memoir seeking agent part 1

Welp, I've started the tough task of finding an agent.
My memoir manuscript is complete. And with the guidance of a few trusted professionals, I've written a proposal, synopsis, query letter, chapter summaries, bio, and pitch.
My acceptance rate for short stories hovers in the 40-to-1 ratio which means I'm expecting probably worse numbers with this exercise. (I will note that publishing excerpts from the memoir has been much quicker and successful, which means --? probably not much.)

This week I've submitted to 3 agents.
Agent 1: no response yet
Agent 2: responded 24 hours later saying I had no following so she couldn't possibly sell my book
Agent 3: no response yet

I know the publishing world works as gatekeepers, it rewards the shiny, controversial and new, plus the only other published writer in the family passed away of covid so nepotism won't save me either. I'm going to give this a go anyway, because I believe in my story, and I believe in myself. No one will work harder or be more persistent.
Wish me luck.

beauty amid the funk

Well it's hot and gonna stay that way for months.

(insert cry emoji)

I joked to someone today that going outside felt like wearing a coat and they laughed humorlessly and said Yeah like wearing a full length fur coat with a hood.

Anyway. It gives us all something to talk about but it is a factor in planning any kind of excursion outside of the house. Sunscreen or long pants or both? Hat? Sunbrella? Walk slowly along the shady spots or wait in the sun for an air conditioned bus? Or splurge for a Lyft? After the sun sets it's still hot, and nightlife feels like one long lazy dog paddle in the bath of humidity and sweat.

And amid all the stink and funk, it's beautiful.

new story new story new

 

only the heathen cry

 I've been reading Bruce Gerencser's blog for awhile now.

He's a former pastor and current humanist who points a bright light at the abuses and failings of the church. His black collar crime series is a sickening reminder of how many predatory "men of God" are out there. I wrote him a note in March and we've corresponded a bit.

He was kind enough to post my most recent creative nonfiction piece, "Only the Heathen Cry," out last week in Aji Magazine (full issue at the website or just my story on Box.com).

Thanks for reading and go read Bruce's blog too!

James Baldwin on writing

Reading a James Baldwin interview from The Paris Review in 1984, on the art of fiction.
It's all wonderful and devastating and inspiring. 

I'll be pondering these interchanges about writing for awhile:

Q: As your experience about writing accrues, what would you say increases with knowledge?

A: You learn how little you know. It becomes much more difficult because the hardest thing in the world is simplicity. And the most fearful thing, too. It becomes more difficult because you have to strip yourself of all your disguises, some of which you didn’t know you had. You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal. 

Q:What do you tell younger writers who come to you with the usual desperate question: How do I become a writer?

A: Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say. If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real.

Q: Can you discern talent in someone?

A: Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.