Author: Writer guy

PC strikes again

Writer guy

Whilst typing away this morning a fuse in the power box blew. The real fun started once the new fuse was in place.

The Wife: There’s something wrong with the PC.
sam: It runs perfectly.
The Wife: It won’t turn on.
sam( presses power button – nothing happens )
sam: I’ll call tech guy.
Tech guy: What did you break now?
sam: The PC won’t start.
Tech guy: Is it plugged in?
sam: Yes! Seriously it won’t fire up.
Tech guy: You’ve been googling again haven’t you?
sam: This is serious! Press button – we got no power.
Tech guy: I’ll check it out. Don’t touch anything.
Tech guy checked all the connections, but it still won’t start. Popping open the case tech guy made a discovery. He held up a massive wad of gray cat fur for me to see. It could be from only one critter in the house, the long hair cat, Electra ( Buddhapuss’s apprentice )
sam (to The Wife): Honey look at what your cat did! She broke the PC.

Tech guy vacuumed out all the fur and all was good. Now the PC runs like a top.

Kill my PC

Writer guy

So, I’m minding my own business heading into page 5 of new content for The Ridge Runner. Things are going well, dealing with the heat, my coffee is running strong. The need for a tiny bit of information sets in, so I surf over to google.com, type in a phrase ( a completely innocuous – nothing naughty), hit feeling lucky? and

BOOM!

I got virus! I got virus! I got virus! Yaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Tech guy was on it like no one’s business but it took more than 4 hours to undo all the damage. Sort of killed the writing momentum for the evening.

That got me thinking, how many people don’t have a tech guy to bail them out when they do something stupid, like say open a web page? A whole lot. Another question is there any reason opening a web page should cripple a perfectly good PC?

Oh, if anyone got an email from me between 3 pm and 7pm, it’s best you delete it right now. I probably didn’t send it and you don’t want what’s in it anyway.

Tribute To Hunter

Writer guy

NOTE: Every so often I try to write like another author. Here’s my shot at emulating Hunter S. Thompson.

The air feels like the sole of boot left to bake on the only highway leading out of the desert. All around, the sound of an impending riot beckons. An irate neighbor is yelling at his wife on the porch. Something about a burnt potato and a broken air conditioner. The chances for survival unlikely, our mission compromised.

Children race after the ice cream man, for this extreme clime is just too much for the Good Humor man to bear. You poor hapless bastard. Nobody told him the plight of the last man standing in the concrete jungle.

Perhaps a full scale riot is unlikely, however impending doom is certain. I can feel the bastards at the gates, circling, waiting for the next victim to fall so they can pick the carcass clean.

My head feels like a pineapple stuck in a vise, swollen from the heat. I could go at any time now. Need food. Need water. Need cold water for shower. How long Lord, how long must I suffer in this inferno trapped with these swine? And how did I get here?

Query rebirth

Writer guy

Now that the 6th draft is in a decent place, it’s time to reignite the query process for The Ridge Runner. I dusted off the version of the query letter that got the most positive responses, updating it to reflect the changes in the project ( i.e. no more 1st person – book is longer too ). Then I researched which agents best fit the project based on what they are looking for these days.

Couple of things I’ve learned:
1) The literary representation business resembles musical chairs; agents jump from agency to agency. Some agents I queried just a short time ago are at different agencies now, or have disappeared from the radar screen. Which may explain the 43 percent of the queries sent out that still await a response.
2) What agents look for seems to change along with the marketplace and their web sites and on line industry profiles reflect that. A year ago one agent might be after nonfiction, now they may be all about literary fiction and mommy lit. Perhaps in a few more months some will target art history professors in search of the next Da Vinci Code.