Any writers?

[Viola]

I think I am going to try to write a submission (a delightfully vague word, note I didn't say "anything good") for the alternate history contest, and set it in, I think, the fifties of an Earth where FDR lived to the end of WWII and did not nuke Japan and went with one of his pet ideas of locating the new Jewish homeland somewhere other than the Middle East.

Also I shall shamelessly mine this forum for ways to keep my elsewhen-'50s plausible and period-feeling.

 

[AmateisGal]

I think I am going to try to write a submission (a delightfully vague word, note I didn't say "anything good") for the alternate history contest, and set it in, I think, the fifties of an Earth where FDR lived to the end of WWII and did not nuke Japan and went with one of his pet ideas of locating the new Jewish homeland somewhere other than the Middle East.

Also I shall shamelessly mine this forum for ways to keep my elsewhen-'50s plausible and period-feeling.

I say go for it! It sounds like a splendid idea.

 

[Spitfire]

I'm a copywriter, too, Spitfire. Do quite a bit of freelance (though it's been rather sparse lately) in that area, mainly in book publishing.

Where is your script set?

Germany, last warwinter. An american pilot escaping from a POW meets a german farmer and his daughter. Partly based on a true story. A story of lies and truth. Love and death....what else is there?

 

[Yeps]

I am write a lot more music than I do words, but maybe I will set my novel for NaNoWriMo as a noir story in the 20s or 30s.

 

[AmateisGal]

Germany, last warwinter. An american pilot escaping from a POW meets a german farmer and his daughter. Partly based on a true story. A story of lies and truth. Love and death....what else is there?

Ooooh. That sounds wonderful!

 

[AmateisGal]

I am write a lot more music than I do words, but maybe I will set my novel for NaNoWriMo as a noir story in the 20s or 30s.

I've tried NaNo in the past, but it is such a bad time of year - November -with the holidays and school getting out for vacation, etc. I really wish they would move it to January or February, those dark, winter months when there's not much else to do but sit in your cozy house and write!

 

[Senator Jack]

I finished writing The Fine Art of Mixing Girls back in November and am having a hell of a hard time finding an agent even remotely interested in a hapless gossip columnist, 1950s New York, cocktails, and cold war communists, though the last two are allegedly hot right now. I suppose I could do a fast rewrite and make all the characters vampires, werewolves, and zombies. That should sell it.

Regards,

Jack

 

[AmateisGal]

I finished writing The Fine Art of Mixing Girls back in November and am having a hell of a hard time finding an agent even remotely interested in a hapless gossip columnist, 1950s New York, cocktails, and cold war communists, though the last two are allegedly hot right now. I suppose I could do a fast rewrite and make all the characters vampires, werewolves, and zombies. That should sell it.

Regards,

Jack

Jack, this just baffles me. You'd think with the phenomenal success of Mad Men that they would just jump on a book like yours. It sounds awesome.

 

[Undertow]

I finished writing The Fine Art of Mixing Girls back in November and am having a hell of a hard time finding an agent even remotely interested in a hapless gossip columnist, 1950s New York, cocktails, and cold war communists, though the last two are allegedly hot right now. I suppose I could do a fast rewrite and make all the characters vampires, werewolves, and zombies. That should sell it.

Regards,

Jack

Sorry you're having so much difficulty! I've also been browsing agents for a novel I have on the back burner (waiting for copyright cert to show up).

Here are a few agents/agencies I've seen that may be of value to your search (and I apologize ahead of time if this seems rude on my behalf - I don't want to seem like I'm trying to undermine your labors. Just looked over my notes and thought I could throw a few suggestions out there! )

Venture Literary Agency
http://www.ventureliterary.com/v7_content.html
submissions@ventureliterary.com

The Knight Agency
http://knightagency.net/about_us/
http://knightagency.net/manuscript_submissions/proposal_guidelines.html
Submissions@KnightAgency.net

Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
http://www.lmqlit.com/placeholder.html
http://www.lmqlit.com/contact.html
info@lmqlit.com

 

[Senator Jack]

Thanks, Undertow. Looking through my correspondence, I see I sent to Venture back in January but never received a response. LMQ was a form rejection. Didn't know about Knight, so I'll send out to them. All leads help!

Has anyone else been using querytracker.net? Very useful up-to-date agent site and it's free.

