Trouble, and a moment of self-discovery

It was a rough week over at Casa Kreutz Gallardo. My youngest developed a high fever that lasted a week and culminated in two-night hospital stay. On top of that, there was worry that the fever might have affected his heart. Thankfully, two cardiographs show everything is normal in that department -- we all hope that future follow-ups will continue to be positive. He's all better, too, thanks for asking. Just as frisky and ornery as ever. The sense of relief of everyone in our circle is palpable.

And while that was happening, my agent was asking me to get material to her so that she can start shopping my novel to publishers. Nothing like rewrites, which are all done, thank God. She needed a synopsis, a bio, and a few other things. I know I could have told her about my circumstances and begged a few more days from her, but I decided not to do that. I wanted to do my best to give her what she needed in a timely manner.

And it occurred to me that after I'd got everything to her that will probably be what life as a freelance writer. Not the hospital visits, but trying to fit work in among the life moments that tear at me constantly. And it made me realize that I am probably up to the task. Which is reassuring to me. I know that if the situation is ever very dire, I'll bow out, but for now, I was happy to get that shit done. Off the plate and to my agent. In the past, I've looked for excuses to not work. That's done with. Now it's time to be serious about this writing thing.

Achievement unlocked: agent acquired

Scott Pilgrim art by Bryan Lee O'Malley.

It feels strange sharing good news when half the country is being knocked around by a hurricane, but I guess that if I waited for a period of calm and peace then I'd probably never get to share this.

Just so I don't bury the lede: I now have an agent who will represent me and my novel, Zomburbia. Ann Collette of the Rees Literary Agency has decided to add me to her roster, for which I am very grateful. I wrote previously about how I met Ann.

Even before signing with her, Ann helped me a ton by giving me notes on my novel. Is this something agents do? Help authors with their manuscripts even if they don't have a formal relationship? I have to admit that handling the rewrite felt a bit like an audition. I guess I got the part...

For now, I have a few more rewrites -- minor stuff -- and I need to write a bio. Ann is beginning to put together a list of publishers/editors to whom she'll submit the manuscript. She thinks she should be submitting it around the middle of November. I hope I'll have good news soon after that. Either way, I plan to use this space as a means of recording the book's progress through the hurdles of publishing. Wish me luck.

You know, I really should write that post about query letters...

Is there still room for the punk in steampunk?

The Tesla Rangers pin that I proudly wear 

on my jacket. It's from the steampunk comic, 

Girl Genius, by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Here's something I'm pondering these days as I start to once again work on a steampunk novel.

It seems to me that when the original steampunk writers began to explore the world of alternate Victorian history, they had a definite political bent in mind. And by “original,” I mean James Blaylock's Homunculus, Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates and K. W. Jeter's Morlock Night. Jeter, of course originated the term. And, yes, I'm aware that he may have been riffing on the term “cyberpunk” and probably had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he came up with the name, but that doesn't take away the fact that the original group to define the subgenre used their novels, in part, to address some social issues. Their immediate antecedent, Michael Moorcock, was also interested in exploring an opposing view of imperialism with his Warlord of the Air trilogy and William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, part of steampunk's second wave, carried on this tradition with The Difference Engine. So, I think it's safe to safe that the bedrock of the subgenre has a political substrate running through it.

Which seems not to be the case anymore. And before I go any further, I'm going to admit that my knowledge of the field is not exhaustive, nor am I deriding steampunk works that contain little or no political commentary. I am simply asking if today's audience will still accept stories that do.

Having said that, a lot of steampunk I read today seems more concerned with the neo-Victorian aesthetic more than anything else. And there's a large section of the subgenre that features supernatural elements, which seems strange to me, but I'll admit that it might just not be my cup of tea.

So, here's the question: Are there modern works of steampunk that feature political commentary? That's it. I'm not trying to stir up any controversy, I don't hate on one aspect of the subgenre versus the another. I simply want greater exposure to a subgenre that interests me. That is all.

Joe Kubert 1926-2012

Sgt. Rock by Joe Kubert.

Copyright DC Comics.

I learned today that Joe Kubert passed away at the age of 85. I know there will be a lot of articles written about his passing, but I felt the need to saysomething. Kubert was a legend in comics; he began working in comics at the age of 12. He's most famous for his work on Hawkman and the DC war comics, especially Sgt. Rock -- I remember pouring over issues of Sgt. Rock and Weird War Tales as a kid. Later, he founded the Kubert School which has become a Mecca for fledgling comics artists.

I worked at Dark Horse Comics when they released his book, Fax from Sarajevo. I was especially proud that the company would associate themselves with Mr Kubert.

And he never stopped working. He's got a book out now; Before Watchmen: Nite Owl, which features him inking over his son's pencils. He really is an inspiration. Geeks of Doom has the first write-up on his passing that I've seen.

The world doesn't seem as nice knowing that he is no longer with us. Rest in peace, Mr. Kubert.

Listen to this: Now Now

This single by Minneapolis trio Now Now has been in heavy rotation as I've been writing lately. It's a minute, forty-three seconds of pure pop bliss. The whole album is good, but I keep returning to this song. I love the "get in, wreck the place, get out" feeling of the thing. The band seems to be catching the attention of others, too, if you want more opinions than just mine. Allison Weiss, on whom I previously admitted to having a huge musical crush, loves them, and NPR have featured them in there Field Recordings segment.

Enough of me -- listen to them already.

Book talk: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 Library Edition Volume 1 HC

They were just so young. First season 

promo photo. Copyright 20th Century

Fox Television.

I've never made a secret of my love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A big, huge, titanic-sized reason for that love is the dialogue of series creator Joss Whedon. Whedon makes the language his characters speak dance, do jumping jacks, and do the shimmy. And for all of that, he has a rare ability to get at emotional truths like few other screen writers I can think of. (And I know there are people out there who don't like Whedon's writer. There's a term for these people. That term is: "wrong.")

Previous attempts to bring Buffy to the comics page failed, in my estimation, because try as they might, the writers couldn't quite capture the voice of the TV series writers. And there were some good writers on that original comics series, Andi Watson among them.

And so, we get a new comics series that starts where the TV series ended, and its original arc is written by none other than Mr. Whedon. Glory be! It's really nice to once again be visiting the world and the characters he created, and to have him, initially at least, at the helm. And Brian K. Vaughn, who takes over after Whedon leaves, does a good job of maintaining that voice.

The art by Georges Jeanty captures the likeness of the actors who played these characters on the show without being slavish to them, and he has a fine eye for storytelling. A bonus, for me at least, is that Cliff Richards gets to draw a stand-alone issue in this collection. Richards was the regular artist on the original back when I was its assistant editor. Seeing his art again is like a blast from the past. In a good way.

The whole tone of the comic just feels right. Seriously folks, this is as close as we're likely to get to another season of one of my favorite shows. And that's close enough.

Let the great agent hunt begin!

This is the first of a number of posts I'm going to write about the process of (I hope) finding an agent and (who do I have to kill to make this happen?) getting my book, Zomburbia, published.

I mentioned a few days ago that I was preparing a manuscript to send to an agent. Why? How? Wha? I thought it might be of interest to some folks to talk about the process o finding an agent.

First, why would one want an agent? Simply put, agents are the first line of gatekeepers you encounter as you try to get your book published. Publishers will often not consider un-agented books -- the fact that you have a manuscript strong enough to attract the attention of an agent tells the publisher two things, I believe: 1) That you have a strong, well-written manuscript (a lot of agents will actually work with a writer to further polish a book prior to sending it to a publisher) and 2) that you play well with others. If you're a jerk, no matter how good your book, an agent will not want to work with you. Especially as a beginning writer. So an agent vets you in the eyes of a publisher.

(Why one would want to go the traditional publishing route at all since the advent of self-published ebooks? That's a different topic, maybe one for another blog post. Suffice to say that with this book, Zomburbia, I want to go the traditional route and I believe I have a strong shot at achieving that.)

So, on to How. Step 1, FINISH YOUR BOOK. For serious, if you are a first-time novelist, do not start the search for an agent until you've finished your manuscript. And by finished I don't just mean you write a manuscript of at least 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo and then, December 1st, you start sending out query letters. I mean, you write, have some folks read it, then rewrite, have some more folks read it, then rewrite some more, then polish. Make it as good as you can -- have it at a place where you believe it can be published. Once you've done all of that, then you can begin the process of looking for an agent.

There are generally two ways to look for agents: 1) Know someone in the publishing business and have then recommend (and hopefully introduce you to) an agent. 2) Do a ton of research from a variety of sources and decide on a list to which you want to send your query. What are you looking for when you research an agent? You want to make sure they represent the kind of writing you do. If you write paranormal romance and the agent states on their bio that they don't handle fantasy; that's a bad fit. You want to make sure they've made a sale in your area in the near past. Make sure they don't charge a fee to read your manuscript. Most of these things can be discovered on the agent's web sites.

But how do you find an agent to even begin doing your research? There are a number of guides you can check out. The one that springs to mind is Chuck Sambuchino's Guide to Literary Agents (which can be found very cheap as an ebook on Amazon). These guides list working agents, who and what what types of writing they represent, recent sales, etc. With one of these in hand you can find a list of potential agents whom you can query.

I'll get to the query in a later post, but for now I want to talk about how I found the agent whom I am currently courting. I mentioned that there are generally two ways to find potential agents, introductions or research, right? Yeah, I didn't go either of those routes. As you'll probably be aware if you visit this blog, I just finished up my creative writing MFA at Stonecoast. One of the things Stonecoast does for its graduation students is to bring in an agent for them to speak with. We may also send them a query and sample of our work so that they can address our viability in the market. Any time you have a chance to get your work in front of a professional, take it. I saw this as an exercise since a quick check of her web site showed the agent in question didn't handle YA, which Zomburbia most definitely is. But I wanted a chance to have my query letter and sample chapter critiqued by a professional. And I'm glad I did.

The first thing she said to me (well, the second, because the first was, "Which one are you?") was, "Come to Momma!" Turns out she really liked the query letter and sample chapter I sent and she wanted me to send her the entire manuscript. I wish I could have done it immediately and, under different circumstances I would have been able to, but I needed to finish a final polish before it was ready to be seen. And the only reason it wasn't all set to go is that wasn't expecting this agent to want to see the thing. That makes sense right?

Okay, that's my personal personal story, and probably a good place to stop this. I think that next time I'll write a bit about the query letter. And I'll end by mentioning that if you ever have any questions or there's some topic you'd like me to address, please either leave a comment or feel free to me email me at the address found in the about section.