Author | Joseph L. Selby

Tag: wip it

  • An Excess of Riches

    I’m learning something new about myself. When I have a full requested by an agent I like, I stop querying. It’s not an intentional, “This is it. No need to send these things out any more!” It’s more of a, “Damn, that’s hard work. I’ll get to it later.” Later just happens to come after…

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  • On Beta Reading

    I have finished the second draft of my middle grade fantasy, PRINCE OF CATS. To make sure I’m reaching my target readership appropriately, I have enlisted many of my nieces and nephews (and a few friends who are of the appropriate age) to read the draft and give me feedback. Now, since most of them…

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  • When it’s not epic

    I’ve participated in a couple of Writer’s Digest online seminars, one featuring Kristin Nelson and one feature Sara Megibow both from the Nelson Agency. During Kristin’s presentation, she mentioned that the main plot of your book, that first serious hook, should occur within the first 30-50 manuscript pages. Now this took me back. Having come…

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  • Can I Do This?

    If you were lucky enough to be Liz Poole, a hotel night auditor named LurkerWithout, or an agent with incredible literary sense, you would have had the opportunity to read my manuscript JEHOVAH’S HITLIST. This is a manuscript where I explain why just because the protagonist is 15 years old doesn’t make it a young…

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  • Things I Like Other than Writing

    I finished my rewrite, began PRINCE OF CATS (which is going awesomely–beyond awesomely really, I’m flying), and the summer crush is over. Obviously you can tell that because I’m blogging, thus my hours are not filled with making content to educate the next generation of politicians who will hopefully ben an improvement over our current…

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  • Turning it down from 11

    Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately. You know how they always say publishing is slow during the summer? Yeah, not so much if you work in production. I am currently the busiest I’ll be all year (most likely) and while I’m not as crushed as I was in my old department, I am merrily…

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  • Why Oh Why? Oh Me. Oh My! (…times seven)

    It’s hard to keep track of topics when you’re on a variety of soap boxes. I’ve written in two different live journals, hosted a podcast, and now how this blog/journal. Sometimes you think you’ve written about a topic when you haven’t. Or, you think you’ve written about it in one place when really it was…

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  • Words and Games

    The topic of custom words in fantasy has come up in a variety of places I visit lately (Book Country, et al.), and while I don’t hold it against people who choose to have names for months other than January-December, I find it a distraction and a lot of work for very little return. So…

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  • The Red Pen

    Your pardon at the quality of the pictures, but I took those with my phone which does not have the best camera. They get the point across, though. I received feedback from an agent awhile back, feedback I was uncertain about. I never rush right into feedback assuming that a person is right or wrong.…

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  • Ooooo *shivers* Do it again!

    I just had one of those moments. I love those moments. Back in the day, the reason I never finished anything was because I tried to plot things out. I might get a ways into it. I tried to get a feel for it and then write an outline, but I was convinced I couldn’t…

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