Funny thing, Amateis, is that I started writing this book long before Mad Men and the neo-cocktail culture arrived, and now I'm afraid that I missed the boat on it. I had taken the title from a long out-of-print 1948 cocktail guide called The Fine of Art Mixing Drinks. I found it at an antique shop back in the mid-90s. One night I just said to myself, 'The Fine Art of Mixing Girls' and thought, 'Wow, that's a title,' and got to work. Then about a year ago, when I was nearly finished, due to the neo-speakeasy craze, after 50 years some imprint re-published 'Mixing Drinks'. Damn! I should have been ahead of that curve.

Regards,

Jack

 

[AmateisGal]

I use another agent tracking site - LitMatch.net, though it's changed now to www.authoradvance.com. and I like it well enough, though it has a few quirks to it that are a bit annoying.

I still think it's a matter of finding the right agent for your work, Jack. I have had some very positive responses on my WW2 novels - but I continue to hear the "hard era to sell" line. I somehow don't think I'd have nearly the problem selling it in the U.K. as here in the States. There is a lot more WW2-era fiction overseas than in the U.S., especially set on the "homefront." I can't help but think that it's because Britain had far more to endure on their homefront than the U.S. did - bombing, lots more food rationing, etc. - and it is in their national consciousness much more than it is in the U.S.'s.

 

[Undertow]

Senator Jack and AmateisGal, thank you very much for those links!! :eusa_clap I've been searching and searching, these will help greatly!!

I've been using Preditors and Editors. I started at the Z's and I've only made it to the E's. So far, I've found a few promising sounding leads, but I haven't sent out any letters yet. I know I don't have to wait for Copyright (and I know some agents take offense if you've already C'd your work), but if I ever lost something to a word pirate, I would be devestated.

It takes a little courage for me to say this, but I hope that one day I will be a published and successful author. It's what I've aspired to since I was in second grade.

 

[Senator Jack]

It takes a little courage for me to say this, but I hope that one day I will be a published and successful author. It's what I've aspired to since I was in second grade.

Wanting to be successful in the arts does seem elicit a elicit supercilious response from people these days, especially from women. When asked what I'm doing with my life, I say, 'Trying to sell a book I wrote,' and ninety percent of the replies are, 'Isn't the real satisfaction from having written it? Why do you need fame and praise to measure your self-worth?'

Um, because I need money to live and write the next book? They don't get that. I didn't learn my craft by writing part-time at night. I wrote and rewrote on the average of six days per week for the last eight years. For the last two years, I've lived on savings just so I could get the novel finished and have one under my belt. It's a damn long hard process, and with the savings gone, I need a publisher to say, 'Here's fifty grand. Write the next one.' Yeah, I want to be successful. Maybe not wildly successful, but enough to let me do what I love for a living.


And, Amateis, you're right about the Brits consciousness of the war being more than ours. Apart from the occasional summer blockbuster about it, I think our consciousness began to fade by the late 60s. I really don't understand agents' about period pieces being a hard sell. The Name of the Rose was a bestseller and that was a medieval monk mystery. All they want is a quick 15% with minimal work.

Regards,

Jack

 

[LizzieMaine]

A World War 2 vampire romance would sell ten million copies, if one could become cynical enough to write it.

 

[Shangas]

A World War 2 vampire romance would sell ten million copies, if one could become cynical enough to write it.

Damn vampires! I will SHOOT whoever it is that decides to write a book about that!

 

[Pompidou]

A World War 2 vampire romance would sell ten million copies, if one could become cynical enough to write it.

I could see it. The tide of war is turning against the Third Reich because of the disastrous losses on the eastern front. Himmler advises Hitler that the only way to crush the Soviet Union, and then the Allies as a whole, is to create an army of Nazi werewolf super-soldiers. A British SAS officer gets word of this and the Allies devise a countermeasure. The only way to defeat an army of Nazi werewolf super-soldiers is with patriotic vampire super-soldiers from the good ol' US of A. The Germans work out of an underground bunker laboratory in Berlin. The Americans do likewise in a secret airforce base in the desert of the American southwest. The two sides succeed in their efforts roughly simultaneously, though the Nazis still have no idea the Allies had created vampires to counter them.

