Well, I started querying for a memoir back in February 2011. It has been an uphill battle ever since. And I'm a former English teacher for crying out loud! I'm used to picky behavior and perfectionism, but attempting to get my memoir published has me going multiple rounds in the ring with the literati, let me tell you. My first query was sent to a top-notch agent who passed on my manuscript via email in all of two minutes! How does that happen? I can't evaluate a student's one page essay in two minutes? Needless to say, I just think maybe she didn't want to be bothered or maybe the subject matter was too unusual for her. Next came the literary agent who I queried via snail mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope. She sent back a business card in my envelope letting me know she was passing on my manuscript. Really?! I showed it to my husband and he said I quote "That's just insensitive, unprofessional, and tacky". I've gotten many passes on my manuscript from literary agents who are not taking on new clients because their selective, my work doesn't suit their list, or worse, the literary economy is in the tank. At this point I can walk into a Barnes & Noble, go the memoir section, and look at memoir titles and tell you who represented the author and what agency sold the book. This is an insane process. I probably would be better off just working with an editor who truly loves memoir,
forgetting about finding a literary agent, and having my lawyer look over my contract.
I've taken all the right steps. I finished the manuscript, wrote the proposal, wrote the query letter, and researched agent after agent. I read books on querying, writing book proposals, writing a one to two page synopsis, and I am still at a dead stop. It's like traffic on I-85 in Georgia the Wednesday before Thanksgiving: just sit and wait and wait and wait. The news isn't all bad. I had one agent look at a partial of my manuscript, tell me she disliked the journal format and that I had no platform; however, if I changed both of those she would be willing to take another look. So I joined Linked In and of course I started this blog. I refuse to join Facebook because I think it's juvenile; so fifth grade all over again. Please, I don't have time. I still have a partial of my manuscript out with one agent and the full manuscript out with another, but nothing to write home and cheer about thus far in the battle. Excuse me while I vent folks. I'll write more later. Presently, I've got to take off the gloves and get back in the ring for another round.with the literati. Crank up the AD/DC "Back In Black".
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Same Kind Of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
First let me start by saying the movie version of the book The Help was phenomenol. I highly recommend seeing the movie if you have not already. Stunning performances by Emma Stone and Viola Davis.
Since life has been getting interesting on the literary representation front, it took me a while to read my latest memoir entitled Same Kind Of Different As Me. This memoir is written by two gentlemen from seemingly opposite ends of the earth. Ron and his wife Debbie are a quite wealthy couple living in the Dallas, Texas area. The wife decides they should participate in outreach programs so they volunteer at a local mission where they meet a man named Denver. Denver has a long and varied history. Initially, he comes off as quite standoffish, but you can understand why after reading that he grew up on a plantation and he and his family were slaves to the plantation's owner. They picked cotton. So did my grandmother. It ain't easy work and there's not a lot of pay for the task. Denver loses a succession of family members. He finally jumps a train from Louisiana to Texas which is when he meets the Hall couple at the mission.
The Halls befriend Denver slowly but surely. They invite him to their home, take him out to lunch, invite him to a church retreat, and they begin to win his trust. He has a lot to teach them about the difficulties in life and overcoming crisis. Unfortunately, Ron Hall's wife is diagnosed with cancer and continually undergoes treatments for it that do not work; Denver seems to know that Mrs. Hall will pass on and it is his responsibility to take up her torch in helping the downtrodden. She believed in him when no one else did or would. He helps Ron Hall bury his wife and build a family cemetery on their vacation ranch. He becomes family to Mr. Hall and his children. Ron Hall and Denver Hall even travel back to Louisiana to visit Denver's family home and some relatives. A new mission is dedicated in remembrance of Mrs. Hall and we all learn that there for the grace of God, we could have all been born into Denver's way of life and suffered as he has. I highly recommend this book.
Since life has been getting interesting on the literary representation front, it took me a while to read my latest memoir entitled Same Kind Of Different As Me. This memoir is written by two gentlemen from seemingly opposite ends of the earth. Ron and his wife Debbie are a quite wealthy couple living in the Dallas, Texas area. The wife decides they should participate in outreach programs so they volunteer at a local mission where they meet a man named Denver. Denver has a long and varied history. Initially, he comes off as quite standoffish, but you can understand why after reading that he grew up on a plantation and he and his family were slaves to the plantation's owner. They picked cotton. So did my grandmother. It ain't easy work and there's not a lot of pay for the task. Denver loses a succession of family members. He finally jumps a train from Louisiana to Texas which is when he meets the Hall couple at the mission.
