Reading at Literati Indie Book Fair

I’ll  be attending the Literati Indie Book Fair at the AIO Gallery, 811 N. Broadway in OKC this Saturday. I’ll have a reading at 2 p.m.; the fair itself runs from noon until 8 p.m. At the moment, I’m planning to read “Elysia” from Call to the Hunt. I have to keep it PG-13, so that ruled out the funny stories. This is a free event, the first of its kind in OKC. I hope you’ll come see what it’s all about. My appearance is courtesy of the good folks of SoonerCon.

Rejections, editing, and work stuff

Last week I got two rejections on Amara’s Prayer. This manuscript has been a major disappointment. It’s been just about five years since I defended the manuscript as my thesis project at the University of Oklahoma. I don’t recall how many drafts it went through prior to that point. Two writing professors and another with who specialized in anthropology and mythology made up my thesis committee. They put the book through the wringer, making sure the research was right, the leaps from fact to fiction were plausible, the writing was good, etc.

Then two agents tied it up, one after the other, for a long time with minimal results. Another, upon recommendation from one of his clients, agreed to submit it to a certain editor at a major house when one of her authors told me it would probably work for her. Said editor never responded. At all. Even to follow-up messages from this very reputable agent. That was about three years

Since then I have tried numerous agents, all with rejections or dead silence, and various publishers, large and small, that take unagented queries and submissions. The two most recent, and the one that came a few weeks ago, were all from small publishers. The problem in all three of these cases? Here’s a line from one of the rejection letters: You’re certainly a capable writer, but the religious overtones of your material aren’t quite right for us. Hmm. Here’s another:  Despite your very well-written professional query, and an interesting plot.. words like angels, Christian duty, redemption, etc. are putting me off… See the trend?

I’m not gonna go Jerry Falwell on you and claim there’s an anti-Christian, liberal publishing establishment thing going on here. Now, I might point out that The Exorcist, The DaVinci Code, Rosemary’s Baby and countless other published books also have “religious overtones” and words like “redemption” in them and they didn’t do so poorly for their publishers.

I’ve considered the Christian/inspirational market, but … unrepentant adultery is a key element of the book. I understand there’s a new trend of “Christian erotica” publishing, and adultery is acceptable, but the adulterer has to feel remorse. So … here I am, sitting on what I still feel is probably the best book I’ve written, unable to sell it because traditional publishers don’t want the religion and religious publishers don’t want to acknowledge that sometimes married people look elsewhere for sex when one partner doesn’t want it. Oh, and then there’s my tampering with the whole creation story, the origin of angels and other deities, etc.

In other writing news, I’ve finished reading/editing the not-so-super-secret project I wrote with a certain popular young adult author. I don’t really feel like I held up my end of the editing process. I fixed one of the major issues her agent had, and at least made some improvements on others. The manuscript is only 1,000 words shorter now. I’d cut a little here, then add a little somewhere else. But then, length wasn’t one of the specific issues he mentioned.

My summer school readers of The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date has fallen off. The boys who were reading it have stopped, and I’m back to babysitting them after making sure they at least do the written assignment of the day (I swear they can’t carry on a conversation without every other word being either nigga or cuz!). Two of the girls are still reading it and one is enjoying it, anyway. The other doesn’t talk much. Our incoming book club president read the manuscript and says she loved it. My biggest fear was that the plot would become predictable, but she assures me she never guessed what was coming next. Maybe that’s a good sign. I don’t know.

And finally, I’ve begun working a second job. I’m an ESL (English as a Second Language) tester for Oklahoma City Community College. The next three weeks, as I wrap up summer school then attend an Advanced Placement workshop, are going to be pretty busy. The testing is easy and the money’s good. Testing will slack off when real school starts again in the fall, but it’ll be a steady part-time income.

Katrina and The Frenchman

I meant to post about this several weeks ago, but life got in the way, then I just forgot. I’m old, ya know. Bifocals and all that. Anyway, my buddy Marcy Italiano has finally published her memoir Katrina and the Frenchman. Marcy and her husband, G, had just returned from their 10th wedding anniversary cruise and was spending a couple of days in New Orleans when hurricane Katrina hit. This is her story.

I had the honor of being one of the first to read this book. I read it in pieces as Marcy wrote it. It is raw, powerful, gut-wrenching stuff. You get to see the horrors of Mother Nature and human beings at their worst, but you also get to see people acting with compassion and love. It’s a read you won’t soon forget.

Here’s a press release Marcy sent to promote the book:

KATRINA AND THE FRENCHMAN: A JOURNAL FROM THE STREET is now available!

On August 27, 2005, a Carnival cruise ship docked at the harbor of New Orleans. Amongst the arrivals were Canadian writer Marcy Italiano and her husband, G, wrapping a wild 10-year anniversary celebration in a city they dearly loved. But this was less than 48 hours before the levees crumbled, and the nightmare began.

Katrina and The Frenchman is a haunting, harrowing first-person account of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, seen from the perspective of two tourists trapped in a city gripped by terror, and coming apart at the seams. Repeatedly finding light in the darkness, and then watching the darkness swallow it whole. Finally forced to escape on their own, when the system broke down completely.

Mostly, though, this is a story about beautiful people, and what they become as their hope runs out.

