More E-jections

Comments: 8

Just a quick note. I don't have time for a lengthy post this week.

I sent out 7 new e-queries this week. As of yesterday, I got 3 e-jections s far. That was pretty quick. Makes me wonder how those agents could have possibly evaluated my query, and with some, sample pages and synopsis. I guess they can tell right off if it's something that interests them.

Well, here's hoping the others will prove to be better news, assuming they respond at all.
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About Paul West

Paul West is a freelance writer and novelist. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Paul claims to be a "Prune Picker," though he now makes his home in Taylorsville, Utah.

You can follower him on Twitter: @PaulWWest

Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008

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Yesterday I received a very nice rejection from an agent, but don't know what to do with her suggestions.

Here's what she said:

Thank you for sending the beginning of SWEET REVENGE and for your patience in waiting to hear back from me. You have an intense story line here, and I can see from your synopsis how the tension escalates throughout the story. However, I must be honest and say that I didn't make a strong enough connection with the story itself to pursue it further. I've found that setting a novel in the recent past, like the 1960s, can make the story a tough sell, unless the 1960s setting is absolutely crucial to the story. I'm not sure how crucial the time period is to your story, but I thought I'd mention it as food for thought.

As some of you know, this novel is set in the mid-1960s and I do mention important events happening at the time, including the Vietnam war -- I have Jeff calling Mark a draft dodger, among other names, etc. Aside from that, I don't know how to make this novel more salable. As you also know, I've considered rewriting it to make it contemporary, but I would have trouble mimicking today's teenage jargon to make it sound realistic, and that would probably mean a total rewrite and I don't have the patience for that much effort, not after several years of working on this version.

So, I'm wondering: should I just keep trying to sell it as a historic novel? Or should I just trash it? I guess I need to sleep on it some.

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Now, for my gospel take for this week:

I heard in the news the other day that the Pope has issued a letter to all Bishops that they should not give genealogical information to members of the LDS Church. His reasoning is that we will take that information to our temples and perform baptisms for them.

While that is true, I can't help wondering why he should care? If you believe, as we do, and I'm sure the Pope does also, that the people on the other side are still individuals with free will to think for themselves, they can either accept the work or reject it, just as people here in mortality can do. So, what's the issue here? To my thinking, it's part of Satan's plan to frustrate the work God has given us to do. But, knowing the work is God's work, He will not let a little frustration to stop His work. We will eventually triumph over Satan and the work will be accomplished, with or without the help of Catholic Bishops and Priests.
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If you haven't read "Basic Guy" lately, I highly recommend it. He makes some great points - not to mention that I know him personally (he's my daughter's father-in-law, but don't tell him I told you that).

Also, for all you writers who read this blog (all 1 or 2 of you), Kristen Nelson has a great workshop on "Building The Pitch Paragraph" in your query letters.

I don't know how many times I've read the advice that proofreading is a lot better with a hard, paper copy than it is on the computer screen. I used to think, sure. Ha, ha. They just don't know what they're talking about. Maybe they don't know how to use the word processor. Like, what 's the dif.? Well, recently I've found out the dif. After all the critiquing I've gotten from my critique group, I began to realize they missed a lot. Not that they're bad writers, or anything like that. Some of the are published writers and I think their critiques are great. But not working from a hard, paper copy, only looking at my chapters on their computer screens, I realized they were missing a lot of stuff that needed fixing. So, I began printing out the chapters one at a time. As I went through them, I found even more stuff that needed fixing than I could see on the computer screen. I made comments and edits with a red pen and found the pages almost literally bleeding red. So, I highly recommend looking at your work on a paper copy before trying to submit it to agents or editors. You'll not be sorry - I promise.

And finally, now that everyone (all 1 of you) has weighed in on the question I posted a few days ago, I'll finally give you the answer to, who was the first person ever baptized?

The answer is -- Adam

He was the first person to have the fullness of the gospel. He held the Holy Priesthood of God. He had all the temple ordinances. In order to have all those things, he had to be baptized.

Okay, a new question that I would like to ask people who are not Latter Day Saints. My sister touched on it in her comment to my last post. The question is:

If Jesus said everyone MUST accept Him in order to be saved, what will happen to all the billions of people who never heard of Him? Does that automatically condemn them to hell?
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