SILENT BOOMER MISSES A CATCH!

Well, here I am, awake in the middle of the night and blank space before my eyes so I'll keep you up to date on the search for an agent to represent my book, Angie's Choice. Unhappily, Mr. Paul Lucas got back to me in less than 24 hours. He tells me that he's a busy man and I believe him.

Of course, I don't know how

close I came!                

Thank you for the opportunity to read your submission. Unfortunately, you have come to me at a time when I am inundated with requests for assistance and representation.  The need to allocate my time effectively forces me to decline participation in many worthy projects, and I regret that must be the decision in the case as well.

I am very sorry not to be able to help you with this project but please accept my best wishes for you in your search for representation. 

Best regards,
Paul 

Paul Lucas  Janklow & Nesbit Associates

I'm thinking next time I'll send off queries to two agents at a time. They get back to me pretty fast. An interesting phenomenon happens every time I send out samples of a novel. I rewrite whatever number of pages they request as a sample. I can never look over a page of my writing that I don't think it can be improved. I don't know whether that's a sign of low self-esteem or just a sign of a too ambitious critic in my head. Sometimes, I change no more than a word or two. Poetry, of course, is a different matter. Frequently, if I've looked over a poem often enough, I can't find a way to improve it's lusture in my mind's eye. 

Yesterday as I walked by the Columbia River, I had an idea for another book that might catch a young agent's attention! But, for now, I want to finish the rewrite of Delinquent Lives. I also have recently finished a short story which I might send off to a short story contest if the entry fee is not too large. 

REJECTION, SUBMISSION...AN OLD FAMILIAR SONG

Yesterday, agent Molly Jaffa replied to my query email for my novel, Angie's Choice. She parried my query with an amicable and brief rejection email thrust.

Dear Mr. Thomas,

Thank you for thinking of me for this. Though I truly appreciate the chance to consider your work, I don't quite feel that I've connected with your material enough to be the best possible agent for it. Please know that this business is highly subjective, and that what doesn't work for one agent may work perfectly for another. I wish you the best of luck as you move forward with your writing career.

Best,

Molly Jaffa
Folio Literary Management

Photo from Writer's Digest article.

So much for my thinking I sensed a like mind for that novel. The lonely business of spreading one's queries over the shrinking field of literary agents continues. Will one bloom every appear in that poisoned field again? Despair is never far away when one embarks on the nearly hopeless task of seeking an agent.

My sights are now zeroed in on Mr. Paul Lucas with Janklow and Nesbit Associates, another young face in an old agency. So many agents are young faces nowadays. Endless photos of unwrinkled, unworried faces. Does this mean that agencies are hiring younger agents to tell them what's what when it comes to younger readers? That would be the smart thing to do...a changing of the guard...which makes this old, weak in the haunches, 75 year old's task appear even harder. However, Mr. Lucas has got a nice, intelligent face, doesn't he, and good luck to him.

Meanwhile, I continue the rewrite for my novel, Delinquent Lives, with input from the meet up group Write To Publish, and I'm hoping to see one or two poems appear in a local anthology. More on that later.