“I love this book. It’s a riveting story, intimately told with skill, deep humility, startling honesty, and the kind of stark photographic recall most people only achieve when they find themselves suddenly slapped within an inch of their lives by death. Which is, of course, precisely what happened; and that profound revelation is delivered intact throughout the course of this beautiful, powerful work.”
– John Skipp, bestselling author of Jake’s Wake and The Light At The End

Marcy Italiano is sharing their story so that donations from sales of Katrina And The Frenchman: A Journal From The Street can be made to Common Ground Relief, and to help the people of New Orleans.

Find out why the story was written, listen to the song and video, and buy the book for a good cause at: http://www.marcyitaliano.com

Thank you for your support.

Mission: Wolf on board in battle against vampires

I am very pleased to say that Silver Cliff, Colorado-based Mission: Wolf has graciously accepted my invitation to join the werewolves in battle against Gabriel Faust and her vampire minions at Vampire vs Werewolf.

Mission: Wolf is a wonderful organization that rescues wolves born in captivity, as well as wolf hybrids, and gives the animals a safe home in a remote part of Colorado’s beautiful Rocky Mountains. They encourage visitors to come out, see the wolves, camp on-site and wake up to the song of the “children of the night.” They also take wolves on the road to educate people about the truth concerning these majestic and often misunderstood animals.

And, to make it even better, Kent was very cool about coming on board. Good folk there in Colorado! Speaking of which, I need to thank my long-time friend Robyn Lydick for recommending Mission: Wolf.

This is all well and good, you’re saying, then adding, “But what can I do?” I’m glad you asked! Go to www.vampirevswerewolf.com and read about the “battle” between the mighty werewolves and the dirt-sleeping vampires. Or, we can cut to the chase and you can just go straight to the donation page and start buying raffle tickets that will help support Mission: Wolf and put you in the running to win a full set of my Werewolf Saga books.

When you go visit the Mission: Wolf site, make sure you click on the Links page and read about some of the things being done for and to the wolves in North America. If that doesn’t make you want to support an organization like Mission: Wolf … well, I worry about ya.

Last word: Don’t forget to come to the live “battle” between me and Gabrielle at noon on July 18 at Eerie Books of Wylie, Texas.

SoonerCon 2009 recap

I’m tired. Maybe I’m just old. I don’t know. I almost slept through my panel this morning, which would have been bad. I mean, like K. Hutson-Price kinda bad. Yeah. At least she had a good excuse for missing that panel, though. If, you know, excessive debauchery is a good excuse.

But I can’t spend the whole blog picking on Kristy. She may return the favor, and she has a sharp wit better avoided. And, she was only one of several people it was good to see again.

Alan, Leonard and the crew put on another great SoonerCon convention with excellent programming. I wish I could have attended more panel and especially The Twisted Blades demonstration, but they kept me pretty busy. When I wasn’t on a panel, I tried to hang around the Darkfaery Subculture Magazine booth because they were kind enough to let me put books for sale on their table. At the moment, I can’t remember which of my panels was my favorite … probably the “Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies, Oh My!” panel. I don’t get to sit on too many panels with Selena Rosen, but when I do, they are always memorable.

Who else can I talk about? Hmm … THE James K. Burke was there (sorry Jim, can’t find a link for you) and gave me a fascinating lesson on aviation history. The biggest surprise was that Rachel Caine was there instead of in Germany. Her husband Cat Conrad was there, too, and I learned that he, not the family feline, likes to add hot spices to the food. Yes, for a while I thought Rachel had the smartest cat on the planet. Sherri Dean was there and, as always, was a pleasure to be around (Sherri, you don’t have a Web site???) She made a parting comment about collaborating on a project for a certain magazine, and I think that’d be fun. The always-smiling Rosemary Clement-Moore was there, though I didn’t get to talk to her all that much.

Okay, finding the links is taking too long. You want to know who was there, go look at the Guests page at the con Web site. I’m only linking to two more. You see, I’m looking forward to the online appearance of a photo in which I dunk Craig Wolf with one throw at the TrickConTreat dunking booth. Ah, that was sweet.

So, if you’ve never been to SoonerCon, you should start making plans for next year. They were able to confirm the guest of honor before we left this year, and you will not want to miss your chance to be in the presence of one Mr. Joe R. Lansdale.

Okay, well, back to that panel I almost slept through. You know, like Ms. Price did. It was about the fine art of collaboration. My collaboration partner wasn’t there. She’s back in Maine, where she probably assumed I was at home doing some revisions. So, like, I should totally get to work on that.

Can this be for real?

Can it be? I’m not sure. But … yes … it does seem to be.

I have finally — no, FINALLY — finished the first complete draft of The Girls Nobody Wanted to Date. Look at this:

Okay, well, this word meter won’t let me show how I went over the original estimated word count which, you’ll recall, was 60,000 words.

I was beginning to think this was the book that would never end. That was especially depressing considering the speed at which a certain still-kinda-secret project was written back in December. But now it’s finished. I’ll turn it over to my critique group this afternoon. And I have a voracious student waiting for the end, too. It’ll be nice to see what someone in the target age group has to say about it.

The werewolves are waiting for me. And I am more than ready to revisit them. The Pack is gathering, after all.