Sunday, July 03, 2016

Week in Review 7/3/16

Welcome to the week that was. This review is a tad terse. I wrote much of it earlier this week, and then managed to lose the document. I think I trashed it thinking it was the review for the previous week.  You do not want to hear what I called myself when I realized what I had done.


In last week's review Dena Pawling and Melissa Alexander asked about cancelled books:
>>A first time novelist with a three book contract has to sell well enough that the publisher wants to publish books 2 and 3. It's not a given they will.

 If it's a three book contract, but books two and/or three end up not published, how does the publisher get out of the contract? Does it buy out the author? Are books two and three optioned only?

If Book #1 tanks, the publisher will often cancel the contract. The author keeps the money they've been paid for it (generally the on-signing portion of the contract) and the rights are returned to the author. There's a clause in the contract that allows publishers to do that.  It's more likely to happen on Book #3 than Book #2. I've seen an uptick in this happening in YA. 

There are contracts for #2 and #3, not options, but a publisher is not obliged to publish if sales don't support it.

Dena Pawling also asked:
>>Librarians take note of circulation. If lots of library users request Donnaeve's novel, and it circulates well, that will help her now, and on Book #2.

How do publishers and other industry folks know about circulation? Do libraries report those numbers anywhere?
No. They just buy additional copies if the demand exceeds the supply.

Lisa Bodenheim asked:
One question though. All of your tasks that you did last week, you mentioned #7 plotted and schemed on submission next step for a book that is getting no love. Is this a book that you and client are seeking a publisher yet?
Yes. After  a couple rounds of submission we need to consider if we're going to go for a digital-only deal, or one of the smaller publishers that requires an exclusive sub, or whether we'll withdraw this one and go again with the Book-Being-Written.

xinraina asked:
Wait, is Gossamer yours too? How many cats do you have, Janet?
Sadly, Gossamer belongs to DLM, not me. I just like to look at him cause he's a fabulously furry fellow.

I actually have ZERO cats. Both the Duchess of Yowl, and Loaner Cat live elsewhere most of the time. They just come visit me when their real moms go on vacation. I run a summer camp for cats!

BunnyBear asked:
Does QueryManager allow you to create a thread for requests, or are you back to using email to keep track of those?
I don't know what a thread for requests means.  Give me a couple more sentences here.

Donnaeve tried to hide her follow-up question in Monday's post, but aha! I spotted it:
One more time on the SASE GREAT IDEA. (no, I don't wish to be zipped off to Carkoon). You argued your logic quite eloquently. I promise after this two tiny comments (think of them like whispers) to NEVER bring it up again. My theory was you wouldn't reply back by snail mail. You'd only receive queries via snail mail but you'd reply back via email. (they'd include their email when they queried.)

So, tell me, what's this email address: DonnaEve101. Is it 101 or lOl?
Hard to tell isn't it:



On Monday we talked about Dana Kaye's upcoming book on branding


Mile O'Neal said what a lot of us are thinking:
I need this now, not in September!

Kdjames asked:
Janet/Dana, do you know whether this will eventually be available as an ebook? I hope so, as I'm a total convert to that format and really want to buy this book. In the meantime, I've added it to my wish list.
I'm sure it will be since the publisher started as a digital only press!



Sam Hawke made a good point on the value of word of mouth promotion:
This is such good advice. Aside from books from authors I already know and love, I'd say virtually every book I've read in the last 2 years has been because of a) recommendations from friends (direct or indirect recommendations) or b) looking up someone's novels because I enjoy the person on social media. I buy most of my books on kindle these days, and I find the Amazon store impossible to browse, now. I can't trust their algorithms to not suggest me terrible crap. So I rely on hearing about books by talking to other people about books. That's all I have time for. But it totally works!

Colin Smith was the first of several who did not get joke:
Book marketing calls? I only ever get calls from survey-takers (especially political ones at the moment), and the occasional credit card company. I guess the book marketers have yet to get to me.


