Post your Progress Thread

**BrianC** · September 7th, 2006, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Merancapeman

Out of all the thousands (heck, you are a RANDOM person that is coincidentally submitting in the same quarter that I am, although I had intended on submitting LAST quarter) of people that will submit, only the better can win. I doubt HIGHLY that I'm better, but I'm giving it my best, as I'm sure you are as well. Tell me, what is "The Sword is Mightier than the Pen" about?

The trite answer is that it's about a sword

but, of course, it is really about having the courage to follow dreams and not always take the easy road through life. The story centers on a pampered poet/singer in a middle eastern setting who, while traveling through a desert area, finds an old knight dying by the side of the road. The poet comforts the knight, gives him water, and holds him as the old man tells the story of his life. In essence the knight-errant has spent his life questing for a magic fountain, never finding it, but not regretting the quest for it has led him on many adventures. When the knight dies he passes on his sword to the poet. The poet buries the knight and continues on his journey; but when he reaches the village and stands on the threshold of a warm and inviting hearth, he chooses to turn and continue into the wilderness to see what adventures he would have seeking the magic well.

**Merancapeman** · September 7th, 2006, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by BrianC

The trite answer is that it's about a sword

but, of course, it is really about having the courage to follow dreams and not always take the easy road through life. The story centers on a pampered poet/singer in a middle eastern setting who, while traveling through a desert area, finds an old knight dying by the side of the road. The poet comforts the knight, gives him water, and holds him as the old man tells the story of his life. In essence the knight-errant has spent his life questing for a magic fountain, never finding it, but not regretting the quest for it has led him on many adventures. When the knight dies he passes on his sword to the poet. The poet buries the knight and continues on his journey; but when he reaches the village and stands on the threshold of a warm and inviting hearth, he chooses to turn and continue into the wilderness to see what adventures he would have seeking the magic well.

GASP! You can DO THAT?! DOH! I wanted to do a story revolving around the medieval genre, but I figured they wanted SF strictly. Guess I should have read the requirements a little harder, huh? Oh well, SF is a little different than what other things I'm writing, so it might be all right.

That reminds me of a story a late friend of mine wrote called "The Juggler". It's about a boy who yearns to be a juggler, and he trained so well that he thought he was perfect until he learned that he could be better. He inadvertently finds himself face to face with the devil, and he makes a pact, offering his soul to be the best juggler in the world. It's based in medieval times, and the main character goes about on adventures, finally finding himself and realizing a great many things. It's a pretty humbling read. From what I've read with your little summary, your story seems to ring with that same sort of humility that people often need in their stories

. I doubt mine will be a challenge to you.

I have a sort of romantic quality to my story between Merrill and Lilly, but it doesn't begin as such because he's afraid to fall in love (a little story behind that, but it'd be too difficult to explain right now). In the story, you hear about the back-story behind each of the characters and find out how each one ends up aiding the main goal. The crew gets their job from a lowly "Dahgo" smuggling crew (a seperate race not unlike a blue wolf on hind legs; slightly unoriginal, but purposefully so), and they are supposed to be carrying a supply of a toxin called "Lorilliot Jelly" to a moon to be picked up. The story begins when their ship shuts down in the middle of nowhere (their ship is a piece of crap), but... I'd go on, but I'd bore everyone to death. Needless to say, I'm a little scared of it! I'm scared because I can't find what's wrong with it, even though I know there's something wrong.

**Holbrook** · September 12th, 2006, 12:56 PM

I feel as if I am a large 747 in a holding pattern going round and round in circles.

Still no reply from the agent that has Oracle, good or bad? Most likely neither, more likely the agent got swamped with work dealing with his clients. So I will continue to wait.

I have Llafn Meistr nice and shiny now, ready to send out when Oracle is rejected, or send to the agent if he likes Oracle and asks for other work (Who the hell am I kidding)

Not done any more work on Hand of Glory, but a lot of planning of research, this is going to be a killer *sigh* Not the WW1 stuff I have that pinned down now, nor the folk lore I am using. It will be researching the local area, circa 1920 to set the second half of the story in and create a ficitonal village in the area..... Beginning to realise how much I have bitten off!

**Richardb** · September 12th, 2006, 01:14 PM

But Hol...
That's what makes you so much better a writer than I...
I'd be so eager to tell my story I'd just make up all those little details!
Research? That sounds suspiciously like work!

I hope you get good news on your submissions!

**roberteggleton** · September 12th, 2006, 05:26 PM

I got really bummed out, and then some great things happened -- maybe I've got bipolar disorder. Good luck.

