Literary Agent Hunt, Query Letters, and New Authors/Books to read

I spent the week writing a query letter and putting together a database of literary agents, authors, and books they represent.  I wanted to be authors I'd read or heard.  I wasted a lot of ink printing things out.  I finally got a small list assembled.  Some of the agents represent several authors I'd read.  I was told to have a list of at least 50-100 possible agents.  God, that'll kill me, lol!

Here's a list of authors and books I need to eventually read:

Ben Bova's Orion and King Arthur; John Scalzi's Old Man's War; Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice; Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage; R.M. Meluch's The Twice and Future Caesar; Robert Jordan's Wheel of TIme, Set #1; Gini Koch's Alien vs. Alien.

I now have about a dozen different sci-fi/fantasy books to read, along with these.  I'd be lucky to get one read a month.  I might be caught up on all my reading by the time I get Kepler Falling through WUTA and Big Books in two years.  It will take me that long to get done with my reading list...

However, I'll see about getting a query letter to WUTA one of these days. Soon.

Done moving

I finished moving last night.  I just have to clean up my old bedroom, vacuum it, and give my keys back to my former roommate Saturday afternoon.  I'm tired and worn out.  I thought I'd keep cool by moving stuff in the evening.  The humidity and heat didn't cooperate.  However, all the trips I made to and from my old house to my mom's condo paid off...

Setting up my downstairs office

I spent this evening setting up my downstairs office.  I put my laptop computer, books, CDs, and DVDs, in my father's old room.  I updated my computer files and backed everything, too.  I need to install Norton 360 on the laptop latter this weekend and hook it up to the local wifi server.  I've been using my mom's machine for Internet until then. 

I finished a novella recently called Ganbaatar.  It's based on the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1223.   I don't understand why my stories turn into novellas.  This has happened on several occasions.  I wanted a novel.  I got a novella, instead. 

Or my short stories turn into novellas, too.  Battle Damage is a case in point.  I rewrote a new character and scene index to go with it.  I worked on it this morning.  I don't think it'll take long to finish.  I'm taking a hiatus from new projects once I'm done with the rough draft of Battle Damage.  I want to work on a poetry chap book, Half A World Away, and my novel, Kepler Falling.  Those projects should take the next several years... 

Rearranging the book pile: part III

I got through Unbreakable:  Book One in the Chronicles of Promise Paen.  It was fun read.  I gave away some of my books.  It included several WH40K novels.  I had some H.P. Lovecraft anthologies from my brother's book collection.  I started in them and realized I'd already read the stories in earlier anthologies.

I shelved them and moved onto another WH40K novel called Master of Sanctity.  It's the second book in the Legacy of Caliban trilogy.  It's proved to be another easy read.  But it's about 412 pages long.

That means I have four move hard copies to read before going to my electronic slush pile...

Lamenting lack of writing and progress on the book pile: part 2

I finally wrote some this past week on my Mongol invasion story/novel/novella.  It's about 20,000 words now.  I don't know how long it's going to take to finish the rough draft.  I'm not writing that much on it.  I'm lucky to get 1,250 words/per week.  Sometimes, it's more like a 1,000 words/per week.

I started working on it in March 2015.  I thought it would have progressed into more by now.  I know what I want to write.  It's just a matter of doing it.  My father's illness threw a wrench into things.  At the rate I'm going, I don't expect to get done until spring 2016.  I could get done faster if I put some effort into it.

However, with everything going on right now, I don't see that happening...

That can also be said about my book pile.  I got little reading done in my current novel, Unbreakable, this weekend.  I should be pulling out my hair.  I have about six other hard copies to read.  Plus another dozen ebooks.  As the way things stand, I'll never get done.  Unless something changes.  Still, I need to make a more concentrated effort to catch up with my pleasure reading and stop adding to my reading pile.

I haven't written this week!

I haven't written this week!  I spent Tuesday night editing poetry.  That's been it.  I plan to get back to writing next week...

My father passed away...

This is a simple note to say my father passed away on Monday, July 20, 2015 at 6 AM at home.  He suffered from terminal stomach cancer and a stroke.  He's no longer suffering and felt no pain at the end.

My father had been in hospice for seven months.  I came to terms with his impending death weeks ago.  I can now get on with my life again.  However, I understand what those who lost a parent have gone through...

Blake