News of the Day

Editor and agent appointments:
The agent doesn't "do" mystery. I guess I should have called it paranormal suspense with romantic elements. This agent was given to me by RWA because the one I requested was booked.
The editor (a very nice and very young, young man who thought I was only 48 - "My mother's 62 and you look a lot younger than SHE does" - which is why I'm not using his real name - to protect him from his mother) likes the story, wants to see a partial but doesn't know where it will fit. This editor was my second choice. My real choice in publishing houses for Elizabeth Peacock was not taking appointments. But I will send my partial to the nice young man who thought I looked younger than his mother.
HOWEVER, I attended a workshop given by the agent who had requested a partial when we met at NJRW in October. I sent it to her. I talked to her after the workshop; she vaguely remembered the title and thought she had started to read it. She told me she would "put it at the top of" her list.
So....I'm sending out queries this coming weekend. Not putting all my eggs in one basket.

Then I attended the Grand Central Spotlight - paranormal is still hot. They had a door prize: reading of a partial. Unfortunately, I didn't get it.

Another luncheon but this time with Eloisa James as the keynote. She, of course, was excellent. Her mother and father were both writers; her father, poet Robert Bly. Her mother didn't read "trashy" books. But Oxford-educated and Fordham professor Eloisa is proud to be the author of 16 historical romances.
I like to sit with people I don't know and get to know them. States represented at lunch (besides me and PA) were Oklahoma, Georgia, New York and Maryland. I gave the president of the Maryland chapter Jonathan Maberry's name for a possible speaker for them.

I attended a synopsis workshop that had a couple of technical tips I might use and then meandered over to the Wit and Wisdom of Jennifer Crusie for a few giggles.

Next was the Pocket Spotlight - paranormal, especially dark and gritty urban paranormal, is hot - but so is woman's fiction and historicals. I won a book, like most of the attendees.

My last workshop - the one I couldn't finish because I was too pooped: Mauled Men, Drowned Dames and Crispy Critters - about disposal of bodies - mostly legal disposal.

Other news: I have a suitcase full of free books! I brought about 300 promotional cards for Macie - most are gone. Do you think she would thank me? Noooooooooo...