Writer's Conference and Calling

This was my first writer's conference; and I pitched my novel to two agents, and the very first pitch, I felt like I was going to choke on my own nervousness. I survived that one, and the agent was very sweet. Fortunately I wasn't as nervous about my second pitch, which was good because that one didn't go so well.

When I told him the length of my fantasy, he proceeded to enlighten me on how the fantasy market works, how difficult it is to break into, and how, if my story is just a story about characters, I should set it in Victorian England instead of a fantasy world (as though a sense of place and story means nothing to me). Well, this got me quite angry, and quite determined that if the fantasy market is indeed as boxed-in as he says it is then it is time for somebody to try something different, like short fantasies that are actually readable by the average Americans rather than the heavy-handed technical jargon that is on the fantasy shelves of Barnes and Noble--suitable only to the diehards.

With that in mind, I am beginning my second short fantasy, and hope to write two before my next conference so that when I again meet with a protesting agent, I can at least come across as serious, if a little idealistic!

a new post

Well, folks, it's time. I'm a writer, after all. Why is it that for months and months I can't seem to organize my thoughts enough to post even a little something?

The answer is a good one. I have written a novel. And pitched it to two agents (although one of them, when he heard that my novel was not one of those 300-page fantasies you see on bookstore shelves, didn't want to hear my pitch). And, after that intriguing experience, was motivated to write another two novels.

Pitching was not successful; I have not had any requests for manuscripts. But I love writing, and I believe that the now small and unpopular fantasy market needs a face-lift--books that are readable by ordinary people like me, books like Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, or space trilogy. Books to be read and enjoyed, rather than waded and suffered through. And if I never get a publisher for the kind of fantasies I intend to write, at least I know I will always have an interested reader in Eddie!