And it's hilarious Colin missed the joke since he's got a few good ones up his sleeve:
Of course, she didn't mention my advocacy of a certain Australian author of Ancient Greek mystery stories. It seems I'm not doing my job well enough. Maybe one day Janet will pick up one of his books. Who knows, maybe she'll enjoy it... :D

And I just loved this from E M Goldsmith:
So I went to the beach last week. I open my backpack and find I have forgotten to pack the lovely Gary Corby books. Yes, I picked these up because of word of mouth – specifically Colin’s glowing recommendations. Well, no matter, I decide to head off to the local bookstore, Books-A-Million, a small chain I think, to pick up the book once more. Yes, I am willing to buy a second copy of these books and leave for the beach house’s library. It is a rule when you visit my family’s beach house that you must read- it’s a wonderful thing to do in the sun.

I get to the bookstore and no Gary Corby. I complain to the manager who promises to check into these wonderful books. I hope he orders them. Instead, I peruse the bookshelves. Like a lot of yet to be published authors, I dream about where my books will appear on the shelves. I also notice that there is not a lot of room for new authors. Nearly all the horror section is taken up by Stephen King. There are about five authors in the fantasy section that take up over half of it. I feel a little discouraged for myself and new authors everywhere.

Eventually, I decide on three books, a Lee Child staple,
Killing Floor, (there are not enough of these at the beach house and they are terrific beach reads), two best sellers by debut authors, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (I have come to think I am just not a YA fan, but it’s not terrible), and The Axeman by Ray Celestin (this is glorious – set in New Orleans about an actual serial murderer with deeply drawn characters and a setting so rich you can feel the heat and wet of NOLA in every page.)

These are the two main ways I find books to read, word of mouth, and bookstore shelves. I hope, when the time comes, I can write something worthy of word of mouth without a mental breakdown. This post is rather comforting in that regard. Also, the reason I want an agent is to improve my chances of getting a place on those bookstore shelves.

Ann Bennett makes a very good point here:
This is great advice. One of the problems of tooting your own book is the same as selling your own home, your emotional investment is too great. I drive by my childhood home and want to pound on the door and tell them they could at least mow the grass.

And Bethany Elizabeth's mom needs to be on my email data base as a targeted helpful reader:
I'm willing to take book recommendations wherever I can get them, but most of the time it's from family or a particular friend whose tastes run similar to mine. That way, good fantasy novels spread through our family like wildfire. You sell a book to my mother, you've really sold 4 copies - one for each branch of the family. Because we will buy it if Momma tells us to.

Donnaeve is discovering the wild world of in-person promotion:
I went to NC State University Theater on Sat. night with four other local authors to talk about our books. (some of you might remember Cat Warren from Bouchercon? She wrote the book, WHAT THE DOG KNOWS) about the cadaver dogs. She was there.

Anyway, folks were attending an Agatha Christie event. I handed a bookmark to a lady who'd asked me a question about my book. She looked at it, asked another question - all very general, what's it about, etc. As she turned to leave, she handed the bookmark back to me.

I said, "You can keep it. I'm handing these out."

She said, "No. Not now."

(???)

I said, "Oh, okay." I took it back. Who's ever heard of handing back a bookmark? Needless to say that little incident was a sour note in an otherwise great experience.

In my misspent youth as  book publicist, my job was often to accompany writers to signings at bookstores. Sometimes the crowd was…thin.  People would pass by, pick up a book, look it over, put it back down and move on. All while the author was sitting right there with me.  Excruciating doesn't begin to describe it.  I think that's where I learned to carry a flask of whisky in my saddlebags.

InkStainedWench (not wretch, no matter how many times I type that!) asked:
Question: I'd like to write more reviews, but many of the books I read aren't new. Either they're years old, from the library, or I bought them and it takes me a while to get to them. Does it still help the author and/or other readers if I review a book that isn't a new release?
Well, Charles Dickens doesn't need much word of mouth boost, so books that old, probably not.

