm going to go to bed and ponder virtuous thoughts tonight. ;)

Between trying to finish up the synopsis for the agent, school work, general weirdness at work and all-around procrastination, my blog entries have been sporadic at best recently.

You have my sincerest apologies and I'll try to be more prolific in the future.

Not that I haven't had stuff to say, but with all the other writing, I stare at the blog and go brain-dead lately.

I will do better.

BTW, I notice I've added several new friends lately. My thanks to you for stopping by. Don't be shy. Post something and I'll get back to you as quickly as possible.

I'm not going to try and cover everything that's happened since my last post. I'll just give you the high points:

1) College

Started college on the 28th of August. I wound up having to scramble to get into The Short Story, which is showing signs of being a very interesting class. We've covered The Fox and the Grapes, The Creation Story from Genesis, The Story of an Hour and The Lottery the past two weeks. (Wound up doing this weeks homework assignment in the Hartsfield International Airport . . . more on that later.) It looks like my Ethics in Literature class is going to be a lot of fun also.

2) Dragon*Con was a blast.

The good: Had a great time at my table in Artist's Alley. Met a lot of really cool people who were either sitting with me throughout the show or else were stopping by to visit. Picked up some GREAT sketches for my con sketch book to include an absolutely wonderful Donald Duck sketch by Don Rosa. Had a chance to visit with Bill Hollbrook of Kevin and Kell fame again as well as another sketch. I'm going to have all of his characters in my book eventually. Sold several copies of Troubleshooters Incorporated and Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, my two comics, and the Ultimate Hulk anthology. If I'd have had any paperback copies of SCE #63 Echoes of Coventry, I could have sold a ton of them. The Trek fans sounded very interested when I told them about the story idea.

I had a great deal of fun watching Tee Morris trying to absorb his first Dragon*Con. Well worth the price of admission right there.

Great panels. I thought Anime 101 went well and the two Sunday night panels were well-attended and well-received (I think). Most of the feedback I got was positive, anyway. I'm hoping they'll invite me to do my panels again next year. The comic panel went well, although not quite as many attended it and the Star Trek panel was good, but suffered from Monday afternoon blues (tired panelists and small crowds). Still, my hat's off to the track coordinators . . . Great job, every one of you.

Having a blast in the Draco Vista party suite. It was a ball getting to meet all the various podcasters to include the Raving Scotsman. (Ian, you magnificent bastard, you!)

The bad: Not getting to meet relevantpink or Tracy Hickman like I had hoped. Just too much to do with the table in Artist's Alley and too much ground to cover. I still managed to pick up a picture she'd put in the Art Auction and have it here beside my computer.

Waiting an hour at the baggage carousel in Atlanta waiting for my luggage to appear, then finding out they managed to blow up one of the drinks I'd brought in my suitcase all over my white shirts. Got to spend a couple of hours in the lovely laundry rooms in the basement of the Amerisuites hotel rather than seeing Dragon*Con (it was almost 6pm by the time I got my badge on Friday . . . a tad too late to set up in Artist's Alley that day).

Going to the Art Show Reception only to find out most of the artists had skipped out. While it was fun looking at the art, I love visiting with the artists . . . which is hard to do if they're not there!

The bag with all my stuff for sale disappearing on the flight from Atlanta to Baltimore. Considering I arrived at the airport almost five hours before my flight, you'd think they could get it on my plane, no? It finally arrived sometime Tuesday evening.

3) The Big News
Opened my e-mail at work on Tuesday to find a letter from an agent I pitched Harbinger to back in July. She liked the pitch and has asked for the first three and a synopsis (which I'm feverishly revising one last time).

I had to walk around the halls of where I work three times to calm down enough to get back to work. :D

I realize this isn't a done deal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's hard not to be excited. As I told someone, all this means is my tee shot hit the fairway. There's still a water hazard (synopsis and chapters) and a sand trap (full manuscript) to surmount before I hit the green (contract). But, as they say, I'm at least in the game and not standing outside the clubhouse door looking in.

OK, it's been three days and I'm still officially geeked. So, sue me. ;D

I think I've bored you all enough now. Go do something creative!

Day got off to a bit of a slow start. Didn't arrive at the convention until 1115. Visited with Bob Greenberger for a while as well as bumping into a few people I'd seen at either Farpoint or Ravencon earlier this year.