Strong, heroic, pretty-boy vampires with oft-malfunctioning uniform shirt buttons take on the massive, brainless, evil Nazi werewolves in their shredded uniforms and Incredible Hulk pants. One particular vampire falls in love with an Italian civilian girl, and I don't think I need to explain further. It could sell millions.

 

[PADDY]

Writing for a living.

Anyone making a living as a writer?

I used to for many years MK as a staff news reporter on Newspapers in the UK. Things changed as has my job role.

 

[Shangas]

I could see it. The tide of war is turning against the Third Reich because of the disastrous losses on the eastern front. Himmler advises Hitler that the only way to crush the Soviet Union, and then the Allies as a whole, is to create an army of Nazi werewolf super-soldiers. A British SAS officer gets word of this and the Allies devise a countermeasure. The only way to defeat an army of Nazi werewolf super-soldiers is with patriotic vampire super-soldiers from the good ol' US of A. The Germans work out of an underground bunker laboratory in Berlin. The Americans do likewise in a secret airforce base in the desert of the American southwest. The two sides succeed in their efforts roughly simultaneously, though the Nazis still have no idea the Allies had created vampires to counter them.

Strong, heroic, pretty-boy vampires with oft-malfunctioning uniform shirt buttons take on the massive, brainless, evil Nazi werewolves in their shredded uniforms and Incredible Hulk pants. One particular vampire falls in love with an Italian civilian girl, and I don't think I need to explain further. It could sell millions.

Several rounds from a high-powered firearm are now hurtling towards you at terminal velocity.

And I WISH I could become a writer who made his living through his literature...

 

[AmateisGal]

Wanting to be successful in the arts does seem elicit a elicit supercilious response from people these days, especially from women. When asked what I'm doing with my life, I say, 'Trying to sell a book I wrote,' and ninety percent of the replies are, 'Isn't the real satisfaction from having written it? Why do you need fame and praise to measure your self-worth?'

Um, because I need money to live and write the next book? They don't get that. I didn't learn my craft by writing part-time at night. I wrote and rewrote on the average of six days per week for the last eight years. For the last two years, I've lived on savings just so I could get the novel finished and have one under my belt. It's a damn long hard process, and with the savings gone, I need a publisher to say, 'Here's fifty grand. Write the next one.' Yeah, I want to be successful. Maybe not wildly successful, but enough to let me do what I love for a living.


And, Amateis, you're right about the Brits consciousness of the war being more than ours. Apart from the occasional summer blockbuster about it, I think our consciousness began to fade by the late 60s. I really don't understand agents' about period pieces being a hard sell. The Name of the Rose was a bestseller and that was a medieval monk mystery. All they want is a quick 15% with minimal work.

Regards,

Jack

I'm the same way. I want to make a living off of writing novels. I don't need to be rich - and if I need to work a part-time job or do freelance writing on the side to supplement the income from writing novels, I'll do it. But anything to get out of this 8-5 grind of doing something I do not enjoy.

Undertow, I've wanted to be a successful, published novelist since the 6th grade, so I completely understand where you're coming from. And I truly think that if we keep working on our craft, keep writing, and keep sending out our work, we will achieve it!

 

[Undertow]

I could see it. The tide of war is turning against the Third Reich because of the disastrous losses on the eastern front. Himmler advises Hitler that the only way to crush the Soviet Union, and then the Allies as a whole, is to create an army of Nazi werewolf super-soldiers. A British SAS officer gets word of this and the Allies devise a countermeasure. The only way to defeat an army of Nazi werewolf super-soldiers is with patriotic vampire super-soldiers from the good ol' US of A. The Germans work out of an underground bunker laboratory in Berlin. The Americans do likewise in a secret airforce base in the desert of the American southwest. The two sides succeed in their efforts roughly simultaneously, though the Nazis still have no idea the Allies had created vampires to counter them.

Strong, heroic, pretty-boy vampires with oft-malfunctioning uniform shirt buttons take on the massive, brainless, evil Nazi werewolves in their shredded uniforms and Incredible Hulk pants. One particular vampire falls in love with an Italian civilian girl, and I don't think I need to explain further. It could sell millions.

As silly as this seems, you could ABSOLUTELY turn this in to a graphic novel series, followed by an animated series and finally topped off by a trilogy of films. Hey, if Hellboy can do it, why in the world couldn't Band of Suckers? lol Or Code Red: Project Nightwing?