Agents of Change?

Having fun, sending emails to literary agents. Which seems to take forever.

Please bear with me, the Internet isn't as fast out here as it is in the cities. As I've mentioned before, I had better Internet access in the Netherlands, 10 years ago. Even my neighbors, who just moved here from Nashville, complain about the service. No, they're not on dial-up, cable's not available, so they're using satellite. Which is pretty slow out here.

Yesterday, heard Bob Edwards Weekend's final chapter of "The Future of Publishing" series. Which sounds like it's going to keep changing, now more rapidly then ever.

Wonder how it's going to affect literary agents?

Everyone in the publishing game is now having to deal with the Web. Twitter, blogs, e-books, websites, all things that didn't exist 10 years ago.

Is the best thing to have a daily video of you reading your book? A podcast for those who are driving or otherwise busy? Followed up by a link to your blog/website where a reader can download a PDF file of your lastest chapter? With a 'donate to the starving writer' button for that all important PayPal account?

Will the writer be able to directly access the reader, without the need for publishers, agents and managers?

Stay tuned, it's all changing.

On the Vine...OR Maybe It Isn't

Just joined Newsvine.

Read the article by Eve Tahmincioglu about contract work. Here's her article:
"Need a job, contract work could be new normal"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36826679/ns/business-careers


Then posted a comment about it, after I stopped laughing. (It beats crying about it.)

Don't know if it shows up on my new site. It's at http://tsegerson.newsvine.com/

Left another comment about 'contract work' here in the U.S.A. at http://www.%2001wageslave.blogspot.com/

I'm not worried, the rest of the country is now starting to catch on to what's really going on in the American workplace.

They can't keep telling tall tales to the Wage Slaves. We may look dumb, but we ain't stupid.

It ain't a pretty sight, what's going on in the workplace.

Wanna eat this year?

Get that garden in now.

April Showers, a Bit LATE

For those of you who are wondering, yes, I survived the Great Flood of 2010.

There will be photos and maybe a video later.

Hope that all my friends in Nashville and Memphis are doing OK.

I don't even want to see what happened in those two cities. What I've seen on the Internet and TV has been too much.


Hang in there, it's got to dry out sooner or later.

What's Down For Now

Me and "THE TREE"

It was a tremendous lightening bolt followed by a deafening crash of thunder that brought me out of the house and onto the porch last year. Bits of bark were scattered across the porch. I picked one up, it still steamed a bit.

Across the road, the large red oak had a stripe down it where the bark had been stripped off by the lightening strike.

My neighbor decided to have the tree cut down, since it was too close to their house and posed a threat of crushing it if it fell. A very real danger down here, since we have tornadoes and high winds in the Spring.

It's an old tree. We haven't been able to figure the age yet, but it's got to be close to 100 years old. I did a rough measurement on it and it's about 4 feet across and 80 feet tall. Or it was 80 feet tall.

So far, it's taken me over a week to cut the smaller branches off and work down to the big stuff. I'm talking limbs that are over a foot in diameter. Lots of tree left to process.

Most of it will wind up as firewood, keeping the old home warm when the cold winds blow.

The trunk, that's another story. I've always wanted to carve a large chair. Something about 10 feet tall, big enough for two people.

That or about a dozen nice coffee tables.

Do You Research or Just Write It?

I spend a lot of time at the local library. A couple of weeks ago, my friend, the librarian, asked me, "Do you do research for your books?"

The question caused me to stop for a moment, "Can't write a book without doing research."

We got into a discussion, since that had been a topic brought up by some other librarians.

Even when I did my memoir-mockumentary (there's a new word for you), "Going Dutch, Trials of a Wage Slave" I did research. I checked on quotes, regulations, business topics and liability. Getting sued is no fun.

The novel I just completed took me almost 5 years to write. It's on a complex topic, cyberwar, and there aren't too many references out there. The subject is so leading edge, most people can't comprehend the topic.

It led to me creating a 4 drawer file cabinet full of background information. This doesn't include the movies, videos, library books, Internet, blogs, etc. that I reviewed to gain an understanding of my subject.

The worst thing a writer can do is put out a book that doesn't have all the latest info on the subject. Sure, it might be wrong in the future, when the technology advances or society overtakes the concept.

But for right now, it better be as good as you can make it.

Faking it will get you burned, every time.

April, Who's Getting Fooled?

Time flies by, when you're working all the time.

I've been doing farm work, started the outline for the follow-up to the novel I just finished. Shouldn't say 'finished' because there will be revisions, edits, etc. when it gets sold to a publishing house. Let's just call it done for now. Doing the 'waiting on the agents' thing.

Dragged the Baja Bug off the trailer the other day. Can't believe it'll be 30 YEARS in June since I bought the beast. It was a typical, simple, red VW Beetle at that time. Got it from the second owner. The car has sat for about 10 years now. Stored while I worked in Europe and haven't had time to do any work on it since I've been back here. Too many other toys and irons in the fire.

May start yet another blog, to follow the rebuild work on the Baja Bug. I'll get some photos up in the next week or so. I started a video the other day to document the rebuild process. I've only built, rebuilt, modified, customized about two dozen VWs in my life, so I should have it looking good in time. Notice I didn't specify how much time...

Other than that, just enjoying the July weather in April. This can't be good, no matter how much we all love it. If it stays this way, will it be 130 in July?

I got a nice start on a sunburn yesterday, rototilling the garden with the tractor, before I realized that I was turning into a TOMato.

Enough of the bad puns, later.

Keep Trying

Spent the past 24 hours trying to get a partial out to an agent.

Everything is fighting it, my computer didn't want to run the word processing program. Fixed it, moved on to reformatting a correctly formatted document that turned into junk on it's own. It's not like I haven't run into this before.

When I worked in the Netherlands, sending tech manuals halfway around the world, you wouldn't believe the way things would print out at the receiving end. That's why I check what I've done before sending it. Even then, it seems like there is some type of problem.

Today, ready to send the partial to the agent, went to another computer, where DSL/high speed is available. Now, I can get on my blog...but I can't get on my email to send them the partial!

To compound this, earlier I called their office, to clarify a couple of questions I had about the submission. Sent to voice mail, haven't heard back. Can't check my email to see if they answered my questions that way.

Are we having fun yet?

Doesn't matter, I don't stop.

Maybe my email server is having a problem.

Either way, I'll get the partial out.

If you're the agent in question, have mercy and a bit of patience, please.

What's that saying? 'That which doesn't kill me, makes me stronger!'