My third submission to Divine Caroline has been published. It's about cats and parenting and parenting cats. Here's the link:
http://www.divinecaroline.com/22117/127579-cats-kids
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Joel Osteen
I'm not the type to watch television preachers, but this morning I just happened to catch Joel Osteen before my beloved CBS Sunday Morning show. I don't know anything about Osteen. I've only seen him as I flip through the channels. But today, he won me over. He was talking about how Thomas Edison got closer and closer to success with his fabulous inventions by suffering through a lot of rejections.
Last night I checked my email late. Not expecting any book agent to actually be working on a Saturday night, I was surprised to find my third rejection. Of course that left me dejected, until this morning.
After Osteen finished his Thomas Edison story, he also told how his mother got a swimming pool despite the fact that his father refused to plan or pay for one. It didn't deter her. She kept measuring the backyard and planning for the pool parties. And yes, she eventually got her pool without her husband's input, financially or otherwise.
I'm still planning for my book tour and practicing my confident, "Good morning Matt," for my Today Show appearance. And I definitely plan to get a Booze Day Tuesday shot on Hoda and Kathie Lee's show. I'll even make the drinks.
Tomorrow begins my attack on the independent publishers. Someone has got to want a multi-media project and a guaranteed 2-book package. Right? Right?
Last night I checked my email late. Not expecting any book agent to actually be working on a Saturday night, I was surprised to find my third rejection. Of course that left me dejected, until this morning.
After Osteen finished his Thomas Edison story, he also told how his mother got a swimming pool despite the fact that his father refused to plan or pay for one. It didn't deter her. She kept measuring the backyard and planning for the pool parties. And yes, she eventually got her pool without her husband's input, financially or otherwise.
I'm still planning for my book tour and practicing my confident, "Good morning Matt," for my Today Show appearance. And I definitely plan to get a Booze Day Tuesday shot on Hoda and Kathie Lee's show. I'll even make the drinks.
Tomorrow begins my attack on the independent publishers. Someone has got to want a multi-media project and a guaranteed 2-book package. Right? Right?
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Published online. How divine!
Got 2 articles published on www.divinecaroline.com. It appears to be an online filter for Ladies Home Journal. My articles have also been submitted to the magazine. Let's hope (and pray). That would certainly add a bit of zip to the query letters for my book.
Link to Retail Therapy: http://www.divinecaroline.com/22077/127576-retail-therapy
Link to Good for You!: http://www.divinecaroline.com/22077/127574-you
Link to Retail Therapy: http://www.divinecaroline.com/22077/127576-retail-therapy
Link to Good for You!: http://www.divinecaroline.com/22077/127574-you
Monday, April 23, 2012
It's a Sputnik Thing
"I can't help you Kerry Ann. That's the new math."
I thought that was the way all moms got out of doing homework. I didn't consider that a grown woman could not do grammar school math. It was the 1960s and, as a kid, I didn't know new math from old math. It didn't make sense that multiplying and dividing would change with the generations. But my mom insisted she couldn't help me with my homework. She could do the problems though. She showed me the way she solved them. It wasn't at all like I was taught and she said I should do it the way the teacher does it because that's the "new math." As usual, I did what I was told.
For those of you who have never looked it up, the new math was a Sputnik thing. The United States had just taken a big ass whooping from the Russians in the race for space. And now our government decided to beef up the math and science programs in American schools so that we might compete with the commies and beat them to the moon. We won that race, but it had nothing to do with the new math. That experiment was a dud. How children approached math and how teachers taught it, ultimately didn't matter.
When I got to high school in the mid 1970s, I liked words more than numbers and decided to give journalism a whirl. To me, it was just telling stories to someone who wasn't there so that they could see it for themselves. It was fun and easy for me.
So you can imagine my surprise when the new journalism came along and screwed with me. What was so new about reporting? I read our weekly Suburban News for all the local features and lots of pictures. And my dad brought home the New York tabloids too. I liked reading about the mafia in those. And I always wondered why those reporters used their real names in the bylines. Didn't they ever see The Godfather?
