Exercise, ship party, averted disaster

[annathepiper]

Wednesday: Had a short treadmill session that night, because my iPod kicked out on me in the middle of my session. Foo. I'd had to swap it back to its newer battery, since the older one's connector is screwed up now and I couldn't figure out how to securely connect it again. So every time I moved the device in the wrong direction, the stupid thing would kick out. Here's hoping that some time soon the people handling the iPod suit will actually see fit to process the form I sent in, and hopefully I'll get a new battery out of it. Failing that, if September rolls around before then, I'll have to try to get another new battery myself.



Friday: The ship party was... not terribly exciting. It was nice to be out in the sun and fresh air, and certainly it was an improvement over being in the lab for those hours, but nothing terribly exciting happened during the cruise. We went out on the Lady Mary, and mostly it was a lot of Microsofties hanging around having food and beer and conversation. I barely knew anyone else on the boat, so mostly I wound up drowsing in one of the chairs on the deck. Sleepy as I was from the Serenity road trip, it was really easy to fall asleep out in the sun. But I did have some pleasant conversation with my boss--who turns out to be a musician, and who has a home studio. We musicgeeked a lot. AND they had a piano on the boat, so he sat down and played it off and on during the cruise. That was cool, as he could in fact play the piano and play it well.

After the cruise was over I opted to go straight home from there instead of riding back to Microsoft, so as to make my bus trip only one bus instead of two. But I did get in some good walking. It was at least .75 miles if not more from pier 55 up the hill to 4th and Pike, where I needed to be to catch the 522 to get home. And it was a pretty steep climb as well, for extra exercise goodness. The one annoying note was that the first 522 that went by was full, so it never stopped--and so I had to wait an extra half hour for the next one to come along. But once I got off at Lake Forest Park, I was able to get in another walk. solarbird thinks I'm overestimating the distance from the light on the far side of LFP to home when I call it at 1.25, but I'll grant myself that for likely seriously underestimating the climb I did downtown from the Sound up into downtown proper.



In other news, a lady on the Fishtank who turned out to be another writer asked me for help. She reported to me that she'd been offered a contract from an agency and wanted to know if I knew anything about such things--and since I have yet to actually deal with that phase of the whole publishing cycle myself, I pointed her at mizkit, my source of clues.

And it turned out to be a good thing I did, because the agency that this lady was dealing with raised all of Kit's hackles. She found posts on a message board warning others off this agency--the New York Literary Agency--and warned the other lady off as well. Preditors & Editors and Writers.net aren't at all fond of them either.

I am deeply relieved that Kit helped out this other person before she fell prey to them. And to any other writer hopefuls on my Friends list, be on the lookout for these folks, as well.


Wednesday miles: 1.1
Friday miles: about 2.0
Miles out of Hobbiton: 184.0
Miles to Rivendell: 274.0
Days without a rejection letter from Luna: 30
Days without a rejection letter from agents: 12

Comments

[annathepiper]

I'm aware of these things, yes. Kit did in fact point Kristin at the Writer Beware page. :) And I've heard from every single reputable agent who's ever given a talk at Writer's Weekend or at the writing panels at conventions I have attended about what to do to find an ethical agent. (In fact, I've talked about this stuff in the two long posts I've done so far for this year's Writer's Weekend, as well as the ones I did for last year.)

Thanks, though!

[annathepiper]

(I should clarify what I mean when I talk about not having experience yet with 'that phase' of the publishing cycle--it's not the picking out of agents part that I meant. It's the actual contract part. I had had the impression from Kristin from her original contact to me that she'd had an actual contract on which she needed advice, and that was why I pointed her at Kit--because Kit's actually dealt with actual contracts, and I haven't.

Should I actually get any interesting progress out of the two agents I myself have queried, I will be bugging Kit again--this time to ask her advice on contracts for myself. ;)

Also, since I was about to be offline anyway for big chunks of two days running and would not be at my keyboard, I thought it'd be a better idea to point Kit at her since Kit could likely answer her questions faster than I could. So!)

[bloody-keri.livejournal.com]

Hi there. You don't know me, but I found you via a search for fellow Barbara Michaels fans. I'd like to friend you if you don't mind. I'm a fellow writer (still aspiring, alas), as well. I'm also insanely jealous that you live in Washington state. I'm in Texas, so if you'd be so kind as to report every so often on the misty rains and cooler temperatures, you'd be giving a perpetually-sweating Texan much joy. At least for the summer. :)

[annathepiper]

Oh wow, hi! Please do feel free to Friend me; I love to chat with fellow writer hopefuls, and anyone who also likes Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters is especially welcome on my journal. :)

And I'll be happy to report on our temperatures! Right now things are rather gray today, though without any rain.