May 17, 2008

TV and writing...

Ah, Saturday at my computer. At one time, a few years ago, I spent most of the day on the computer. Granted, I was taking college classes at the time, writing, playing my Star Trek game, and chatting, but I was on the computer all day. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to spend this much time catching up on a Saturday.

I’m glad the TV season is winding down, my time and attention has been divided because of all the kick ass shows I’m watching. Bleh.

Survivor’s ending stunk, Amanda should have won. Smallville was fantastic. Apparently, Moonlight’s last episode was on last night. Fuckers…I hate when they do this shit. It’s bad enough they killed Jericho and Journeyman isn’t coming back. At least CSI’s ending was good. I thought the car was going to blow, the way they did it left it open for him to live.

Battlestar is on for a few more week, I believe…and it’s getting very good. I have no idea who the last Cylon could be. LOST is over in two weeks, and I’m ready to see how much they’re going to fuck with us this time around.

AI’s Davidfest is next week, I’m voting for Cook. He’s more talented, mature, and his own artist. Little David will be molded into whatever bubble gum teenybopper crap the producers want. Let’s see the real talent win this year!

SYTYCD is starting on the 22nd. Woot!

Less TV means more me time! I’m hoping to have a character/story idea to work on in the next few weeks. I’ve been editing the Lucky books, again, getting rid of some things my sister said she hated seeing in books. Her advice was good and it was an easy edit!

If I can get back into Lucky’s groove, I’ll continue with # 3, but I’m not going to force it. When I do that, I just get frustrated. I know what I need to do; soon, I’ll have the time to do it.

For now, I’m still sending out query letters. I’ve received a response from one editor already. She said my letter was well written (aww) but that the concept of a killer was a hard sell to women (it is?), and that Lucky sounded like a movie vigilante. (duh)

There’s an Angelina movie coming out soon called Wanted. She’s an assassin that works for a secret organization. When I heard about this movie, I was PISSED! Then I read more about it and realized it wasn’t SO similar to my Lucky story, but enough where it made me cringe. (I know, nothing is original anymore, blah blah)

So I’m thinking, I WANT to see this movie. I love Angie, I love McAvoy (the other main character), and I love the idea of a kick ass assassin movie. Now if I want to see this movie, half of my girl friends want to see this movie, and a shit load of guys want to go see this movie, how could a book, similar to this…not sell well?

I haven’t a clue.

All the romantic suspense, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal and so on, books out there usually have a strong female character. Check.

They have a hot guy thrown into the mix. Check.

You can usually find one or two subplots one sometimes surrounding secondary characters. Check.

Complications? Check. Life threatening situations? Check. Steamy scenes? Check.

The difference between Lucky and the other books out there, she’s not trying to save the world, universe, a society of secret beings, a kingdom…no, she just wants to protect her family and find a killer. Is she a “heroine” protagonist? Depends on how you look at it. Yes, she kills for a living, but the people she gets rid of aren’t your average everyday citizen…they’re the true bad guys. She’s a hero to her family and perhaps some of the victims.

It’s not like the concept is ahead of it’s time or anything. Many characters have been an anti-hero type. I’ve made it apparent in Lucky’s books that she struggles with it and I think that makes it believable more than anything else.

The agent responses from my email submission have mostly stopped. I still have about 30 outstanding. *Sigh* To think of how much time I spent, reading guidelines, making sure they were a good fit…and get nothing back. Sad. I still have a few snail mails out there, and one more email to an editor. Tomorrow I’m printing to send submission packets out to publishers.

If this round doesn’t work, I may seek out a smaller press. We’ll see how things look toward the end of June. Never give up! Never surrender!

No comments: