Aspiring Novelists

I'm sure there are A.N's out there who, like me, have been discouraged by lines of  rhetoric that focus on the negative aspects of publishing.  It seems that new authors don't stand a chance of seeing their work in press.  Well, the following link should lend some encouragement to us fledglings.      Publishers Seeking Insanely Great Debut Novelists In the article, Jay Schaefer, editor at Workman Publishers in New York City,  breathes hope into the lives of new authors.  He tells us that publishing officials attend writer's conferences all over the country, just to find that "undiscovered debut novelist."   Further, publishing companies are blowing the cobwebs off their wallets and contributing "big bucks" for new novels.  For example, Butnam/Dell payed $600K to new Austrailian author Rebecca James, for her debut novel Beautiful Malice. I could live with that:) I don't know about you all, but I think this is great news.  Since reading the a

Hello All,      It seems like forever since my last post. Small obstacles like ten inches of snow and no electricity have prevented me from writing. When the storm first hit, we lit a few candles and dug in for the long haul, but when the mercury dropped to five degrees, my family and I looked for alternative lodging sources. Much to our chagrin, every hotel within a twenty mile radius was booked. Fortunately, a good friend took us in for a couple of days.      In order to prevent the food in our freezer from spoiling, my husband and I decided to purchase a generator. Unfortunately, everyone else in our situation had the same idea and all of the local stores were sold out. The next day we learned that Home Depot was expecting a shipment of 190 generators to come in by 5:00 p.m. and our name made the waiting list. Needless to say, we were the first ones in line that evening.      Six hundred dollars later, we got the the stupid machine to our house and began setting it up in pitch bl

Hello All, I hope life is treating you well. Things are really good in my neck of the woods.  However, it wasn't until yesterday that I realized it.  Before then,  I was a person who saw the cup half empty.  For example, I play in a weekly poker game, where I usually cash (meaning at least double my money) between 55-60 percent of the time.  In my experience, poker is 70 percent luck and 30 percent skill.  Even though I know it is statiscally probable that I will lose at least 40 percent of the time,  my husband still winds up on the receiving end of my woe is me's when I don't win i.e., I have no luck, the universe hates me etc.  Not once during my rantings did I stop to consider the times that I've taken other people out.  All I concentrated on was the negative.  A year ago I built my dream home, instead of being excited about it, there are times I whine about the increase in our mortgage.   I'm writing a book (as you all are aware), but on several occasions wh

Hello All, I finally completed the chapter I discussed in my last post. Although writing about an event that takes place at a White House cocktail party was quite tedious, I'm proud of the end result. When I sat down to begin the next chapter this morning, the procrastination bug bit me and I spent some time reading my prologue. Needless to say, I'm not happy with it. In contrast, my husband, who reads everything that isn't nailed down, but is not a writer, said he liked it. Since the beginning is one of the most important parts of a book, I decided to post it and get your opinion.  I know that posting my prologue is premature, since my novel is not complete, but I have a running bet with my husband about the type of comments it will evoke. Please understand, I have not edited the text for grammar etc., what I would like to know is: Does the beginning paragraph grab your interest…would you want to read on?  I'm pretty thick skinned, so please be honest.  For those of