I’m preempting the blog I wrote for this breaking message.

A prospective agent requested to see the first 3 chapters of The Ridge Runner today.!

Very cool. This is a good next step for Mike Brody. I’ll keep you posted as things develop. Nope, I’m not saying who the prospective agent is. Nope, I don’t know if they will decide to represent me. Remember publishing is a very, very conservative business and things like decisions take a long time and this is just one more in a series of steps.

What I do know at this time is that they want to see more material, so more material they shall get.

Now we’re up 2 rejections for the Ridge Runner in two days. I’ve been quite surprised at how fast the turnaround has been. In the days of brute force submissions, it might take several months between answers. Thanks to the digital age, the response time is short. There’s a plus I guess.

Rogue Lackey put this all in perspective last night for me. He told me the story of Harlan Sanders, yes, the KFC Colonel guy. Around his 62nd birthday the state built a new highway that diverted all the traffic from his restaurants. He sold the place and was left with nothing more than 162 bucks a month from Social Security. So the Colonel decided to hawk his secret chicken recipe. His idea was, sell other restaurants a license to his formula.

He jumped into his car and drove across the south making pitch after pitch for his 11 herbs and spices. 1065 restaurants later, he got his first yes. Shortly afterwards he met Dave Thomas (yep the Wendy’s guy – this was before Wendy’s), and they launched the first food franchise.

Now, I just gotta do better than that before getting my yes. After all, there’s barely more than 1065 literary agents in business.

So I got my first rejection letter for the Ridge Runner and I’m kinda happy, because it meant someone read my pitch! Huzzah! Also it’s about the nicest rejection letter I’ve ever seen. Well, it’s the first rejection letter I’ve ever seen with my name on it. But if it was any nicer, I’d think they wanted to represent me. To the agent who rejected my pitch – I mean that in a nice way. You give good rejection is all I’m saying.

As cool as the rejection was, a yes would be cooler. Well, that’s life in the fast lane. And after all, a rejection is a rejection is a rejection.

Anyway, I gotta go send out another query letter and update my spreadsheet of agents to contact.

UPDATE: I sent an email back to the prospective agent who rejected my query, thanking them for their time. At samhilliard.com we are nothing if not gracious.

A lot of people claim writer’s block is a real thing, but I disagree. Writer’s block is shorthand for being lazy. because writing itself is a non job. If it was a job there would be a boss, and an office with a bunch of people running side businesses out of their cubicles.

Here’s an outline for a typical writing day:
1) Wake up, eat breakfast, make big pot of coffee
2) Drink coffee and pretend to write for 1-2 hours, update blog.
3) First panic attack, then lunch and second panic attack.
4) Write for 5-6 hours.
5) Third panic attack.
6) Think about picking up another six pack of beer, panic about having to leave house to do so.
7) Dinner, then revise the day’s pages.
8) Panic about day’s pages.

I punch through the panic attacks. That’s my edge, you see.

UPDATE 3/1/2004: A reader in Mississippi pointed out that number 6 is avoidable.
I quote : “Always keep sufficient quantities of beer in the home/workplace to preclude the aforementioned quandries. The purchase of extra refrigerator is authorized and encouraged. Delivery of said beverage is highly recommended.”