So this is what Today Hath Wrought:
Two of the three agents I’ve contacted offered me representation. The third, who is my first choice, hasn’t yet gotten back in contact with me, and given that it’s now after 7pm on the East Coast, I’m assuming it’ll be tomorrow before she does. Given, though, the 4 hour time difference, I’ll give it all until noon my time tomorrow before a decision gets made. I hope I hear from her before then. If not, I was very pleased with both the other agents I spoke with, so overall, I’m not feeling at a loss.
Last week one of the mailing lists I’m on had a posting for an open call for epic fantasy novels with strong female protagonists, a la KUSHIEL’S DART. The editor, who is looking for novels to pitch to Tor, and who is herself working on spec–she’s not a Tor editor yet, but if she finds things they want to buy, she might grow up to be–asked for synopses of such novels, with the intention of requesting the first 3 chapters from authors on the strength of the synopses. (And then, on the strength of the opening chapters, she’ll ask for full manuscripts.) Sarah pointed the posting out to me, and I took one of my novel ideas and shook it up a bit to fit the requested parameters, wrote up a synopsis, and sent it off. I got email back today requesting the first 3 chapters, so I’m going to work on those until they’re done, and send ’em off. The idea I’ve ended up with is *much* more twisted (and, in my ever so humble opinion, *interesting*) than the original one I started out with, so I’m really glad Sarah pointed this out to me.
And Sarah also got a first-3 request on the synopsis *she* wrote up and sent in. We’re just that cool!
That’s about it for now, I think. :)
When it rains, it pours. :) Congrats!
I quite liked the Kushiel books….a bit disturbing at points, as is Laurell Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, but still intriguing in small doses.
I’ve never read them. Should I?
I haven’t read ’em either, actually. They’re … lemme quote the editor’s email:
You guys know the Jacqueline Carey stuff, the Kushiel books? Extremely beautiful woman geisha-type (not actually Asian, more French, but that kind of attitude towards prostitutes) protagonist, high fantasy culture with lots of politics, and she’s a masochist to boot, and involved with her gods — kind of a cross between Laurel K. Hamilton’s faerie princess books and Janny Wurts’s Empire trilogy, maybe? This is hard to describe. Not quite actual erotica, but closer to that than romance, but really just mostly fantasy, woman-centered, fair bit of sex, but not in a lot of detail. Lush. Sensual. Complex interpersonal power dynamics, both in bed and out of it.
Somebody else I know called it S&M lite today, too. :)
S&M lite is actually not a bad description, although it is rather one-sided….The darker sexuality element actually does play a real role in the characters’ development and interaction in the Kushiel books, without which significant parts of the story wouldn’t make sense. It’s a bit more gratuitous in the Anita Blake books by Hamilton. But still, the characters are well written and the stories move along. They are dark enough that I can’t read too many in too short of a time, but I keep reading the series’ over time.