The Halls befriend Denver slowly but surely. They invite him to their home, take him out to lunch, invite him to a church retreat, and they begin to win his trust. He has a lot to teach them about the difficulties in life and overcoming crisis. Unfortunately, Ron Hall's wife is diagnosed with cancer and continually undergoes treatments for it that do not work; Denver seems to know that Mrs. Hall will pass on and it is his responsibility to take up her torch in helping the downtrodden. She believed in him when no one else did or would. He helps Ron Hall bury his wife and build a family cemetery on their vacation ranch. He becomes family to Mr. Hall and his children. Ron Hall and Denver Hall even travel back to Louisiana to visit Denver's family home and some relatives. A new mission is dedicated in remembrance of Mrs. Hall and we all learn that there for the grace of God, we could have all been born into Denver's way of life and suffered as he has. I highly recommend this book.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Review: These Things Hidden
I haven't been keeping up regularly this month with my blog posts mainly due to attempting to query as many literary agents as possible in hopes of publication for my own memoir. As always some days are better than others when it comes to responses when querying various agents. Recently I did sit down with a fiction novel entitled These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf. When I was perusing recent memoir releases on Amazon this novel came up as a suggestion and it did not disappoint. The story revolves around three families and how their lives become intertwined after one major event. First you have Allison and Brynne, sisters who live under constant scrutiny from their parents and both sisters are complete opposites. It's only when Allison decides to get involved with a guy from the wrong side of the tracks that the snowball is set in motion. She winds up serving five years and then being released to live in a halfway house and try to reconnect with her sister.
Then you have the small town couple Claire and Jonathan who have become foster parents upon not being able to have kids of their own. When they have to give back a foster child to a mother who proves to the state that she can curtail her demons that they find themselves once again longing for a child. The child comes in the form of a baby left at the doorstep of the local fire department. That baby becomes their adopted son when no one else claims him.
Finally you have Charm and Gus who are not father and daughter, but could be if Charm's mother had stayed with Gus and not left him for the next good thing. Charm decides to remain with Gus who treats her like a daughter and cuts ties with her mother. Her brother Christopher also lives with them. Gus has lung cancer and begins to require full-time nursing care which comes in the form of hospice. Christoper has taken off abruptly after being confronted with his past. Charm and Gus are left to figure out what to do with the loose ends of Christopher's situation.
This novel did not disappoint. I was riveted by the relationship of the two sisters and the unreasonably high expectations their parents have. The childless couple finally gets their dream child only to once again face losing a child only this time not because he/she goes back to a birth parent. Finally, Charm learns to stand up to her overbearing, profanity spewing mother and lives her life on her own terms once she loses Gus, the only fatherly figure she has ever known. She can go forward with her life knowing that her bravery and good decision-making skills meant the difference between a messed up or healthy childhood for one young boy who just landed in her world one day.
Then you have the small town couple Claire and Jonathan who have become foster parents upon not being able to have kids of their own. When they have to give back a foster child to a mother who proves to the state that she can curtail her demons that they find themselves once again longing for a child. The child comes in the form of a baby left at the doorstep of the local fire department. That baby becomes their adopted son when no one else claims him.
Finally you have Charm and Gus who are not father and daughter, but could be if Charm's mother had stayed with Gus and not left him for the next good thing. Charm decides to remain with Gus who treats her like a daughter and cuts ties with her mother. Her brother Christopher also lives with them. Gus has lung cancer and begins to require full-time nursing care which comes in the form of hospice. Christoper has taken off abruptly after being confronted with his past. Charm and Gus are left to figure out what to do with the loose ends of Christopher's situation.
This novel did not disappoint. I was riveted by the relationship of the two sisters and the unreasonably high expectations their parents have. The childless couple finally gets their dream child only to once again face losing a child only this time not because he/she goes back to a birth parent. Finally, Charm learns to stand up to her overbearing, profanity spewing mother and lives her life on her own terms once she loses Gus, the only fatherly figure she has ever known. She can go forward with her life knowing that her bravery and good decision-making skills meant the difference between a messed up or healthy childhood for one young boy who just landed in her world one day.
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