On the other hand it's not uncommon for a book to become a word of mouth success several YEARS after publication. Recently, I saw an author on Twitter  say she'd hit the NYT list three years post-publication. (I forgot to screen shot the tweet, dammit.)

I think any kind of thoughtful well written review is a plus.

On Wednesday we talked about re-using parts of an old novel in a new one, and how to approach agents who'd requested/read the old one.


Julie M. Weathers asked:
I'm wondering if the exception to not mentioning the agent passed is when they passed on Angels in my Rear View Mirror but asked to see future works.
Yes, that's my oversight, sorry. If an agent asks to see future work, you definitely do want to say that at the top of the query.

and further:
Unbelievably, I've been at conferences and heard people start up conversations with agents with, "Hi, my name is Author Joe. You rejected my manuscript, but I still like you." It's so cringe worthy I can't even imagine what the agent is thinking. How are they supposed to respond. "Oh, thanks."
There is nothing worse than having a writer introduce him or herself this way. I'm always at a loss for what to say. "Obviously I was out of my mind" of course is what I usually say, which I hope is funny enough divert the conversation to other things, and signals to the writer that this isn't a place I want to explore further. The other choice is to explain that I don't take on a lot of very good books, but then we get bogged down in details of that particular book.  

This is the kind of thing that leads me to not wear a name tag at author events, and in fact make someone ELSE wear my name tag (yes I've done that)

On Thursday we talked about do-overs, or what to do when yourealize you've REALLY flubbed up a query:


Jennifer R. Donohue said
And no ma'am, I will not tell a bitching agent on Twitter to suck it up. I will, depending, remove them from my list and perhaps unfollow. But if OTHER agents wanted to tell him/her to suck it up.....

Celia Reeves said
I might THINK about telling a whining agent on Twitter to suck it up, and I might even write that tweet, but I'd never send it. Didn't we have a discussion here a while ago about professionalism in public spaces? I'd have to satisfy myself with snickering about the agent to my friends.

On Friday the A lot of Books writing contest went up! I'm cleaning my bookshelves and have quite a few terrific books to give away as a Grand Prize!

 Results should go up on Monday.



subheader noms:
In the interest of authors everywhere, you should know that a buttload of wine is officially 126 gallons or two hogsheads.--Julie M. Weathers

Sometimes you just have to be fearless. What's an agent going to do? Hit delete twice?"--Julie M. Weathers

37 comments:

Donnaeve said...

Weeeellll. Somebody's gotta be it. Me!

Thank you for this lovely terse review! :) Actually, there are no bad WIR's. Although you may want to bop me on the head for saying that since you lost your work. Just like losing a chapter in the WIP. ICK. UGH. And SH*T!

So this: DonnaEvel0l or DonnaEve101. I have NO idea! I've never seen my email come up like that. Is that actually how it looks when it hits your inbox? It's not even close to my real email address.

That's about as weird as the lady returning my bookmark. Duly noted on whiskey in the saddlebag. Take a swallow or two of a Coke, and add some in, I won't notice when someone acts crummy.

Off Topic - I'm operating on about five hours sleep. That may be the norm for some of you...but if I don't get at least 7, I feel like crud. So, today I feel like crud, BUT, Little Dog feels better. He's the reason for the lack of sleep. He was sick. No idea why. Throwing up, all that icky stuff. I felt so bad for him, and I was worried. He's only 4 lbs so dehydration is an issue - it can hit quickly. He just ate some boiled chicken though...and drank some water. Crisis averted.

Have a great day y'all, or ya'll or all y'all!

Donnaeve said...

OH! And I read Sherry's blog post and Tweeted it out last week. Great stuff, there, Sherry. You made this pack of critters sound great!

E.M. Goldsmith said...

So my guess is our Julie Weathers will be featured sub-head. Both nominations are great, but I will voice preference for a butt load of wine.

Great WIR as always. These posts keep me from giving up and inspire me to keep writing.

My air conditioner went out Thursday night. The HVAC folks did not have part to fix it and won't until after the holiday. Temps are close to 100 degrees Fucked Up. So anything to take my mind off the heat.

I grew up without central air here in Deep South. My, how spoiled I have become in a couple of short decades. This week I realized 1. I am a bit of a wimp and 2. If there was air conditioning in Hell, peace would break out immediately. I am sure of it because all the demons would just stay home playing video games in climate controlled bliss.

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

My saddlebag is more likely to have a flask of rum (or espresso rum, I bought a bottle of that recently, and it smells divine and tastes lovely), but the feeling is the same.

So far as library circulation and book orders and all that, as an insider, I can tell you how we do it in my system/at my library specifically. About monthly, somebody at "headquarters" runs a report and sends the member libraries a list of all of the items which have 5 or more holds on them. Based on how many of OUR patrons have those holds, and how many copies we have, my library will purchase more copies. With The Girl on the Train as a for instance, I think at one point the total system holds (that's 42 libraries) were in the hundreds. My boss bought us up to 14 copies at my library, and when things died down, we pulled 10 of those to make a book club kit. I read it before it went nuts, because I'd liked Sharp Objects so much, and then the reviews rolled in, and then the movie fanned the flames. I think we're down to a more typical 2 copies as of this writing (weeded items go to the library booksale)

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Donna, I hope your little dog continues to feel better. I have sent my pug to stay with my daughter until the air conditioner is fixed. I miss her so much already. So it's just me, a rather ridiculous number of fans, some books, and my writing here in the dark in the coolest room in the house. Sweet misery.

Janet Reid said...

Donnaeve, no your email doesn't come up as Donnaeve101. I was just using you as the example cause, well...I like tormenting you.

My point was intended to be that ones and zeros and the letter L in lowercase and the letter O in uppercase are like twins. Hard to tell them apart but when you mix them up, you get the wrong person.

DeadSpiderEye said...

126 gallons, how many firkins is that?

SiSi said...

I'd like 126 gallons of wine right now.

Lennon Faris said...

I love how Janet has made other people wear her name tag. Janet, did you stand nearby and listen to the conversations? Or join in the conversation? I could see you doing so.

My sister and I are 2 years apart but we look enough alike that growing up, people got us mixed up a lot (still do actually). Our poor pastor had the worst time of anyone, and so of course we decided to capitalize on this. One week we switched personas altogether - hairdos, outfits, usual Sunday shoes, Bibles covers. We even studied the way the other walked and laughed. I'm not sure what this says about where we're going after this life, but it was great practice for pranks in college.

Donna - glad Little Dog is doing better!

EM - hope your AC gets fixed soon. Our dishwasher stopped working yesterday which isn't nearly as bad, but still surprisingly annoying.

Great WIR as always, Janet, abbreviated or no! Thank you!

Donnaeve said...

Ah, well, let me slow down the woodland critter wheel from warp speed to a more sedate pace, now that I know that was only a quick little poke for funsies. I was thinking you had super powers over the internet finagling of emails. Well, you do, but that's a whole other day and comment derail. I'll claim my doh moment on 5 hrs of sleep. ;>)

E.M.! I feel for you. If your humidity is where ours is, (in the area of 72 = steamy = your hair says screw it, put on a hat) then I doubly feel for you.

We need to send E.M. 126 gallons of wine, asap. She drinks all that, she won't know hot from not.

I'm with the wine shub-header too. Jush pour me anotha.

CynthiaMc said...