Anyway, the new journalism took a bit of practice, but I came to enjoy reading it. It's reporting with an edge, and now that edge is me. It's exactly how I write.
Starting with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, I studied the style and devoured all I could find, especially Hunter S. Thompson. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a little out there for a teenager, but I liked the way the words flowed. And Timothy Crouse's Boys on the Bus, well, that was real reporting and an incredible look inside a Presidential campaign.
In searching for a publisher for my new book, Get Out Now!, I've been forced to define my style. Of course it's new journalism, but these days they call it narrative non-fiction. And some publishers treat it like fiction in their "Rules for Submissions" instructions. That's not right. My skewed views and sarcastic humor are part of my reporting skills. It's all real and I'm telling like I see it. Just because I see it bigger and better in order to make it entertaining reading is no reason to throw me a roadblock.
Stop with the labels. The wheel has already been invented and so has math and journalism. Good writing is good writing and, regardless of labels, I hope someone recognizes that I have an audience and they just might have a few laughs reading about my real life as I report it.
I thought that was the way all moms got out of doing homework. I didn't consider that a grown woman could not do grammar school math. It was the 1960s and, as a kid, I didn't know new math from old math. It didn't make sense that multiplying and dividing would change with the generations. But my mom insisted she couldn't help me with my homework. She could do the problems though. She showed me the way she solved them. It wasn't at all like I was taught and she said I should do it the way the teacher does it because that's the "new math." As usual, I did what I was told.
For those of you who have never looked it up, the new math was a Sputnik thing. The United States had just taken a big ass whooping from the Russians in the race for space. And now our government decided to beef up the math and science programs in American schools so that we might compete with the commies and beat them to the moon. We won that race, but it had nothing to do with the new math. That experiment was a dud. How children approached math and how teachers taught it, ultimately didn't matter.
When I got to high school in the mid 1970s, I liked words more than numbers and decided to give journalism a whirl. To me, it was just telling stories to someone who wasn't there so that they could see it for themselves. It was fun and easy for me.
So you can imagine my surprise when the new journalism came along and screwed with me. What was so new about reporting? I read our weekly Suburban News for all the local features and lots of pictures. And my dad brought home the New York tabloids too. I liked reading about the mafia in those. And I always wondered why those reporters used their real names in the bylines. Didn't they ever see The Godfather?
Anyway, the new journalism took a bit of practice, but I came to enjoy reading it. It's reporting with an edge, and now that edge is me. It's exactly how I write.
Starting with Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, I studied the style and devoured all I could find, especially Hunter S. Thompson. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a little out there for a teenager, but I liked the way the words flowed. And Timothy Crouse's Boys on the Bus, well, that was real reporting and an incredible look inside a Presidential campaign.
In searching for a publisher for my new book, Get Out Now!, I've been forced to define my style. Of course it's new journalism, but these days they call it narrative non-fiction. And some publishers treat it like fiction in their "Rules for Submissions" instructions. That's not right. My skewed views and sarcastic humor are part of my reporting skills. It's all real and I'm telling like I see it. Just because I see it bigger and better in order to make it entertaining reading is no reason to throw me a roadblock.
Stop with the labels. The wheel has already been invented and so has math and journalism. Good writing is good writing and, regardless of labels, I hope someone recognizes that I have an audience and they just might have a few laughs reading about my real life as I report it.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Full-time job
Okay, so now I know that getting a book published is a full-time job. I had been told, but....
Now it's out to 7 literary agents, one journalism professor and Divine Caroline (dot) com. That's the new "filter" for Ladies Home Journal. Another thing I have been told is that you need to be published to get published. Hmm. That's sort of what I heard about getting a job in television. So I did.
Once published anywhere, I'll provide a link and ask for comments.
Now it's out to 7 literary agents, one journalism professor and Divine Caroline (dot) com. That's the new "filter" for Ladies Home Journal. Another thing I have been told is that you need to be published to get published. Hmm. That's sort of what I heard about getting a job in television. So I did.
Once published anywhere, I'll provide a link and ask for comments.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Book sent
This blog was created on April 19, 2012, the day after Get Out Now! went out to 2 literary agents.
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