Hit the Heroes and Villains panel where there was a pretty good discussion going on about heroes, dark heroes, anti-heroes, sympathetic villains and plain old villains. Even though it's not a fantasy, per se, whenever I think about an anti-hero, I immediately think of the old Clint Eastwood "Man with no name" series of Spaghetti Westerns. Others mentioned were Han Solo and Mad Max. The anti-hero has a spark of decency in him, but he's driven more by self-interest (or self-preservation) than a strict sense of right or wrong. Another examples from Westerns I just thought of was "The Wild Bunch".

After that, I took a quick break and killed a little time before my 2:00pm panel on "Who Writes the Best Military SF." While I was waiting, I ran into lady_cinnibar. I got to see pictures of her new home. (Very nice.)

The original idea behind this panel was do people who were in the military have an advantage on writing believable military SF? However, the panel (again, no moderator), sort of drifted around to discussing specific authors of military SF and whether or not they wrote believable tactics, logistics, etc. From the reaction of the audience, I think they enjoyed themselves, but I could overhear some mentioning this wasn't exactly what they'd come for.

Later, I was able to sit in on the "Finding an Agent" panel/workshop run by Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware. I managed to record a lot of the panel on my iRiver, so I'm hoping to download the information later and let some of the more pertinent parts of the panel sink in. We practiced writing query letters, and the one I put together for Harbinger, while still a first draft, turned out pretty well.

After that, I had to hurry down the hall for my last panel of the day, "Gaming as a Gateway to Literature". We discussed various experiences how gaming (whether video games, RPGs, Board games, Tabletop miniatures, etc.) led to discovering not only SF/F literature but also classical literature.

My example was related to my old D&D days back in college. We'd been playing for a while and were getting bored, so we went down to the bookstore as a group to find some new sources of ideas for our games. Several of the group picked out entertaining fantasy stories (Dragonriders of Pern, The Black Company, etc.). However, what turned into two of the better games based on books were The Prisoner of Zenda and my contribution The Scarlet Pimpernel. It was fun trying to adapt D&D rules and set them in Revolutionary France of the late 18th Century as well as adapting that world to allow for D&D type monsters.

Afterward, I retired to the lounge and sat and visited with dzeytoun, klingonguy and Patricia Bray. Also, I visited briefly with one of the young ladies from the Agent workshop and found out she's just moved out here from Columbia, MO, which is about 12 miles away from my old home town. Small World syndrome strikes again.

Came home and my friend April and her husband, Mark, had arrived to go to the con tomorrow. April has finished the prologue to Shattered Mirror and is working on Chapter 3. I'll pick up with Chapter 4 and we'll start actual collaboration on Chapter 5. I'm curious to see where she's going to leave me when she finishes this chapter.

Probably time to go to bed if I want to make my 1100am panel today.

And now, for something completely different, a message posted by Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, taken from the Absolute Write "Bewares and Background Checks" Forum:

Below is a list of the 20 agents about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints during the past several years.

None of these agents has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (many sales claimed by these agents turn out to be vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made, whether directly, by charging fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for "editing services."

Writer Beware suggests that writers searching for agents avoid questionable agents, and instead query agents who have actual track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.

THE LIST:

* The Abacus Group Literary Agency
* Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to "book doctor" Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)
* Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)
* Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
* Benedict & Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)
* Sherwood Broome, Inc.
* Desert Rose Literary Agency
* Arthur Fleming Associates
* Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)
* Brock Gannon Literary Agency
* Harris Literary Agency
* The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following:
Children's Literary Agency
Christian Literary Agency
New York Literary Agency
Poets Literary Agency
The Screenplay Agency
Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency)
Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)

* Martin-McLean Literary Associates
* Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
* B.K. Nelson, Inc.
* The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
* Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency and Simply Nonfiction)
* Southeast Literary Agency
* Mark Sullivan Associates
* West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)

- Victoria

Got checked out of the room with minimal problems, outside of the fact that everyone and their uncle was getting on the elevators above us. We had to let seven elevators pass before we could finally find one we could squeeze onto.

( Lunacon Day 3 )

Took today off from work. Revised my earlier response papers for my Intro to Fiction class and prepared for the mid-term. I now have 10 response papers from my classmates to review and critique over the next two weeks along with 100 pages of text and 10 poems to read for class next week. Piece of cake, right?

<-whine>Someone want to remind me why I went back to college?</endwhine>

At least I think I did pretty well on the mid-term. (crosses fingers)

Oh well, vacation's over. Back to the salt mines.