I haven't left my yard all weekend and I am perfectly okay with that. Wrote most of the day yesterday and plan to write more today, been watching Shark Week with hubby and doing virtual jigsaw puzzles (no pieces to lose or have the cat knock over). We had about ten extremely well-behaved baby finches and their mama at the feeders this morning along with two well-behaved baby cardinals and their parents. The woodpecker has taken to hanging out while I weed and we chat. One of the squirrels I suspect was once a pet or someone's gardening buddy (I think probably one or more of the elderly couples on our street who are sadly no longer here) and insists on being hand-fed his peanut. We normally don't but the lengths he went to in order to teach me were hilarious. He must think I'm an idiot. When I finally gave in and hand fed him the peanut he acted as though I were a baby taking my first step. I swear he said "Yes! Finally. Now may I borrow the car?"

Donna - glad Little Dog is on the mend. Our min-pin has allergies and when she starts wheezing she walks to the Benadryl cabinet.

Happy almost 4th, everyone!

Colin Smith said...

There was a joke there? Really?! Just goes to show, for as much as I have been carefully parsing Janet's words for the past 5+ years, I'm still as naive as Donald Trump making a pro-Brexit speech in Scotland. :)

Terse or not, still a good WiR, Mighty QOTKU. Next conference/convention we meet, I'll have to wear your name tag for a season and put on my very best Brit accent. That might be somewhat entertaining:

Startled Woodland Creature: Uhh, Janet? Nice beard. Uhhh... can you give me some query advice?

Me: Why, certainly dear chap! Be absolutely certain, whenever you query the delightful Ms. Barbara Poelle, to refer often to your ficton novel, and be sure to say very little about your main characters, but say a lot about Ms. Poelle's drinking habits and handbag addiction. It's the personal touch that makes the difference you know, old sport!

;)

Colin Smith said...

Oh, and as good as the buttload of wine comment was, I'd go for the "delete twice" comment for the week's subheader. Well done, Julie! :)

CynthiaMc said...

EM - my sympathies on the a/c. Our power was out for almost a week the year we had 4 hurricanes hit us in a row. That was years ago and I'm not over it yet.

Mark Thurber said...

I thought it was DonnaEveLOL -- no wonder I never got any responses. Glad to hear Little Dog is better.

The last several weeks of the blog are inspiring me to try to be better about posting reviews for everything I read (and like), including books on an author's back list. My default is Amazon, but I'm open to suggestions if people think there are other review sites with more impact.

Both subheads are excellent. I vote for #1. At first I thought #2 would be more directly useful for authors, but on further reflection I'm not so sure. My brother is in the wine business, so I'm sure he already knows the volumetric information shared by Julie, but it was new to me.

Great WIR as always, even if there was a little extra angst involved in its creation. Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone!

Theresa said...

If Janet hadn't labeled the WIR as terse, I wouldn't have known. Still a great way to catch up.

I hope everyone manages to have an enjoyable holiday. We're enjoying a rare spell of lovely early summer weather in WI: sunshine and upper 70s/low 80s.

My subheader vote goes to Julie Weathers #2.

CynthiaMc said...

Teresa, I'm heading to your house. It's 93 here, feels like 102 according to the weather chanel app ad 52% humidity.

Craig said...

Thank you, my Queen, for the WIR.

I still have a problem with cancelled book contracts. There are very few books that pop onto the PM or NYT bestsellers list in a couple of weeks. Most breakout books are the third or fourth by a particular author. Then their back list books get a boost. If cancellation is to happen I can see it most in YA too. Weird shit happens in the YA market.

Donna: the heat and humidity are hard on pets down here in the south. Keep the little beast from overheating too.

Cynthia" Yeah, another online jigsaw fan. I have a page(jigsawplanet.com/paddler) if any wish to see.

Subheader: I vote for Julie. It doesn't matter which one, I just vote for Julie.

Flash fiction: Just for the record I did not do two entries. Mine was the 10:38 one "The Devil roared." Thanks

CynthiaMc said...

Craig - thank you! I've about exhausted my current stock.

Lisa Bodenheim said...

Great WiR. Terse, usual length--both work. I appreciate the snapshot of the week.

EM: I don't think it's wimpiness. I think it's about how houses are built too. I remember reading about the practical purpose of transom windows. And just the other week, my daughter mentioned the practicalities of a cupola filled with windows. And don't forget about those wraparound porches. Here's hoping some cool breezes might make it your way, at least in the evening. Although, I remember sleeping on hot mattresses during one summer when I was a young adult.

Subheader: I do like Julie's encouragement that we be fearless.

Theresa said...

Cynthia, I hope you find some respite from the heat. Your yard sounds lovely. I keep toying with the idea of starting a writers' retreat, but can't decide if the central Wisconsin location would be a draw or a hindrance.

Dena Pawling said...


Thank you for answering my questions!

Not counting authors signing at my RWA meetings, the only book signing I've ever been to was once when I accidentally stumbled upon LeVar Burton at a Costco. The line for him to sign books went out the door. It must be disappointing and embarrassing to be an author at a signing with “thin” attendance.

I vote for Julie's sub-header. Doesn't matter which one. Just Julie.

We're in the 80s this week, with fires mostly under control. A welcome change from the 100-114 we endured over the past few weeks.

Happy July!

Jessica Snell said...

Although many of the books I read are ones I've heard of via word-of-mouth (mostly from my brother and my mom, honestly; I know and trust their taste), I probably find most of my books via book reviews.

And the thing is, those book reviews don't have to be positive. Sometimes the reviewer doesn't like the book, but if she's a good reviewer, she'll say *why* she doesn't like it, and I'll know whether or not that reason would be a deal-breaker for *me*. Sometimes I know I'd like the book for the very reason the reviewer hated it, and I'll go ahead and pick it up.

So, I guess what I'm saying is: dear authors, don't be too discouraged by bad reviews. Well-written bad reviews might get you just as many readers as the good ones.

DLM said...

Aww Donna, poor Little Dog - we both seem to have had pukey puppy incidents of late. May yours pass, as Penelope's did.

xinraina, as Janet says, I have the honor to take care of Gossamer the Editor Cat, though he likes to pull on his boots and run off to NYC now and again to look in on our Queen. Still, he does come home, if only to keep the dog in her place.

BJ Muntain said...

Another great WiR - terse and all. :)

My choice for subheader is Julie's "delete twice" - for courage!

In Canada, there is a program an author can sign up for that will pay them for the number of book loans they have from libraries across the nation. That check really comes in handy, I've been told.

Over ten years ago, I didn't go to many book signings. I never saw any happening in town for the type of books I want to read. But then I saw one for a science fiction author, in our now-defunct independent bookstore. So I went.

I was the only person to go. ALL DAY. I felt so bad. I did buy his book and had him sign it, but demured when he offered to read. I was already nervous enough, talking to an author I'd never met. (I'm better about that now, though. Conferences can help with self-confidence!)

I haven't seen him since - he's Australian, but published by a Canadian publisher. But he's going to be at the When Words Collide conference in Calgary this year, and he says he remembers me. So I guess I'll see him there.

Donna: Look for a chocolate wrapper or something under a piece of furniture. When that happened to Koko, it usually meant he found something he wasn't supposed to eat. Of course, Koko would eat anything that smelled like food. He once stole into my boarder's closet and ate the suet blocks she was going to send to her father for his bird feeder. Glad Little Dog is feeling better now!

Panda in Chief said...

Great to check in on the week in review, even if it is an abbreviated one. I hate when I lose things in my computer.
Mehitabel is jealous that other cats get to go and stay with Janet. I would send her, but she would not enjoy the plane ride, and at 20, she is not all that entertaining anymore. (Unless you think a cat yelling in your ear at 3 AM is entertaining. If that's the case, I'll pack her bags.)

