Friday, April 21, 2006

Short post

I do not like political comments on blogs. Even humorous ones, because they're guaranteed to alienate a significant percentage or the readers who will, inevitably, have a different opinion.

But...

I got an email today from one of my old (literally) Navy buddies with several humorous aviation-related anecdotes, and one of them made me laugh out loud. Some of you may well be offended, but I'm going to take that chance and repeat it.

(For those of you who didn't know, I'm a former Navy jet fighter pilot. I flew F-4 Phantoms off the USS Forrestal. Please don't hold that against me. That was a LONG time ago. I was young, ten feet tall and bullet proof, and KNEW I was the "best of the best!" I've since learned that there MAY be a (very) few who are better than I am at some things.)

(That's why my buddy sent me aviation-related stuff.)

Okay, enough lead-in. Here it is:

"When Hillary Clinton visited Iraq last month the Army Blackhawk helicopter used to transport the Senator was given the call sign "broomstick one." And they say the Army has no sense of humor!"

There. See? Some of you found that offensive. I apologize. I consider myself a political independent. I tend to vote for an individual, not a party. My beliefs lean towards libertarian. (Now ALL of you are likely offended! Sorry again.)

CHANGE OF SUBJECT.

I'm still querying agents for representation of my first novel, CHERISH IS THE WORD. The current score is:

Queries sent -- 120
Requests for partials or more info -- 0
Level of interest -- minus 10

Well, dang. A lesser author might begin to get discouraged. Especially when a recent note from an agent read (verbatim, I swear, including punctuation and underlining):

Sorry! This seems like fiction writing to me — but not a novel. I'll pass.

Well, it's not a poem. And at 85,000 words, it's a bit long for a short story. Hmmmm.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: the Hillary Clinton joke - pretty funny. I once heard one like this: A bumper sticker shows a picture of an eye, a heart, the word "hillary", a tree, and some musical notes. How do you read this? The answer is "I love country music" - you figure it out. Sorry if I've offended anyone, but it made me laugh. because I tried to figure it out and couldn't!

Anyway, Re: your queries - you just haven't found the right agent yet. Don't give up!

Emmy Ellis said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

85K and not a novel.

Ahahaha! That's the funniest thing I've heard so far today!

:o)

Anonymous said...

I'm going on a rant now John...

What sort of critique is that ?!? These people drive me mad, you are sending your work to them and thats the best the can do. What I don't get is what exactly an agent does, surely they just send on the book to a publisher ?

They are basically just creative parasites.

Anonymous said...

I do admire your tenacity. Good for you. Keep at it. You will succeed. And I really do enjoy your blog.

thewriterslife said...

LMAO...thanks for the laugh...I needed it! ;o)

Dorothy
www.soulmatequeen.com

Anonymous said...

OMG - I laughed at your joke until I read Christina's and then I almost wet my pants.

One day someone will recognise your talent and you will get published. Don't give up.