**Dawnstorm** · September 12th, 2006, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Holbrook

I have Llafn Meistr nice and shiny now, ready to send out when Oracle is rejected, or send to the agent if he likes Oracle and asks for other work (Who the hell am I kidding)

Having more than one work might actually be a plus. It shows you're a dedicated writer and the novel isn't a one off. I've once read an agent's blog about sentences she doesn't want to read in query letters. One was: "It took me 10 years to write this novel." Her reply - something like: "Great! How long will it take to write the next?"

On the other hand, I've heard that you should advertise one work only...

Both LM & O are great novels with memorable characters. Still rooting.

***

I haven't done any writing myself (computer heat death didn't help); but I'm about to change my approach to writing it. And I've adapted a joke I heard some years ago about uni-profs to characterise both mages and priests. Now, to find a way to introduce it...

Research, oh dear! Skeletons of lizards and bats, insect wings, history of microscopes, climate, roads and travel distance, how big can the Roving Village grow before splitting off into two (and how often has this happened)? symptoms of leukemia, history of medicine, book distribution (scribes? printing techniques?), etc.

I'm *really* looking forward to the setting edit!

**MrBF1V3** · September 13th, 2006, 01:02 AM

I had a short story I'd written earlier this year. I didn't like it, but I did like the idea behind it, and the characters.

So I sat down yesterday and deleted it all except the title and started again.

I like the new version much better. A few editing passes and it could be quite good.

Holbrook, sometimes that 747 has to land on a really short runway. Fortune favors the prepared.

roberteggleton--that doesn't sound bi-polar, it sounds like someone is parading in your rain. I hope great things keep happening.

B5

**BrianC** · September 13th, 2006, 03:00 PM

Well I've had an agent request the manuscript of Rose|Thorn, and I guess I'm feeling heartened by that development. It's certainly better than the two, polite, declinations that I've gotten thus far.

The only issue is that I sent the query to this agent on something of a whim, simply because the agency website indicated that she was interested in fantasy. After doing a little more checking it appears that all of the agent's clients write romance or 'romantic fantasy'. Uhhh-Huhhh. Well, what could it hurt, right? Just the cost of postage, and that's a business expense.

Even if it's not rejected, which is the more likely result once the agent reads far enough to know that Rose|Thorn is very different from the books she has represented in the past, there's nothing that says I have to sign with this agency. I might not even mind being this agent's first client in the fantasy field if, IF she actually has a reasonable plan for selling the manuscript and/or actual connections with editors in the SF field. After all, many agents represent writers of different genres, right?

Oh, and yes I checked her out at the Absolute Write forums, moderated by Victoria Strauss. There's a rep for being slow to respond, but otherwise being professional.

Make that three polite declinations.
Err, four polite declinations.

**Hereford Eye** · September 13th, 2006, 03:23 PM

Hey, Brian, congrats. Please jot a note to Holbrook that this proves it can happen.....oh, wait, the Swordsperson has got that far, too.
Never mind.

**Holbrook** · September 14th, 2006, 01:28 AM

Fingers crossed for you Brian, hope things work out.

As HE said, I have been there once, it didn't work out and knocked the wind out of my sails for a year or more, but this isn't going to happen to you, right? You are going to get an agent, get a publishing deal and fly....

Dawnstorm, thanks for the kind words, thought you had vanished. Research is a killer isn't??? I am tempted to do some "fantasy" writing while I am plodding on with the indepth research I have to do.

Richardb, I am not a better writer, remember I have read your work.

Thanks MrB, though I am worried about this 747's sagging undercarriage!!!

**Optimutt** · September 14th, 2006, 03:10 AM

On a very quiet progession note, yesterday, "A General Problem" broke its 100,000 word mark. It's not as exciting as a quiet rejection from an agent or publisher, as those usually mean that so much more work has already been done, but it's getting there. Best of luck to all of you. May the wind fill your sails until the ends of the earths.

**Holbrook** · September 15th, 2006, 02:21 AM

Well, Oracle has been rejected, but the reply by the agent was the best I have had, wish he had thought my work was "special" enough to take on. Having met the man, himself, at Eastercon, it was my hope to have someone like him represent me. Anyway, I am sending Oracle off to a medium-sized publisher and forget about it for a while.

I am also going to take the plunge with Llafn Meistr, so fingers crossed.

**Erebus** · September 15th, 2006, 08:13 AM

So sorry to hear that news, Holbrook. But remember, every rejection is a step closer to acceptance.

**Merancapeman** · September 15th, 2006, 11:39 AM

Actually, I see a rejection as something to strive for. It means that you've tried and that you're not lazy enough so that you don't do anything about your stories. Of course, this works against my favor because I don't have any rejection slips. Woe is me. But if one recieves that letter, it's like painting a little red tatoo on the side of your plane; you pretty much show that you've killed your story "x" amount of times...... That didn't help, did it? Well... I guess I can't say anything because I've never gotten a rejection letter, but let me tell you that I WISH I had one. It would at least mean that I've sent something in, you know?