Cynthia Mac's encounters with wildlife are a hoot.Can I send you the woodpecker who thinks it's a gas to drum on my metal roof? Or how about my pack of coyote pups who (I am pretty sure) stole one of the lids off of the vent pipes on my septic system. Ah, the country life. On the bright side, at Mr. Badger's house, the osprey have returned to nest in a tree visible from the house and frequently sit on a high branch, tearing fish apart.

Hello to all the Reiders, from balmy western Washington State, where it is a sweltering 68 today.
You're welcome.

Megan V said...

I also vote for Julie #2

Panda Hello from Tatooine, where it's a balmy 111 and Jabba's Sail Barge is buried beneath the dunes.

EM Hope your a/c is up and running soon.

Donna Glad to hear little dog is on the mend!

And if anyone is willing to send me the 126 gallons, I'd be much obliged. It's been a very rough week.

Donnaeve said...

Thank you all for the well wishes on my little guy! Whatever it was, it hit quick, and is now gone. He's eating and drinking normally now.

BJGreat thinking about chocolate wrapper, except...well, you'd just have to see how LD acts with food and you'd know. He'd be afraid of the wrapper, basically. He's very squirrely - even with regular food.

Craig I actually think you might have hit it. I'm stringent about what he eats, so I was pretty sure it wasn't food related. But...THE HEAT. If that's something that can affect a dog the next day (i.e. after being out in it too long the day before) then, that's likely it. It was mid 90's, and I worked in the yard for a couple hours. Little Dog was on the porch - with water, and a fan - but I bet he got too hot. I looked up symptoms of heat related illness after your comment, and it fit. Bad Mommy!

julieweathers said...

Zooming by. I'm on baby sitting duty today. This is a great week in review as always, but dang at losing the one you had written. I hate it when that happens.

That's why I could only force myself to rewrite 17 chapters Dancing Horses when I lost it. Once I've written it, I can't stand to rewrite it. Those people who write a novel and then throw it away and start over. No, that would never happen.

Regarding writing reviews on books that have been out for a while. I do unless I hate them. Diana Gabaldon has one that was released years ago that just hit the number 1 on the best seller list for the first time on a reprint. Another one is projected to hit the number 1 spot on the best seller list for the first time. The first time it was released the publisher also released another blockbuster that got all the attention at the same time if I remember the story right. So, these books have been out for decades and are just now going number one. I think the rest have all made the list. I don't keep up with it that closely. I was just surprised when she said the other had made it to the top for the first time.

Anyway, good reviews never hurt and they're good for you also.

AJ Blythe said...

That you still wrote the WiR after losing the first is a great example to any writer out there - suck it up and do-over whatever catastrophe hits. Thanks, Miss Janet =)

John Davis Frain said...

Janet,
Brevity is an art (not my art, I can't even do stick figure brevity), so a terse WIR figures to be artistic. Not surprisingly, yours is.

Ironic that you should lose your original WIR on the very day you posted about do overs. Well, irony is usually in the eye of the beholder. You probably had a different word or phrase for it, but it's Sunday so I won't guess.

Funny side note. When I read Donna's comment a few above mine ["Thank you all for the well wishes on my little guy! Whatever it was, it hit quick, and is now gone. He's eating and drinking normally now."]

I misread it, and thought Donna said "...he's editing and drinking normally now" and I was totally jealous for at least two minutes until I went back and re-read it. Then, quickly over my jealousy, I was disappointed for Donna.

I'm like the Reading version of Autocorrect some days. Keeps things entertaining.

Anonymous said...

I also vote for Julie's words. All of them, anytime.

Janet, I didn't think this post was terse. But I'm Scandinavian. A terse post would consist of a curt nod and maybe an ambiguous grunt.

A quick note for those who might notice my upcoming absence (*crickets*), I plan to be mostly offline during July. Wish it were for something as interesting as sailing halfway around the world, like Amy, but no. Just focusing intently on writing.

Her Grace, Heidi, the Duchess of Kneale said...

Aw man, I forgot about the books-a-dozen writing contest, so busy I was this weekend. My stateside parents will be so disappointed I didn't win them fifteen of Her Sharkness' last year's book collection.

