I've been 'in between projects' for quite a while now, but nothing is leaping out at me as being a fantastic idea to pursue. And it's been a long time since I felt this way. It's not like I don't have things I could be working on. Stumped is out with beta readers, so I don't need to be playing with that one, but I'm not feeling any great pull toward revising the big pile of poo that is Paradise either.
But if I'm not revising, I should be writing, right? But how can I write something when I don't have a story that's burning to be told?
Is this a sign I need to be taking a break for a while? I did write 4 books in the last year. Maybe my brain is trying to tell me something.
I'm trying to throw together a halfway decent query for STUMPED, and am finding it difficult. And since my lovely blog readers were so helpful when I was writing my query for Sidewalks, I thought I'd give you all a shot at ripping this new one to shreds.
So have at it! I'm struggling to get Ozzy's voice in there. He's a very funny guy, even if his story doesn't sound humorous. And some of the situations he gets himself into are hilarious, even if they are kind of tragic at the same time.
Dear Agent of my Dreams,
XXXX (reason for choosing agent) so I thought you might
be interested in STUMPED, a 75 000 word contemporary YA novel.
Sixteen-year-old Ozzy Hellier has a shelf groaning with swimming
trophies, his brother’s car, good friends and a super-hot girlfriend who’s
ready to take their relationship to the next level.Tonight. At the lake.
But a missing condom scuttles his elaborate plans for seduction.Furious with himself, Ozzy drops his
girlfriend home and drives off - into the path of an oncoming truck. He wakes up in the hospital, both legs
amputated above the knees.
It’s hard enough to come to terms with everything he’s lost, but when
his girlfriend finally comes to visit and runs out of his hospital room gagging
after one look at him, Ozzy knows he’s a hideous freak. He becomes convinced he
blew his only chance at losing his virginity and sex takes on such a mythic
quality he’s sure it’s the only thing that will make him whole again.
Determined to prove he can still be a man despite his disability, Ozzy
throws himself into dumping the burden of his virginity, but finds there’s a
limited number of women willing to touch legless dudes in wheelchairs. He tries
his luck with a fellow amputee in his support group, but with only one leg
between them, the physical challenge leads to the first of many humiliating
failures. Another goes viral on
the internet. With every misadventure, it becomes increasingly
obvious that if Ozzy is going to do it, he’ll have to pay for the privilege.
Ozzy’s obsession takes him into the seedy underworld of brothels and
escort services where he learns that sex and intimacy are not the same thing,
and that sometimes the price you pay for getting what you want is much higher
than a sex worker’s fee.
I was inspired to write this book after meeting an Australian sex worker
whose advocacy for the disabled is extraordinary.
My short stories have
appeared in Halfway Down The Stairs, A Fly in Amber, Daily Flash Anthology,
The Barrier Islands Review, Death Rattle, Drastic Measures, Rapunzel’s
Daughters and Cutlass and Musket – Tales of Piratical Skulllduggery among
others.
Per your submission
guidelines, you will find XXX below.Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing
from you soon.
Regards,
Kate.
Thanking you in advance for your help.... Happy to return the favor whenever you need it.
When I saw this blogfest I just knew it was right up my alley. But you know what? It's hard to come up with definitive films. There are so many terrible remakes of great films, but equally, there are a bunch of fantastic remakes of mediocre films.
So often foreign language films are remade to make them more accessible for English language audiences, but in translation, a lot of what made the films great, the cultural context, gets lost.
And the most pointless remakes are when filmmakers decide to remake their own films. What were you thinking, Michael Haneke? Funny Games is one of the creepiest films I've ever seen, but the English language remake you did of your own film is just insipid, despite being almost shot for shot identical.
So for my best remake I'm going to go for The Departed which is an English language remake of Hong Kong action flick, Infernal Affairs.
A close second has to be Scarface. Brian De Palma's version is actually better than Howard Hawk's original because the laws about what could and couldn't be shown on screen had relaxed and therefore the more shocking aspects of this story could actually be shown.
As for the worst remakes? There are so many terrible ones., but none quite so repugnant as the English language remake of my favorite film, Wings of Desire (or Der Himmel uber Berlin) as City of Angels. I would urge you to avoid this film like the plague.
And there's a bonus question! Best and worst remakes of songs. Again, there are so many bad ones and I don't want to leave you with a horrible taste in your mouth, so one of the best... Rowland S. Howard's version of She Cried by The Horrors. This song is THE song I played over and over when I wrote The Sidewalk's Regrets.
My good friend Allyson Lindt invited me and Ozzy from Stumped over to her blog today. So if you're at all interested, pop on over and find out what Ozzy has to to say for himself.
I've been asked for a book proposal and two chapters from an editor. Which is exciting, even if the book isn't something I'm 100% passionate about writing. But to be honest, I'm not sure exactly what a proposal entails, or what format it should take.
Is it like a query blurb? A longer synopsis? Or something halfway in between?
And is there a specific layout editors expect?
Does anyone know the answers to this? At the moment I have about 1.5 pages, single spaced, outlining what I think the story will be. Given I'm a pantser, and never do outlines, this is more than I usually start a book with, and I'm entirely unsure if I'll stick with it once I start writing.
I also haven't included the ending in my proposal because I don't know what it is going to be. My MC has 2 choices and until I get to know her better through writing the story, I don't know which way she'll lean.
If any of you know about proposals, could you share your insight?
It's Mother's Day, and while we never do anything special to celebrate it, it means something to me now that I am a mother. I don't think I ever appreciated what a difficult job mothering was until I became one. Especially if you want to be a good one.
It's not something you can learn from a book. There are hundreds of parenting books out there, sure, but you don't learn to be a good parent by reading a book. Every kid is different, and what might work for one kid, won't work for another.
I think that's the hardest part. You have your first kid and think you've made all your mistakes, learned all the lessons, but when baby number 2 comes along, you're starting from scratch. You may be a little more prepared for the utter exhaustion that comes with the sleepless nights, but that's about it. Almost everything else will be different.
But that's also the wonderful part of being a mother. That you're not rolling robots out into the world. That each of these tiny bundles you bring home will be a unique individual with his/her own gifts and talents and disappointments.
So, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.
I've been feeling restless and I'm not sure why. Last week I 'celebrated' my 8 year anniversary of being in my current job. 8 years! I've never even lived in one country for 8 years, let alone held down a job for that long. And next week I have a major birthday.
So maybe that's why I'm feeling restless.
But I don't know what to do about it. It could be partly because I'm between writing projects and don't have anywhere to toss my creative energy. It could be that I'm suffering a little bit of depression over my writing career - or lack of it.