I vote for the fearless subheader. (As if I didn't have enough voting this weekend. Right now Australia's looking at its federal election results, going "Criminy!" Meanwhile, two blokes are thumb-wrestling to see which one will be prime minister.

Whoever loses gets the job.

Dear Heat Stroke Victims,

Kindly send your high temps my way. It was literally freezing this morning. I scraped ice off the windscreen. The wake for my poor, late tomatoes will be later this week.

Chillingly Yours,

Her Grace

P.S.: the captcha had a picture of tomatoes. Cruel.

Julie Weathers said...

Back home!

Thanks for the sub header nominations. I'm surprised and thankful. Very surprised.

Poor doggie.

We went to a dog show once that was so hot and I wasn't drinking enough water. I was showing and got overheated. We had several dogs there and a lot of people wanted to look at them, discuss bloodlines, etc. Don, my ex, could never keep them straight past the first generation and he forgot to load the stud book that I kept all the pedigrees in.

So, I'm leaning on the side of the horse trailer puking and people are asking pedigrees. Don is trying to muddles through them. "No, Painted Saint is by Dixon's Fod out of Painted Lady. Dixon's Fod is Hartnagle's Sidney out of Sally Jo. Painted Lady is by the Shiloh son Red Ranger and out of Paint Me Pretty who is *barf arrrrghhh* sorry, Deal Me Spades." arrrghhh "Just a minute."

"And what is this one out of?"

Heat exhaustion is no bueno.

Joseph Snoe said...

On book recommendations: Someone on this blog several weeks ago recommended Fannie Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station Final Reunion. I started reading it today. The first chapter reads like a stand-up routine. Three lines about a wedding made me laugh out loud. I’d quote it for you but the book’s in the basement and I’m too lazy to get it.

I also bought a couple of books from the posted favorites on this blog last December.
Besides Amazon.com (where I don’t comment) there’s Goodreads (where I do comment).

Other: I grew up in hot and humid Houston, Texas. We got out first window unit air conditioner when I was around twelve. All we had was an attic fan. My parents bought a house with central air as I was leaving for college.

Julie W. – You’ve led an interesting life. P.S. Think of it as you spent your day being entertained by your grandbabies.

Janet Reid - WIR was very interesting, as usual.

Joseph Snoe said...

On looking like your sibling. My brother is fifteen years younger than I am. We went to see Jerry Jeff Walker in a Houston club. A tipsy woman in the table next to us asked if we were brothers. We said yes. She giggled and asked if we were twins.

I thought it was funny. My brother didn't.

BunnyBear said...

I asked if QueryManager creates a thread for requests, and Janet asked for clarification.
When you query by e-mail, the agent replies (hopefully with a request for more material), and then you reply to that reply, creating an e-mail thread. Agents like to keep track of your communications this way.
When you query using QueryManager, I assume the agent replies to you in an e-mail. If she asks for more material, do you then reply to that email with your response or does she give you a secret code to unlock the next tier of awesomeness in QueryManager where you enter your response? If it's the former, you're creating an e-mail thread and QueryManager is used only for initial queries, right?
Does that make sense?
https://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2016/07/week-in-review-7316.html
jetreidliterary.blogspot.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-30
230331
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:766L6KUVERRYB4NLCU6N6Q7S7T3ULYYN
<urn:uuid:a10f3d21-7c98-445e-81ef-3baf0cad8282>
2018-07-20T20:28:46Z
172.217.15.65
text/html
sha1:C42KOK2VSS5POL7YG2R2EMXDINY3TIYD
<urn:uuid:4014461a-f66b-4b33-b83d-9d44610110e1>
https://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2016/07/week-in-review-7316.html
response
<urn:uuid:5c2a9e68-bef1-4798-b48d-38b7ffe181c1>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-93-215-43.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-30
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for July 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf