If anyone here is a member of Authonomy, the Harper-Collins writing site, then you can do me a solid. My novel JOE AVERAGE is currently up on the site, and so far the response has been really good. Actually the response has been great, but like Kanye West, I'm a bott …
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on September 15, 2009 at 11:50am —
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I just joined Authonomy the Harper-Collins booksite, and posted a few sample chapters. I got a couple of really good reviews so far, which warmed my little flint heart.
Anyone else on this site?
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on September 8, 2009 at 8:51am —
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on August 4, 2009 at 11:30am —
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Okay, here's the story: I got a form rejection reply from another agent, or to be more specific, the agent's assistant, which stated that despite what their website and other public statements said, they're too busy and not looking for new clients, good luck,
yadda yadda yadda, but this time it came with a little something extra.
You know when someone replies to an e-mail, there's usually the first e-mail on the top of the page, that's fairly common, but this time it got weird.
The repl…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on August 4, 2009 at 7:58am —
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Got another rejection letter today, but at least this agent appears to have actually read the materials that were sent, which says something. That makes about five out of the dozen that I've applied to over the last few weeks, the rest haven't answered yet, and most of them probably won't if they feel the same lack of enthusiasm as the last agent had.
It does raise a question. Should I mention that the novel was recommended twice by editors at a major genre publishing company only to be held ba…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on August 1, 2009 at 8:33am —
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Today was the day of the annual library sale, where the public and school libraries of three counties put all their over-stock books together and sell them at great prices. I'm talking $5 for 3 hardcovers, and $2 for 3 paperbacks (mass market and trade size).
For a stingy yet voracious reader like myself, I always go ape-shit crazy at this sale, and I bought a huge load of books for about $25 in just about every genre and subject. The trick is that you have to get to the back room of a small to…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on July 19, 2009 at 4:03am —
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I restarted my agent hunt after a bout of what was possibly swine flu, and started sending out query letters to potentially interested agents.
I got 1 rejection so far, and like past rejections was sent in about the time it took for the assistant to hit the "reply" button, so it was pretty obvious that the materials they asked for probably weren't even read, so I now I know where not to try again.
Anyway, the hunt goes on.
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on July 10, 2009 at 4:39am —
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The book I'm in
Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse, got two good reviews available online.
One even included my chapter as a highlight, describing it as "fun." Which is sort of the point of the story.
Read them...
HERE &
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on July 1, 2009 at 5:30am —
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Mike Hanson, the creator of
Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse, a novel-anthology hybrid to which I contributed
Chapter 6: Dixie Chrononauts, will be appearing on the
Ben Eads Dark Fiction Show, on Saturday May 30th, at 11 PM EST.
If you can't catch it live, you can download it as a podcast and listen to it at your leisure.
And if you would like a copy of the book then click my widget...…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on May 29, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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My inability to get an answer out of the publisher whose been sitting on my science fiction novel for 4 years, or from the editor who asked me to let them look at it again last year, has convinced me that I desperately need an agent.
But I hate looking for one.
First, I'm in Canada, and I have several bad agent experiences I had in Toronto. (Ever had one bar a door when you had an appointment for a meeting and they demand you slide your work through a mail slot?) I've given up on Canadian agen…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on May 21, 2009 at 1:26pm —
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Last year I got an e-mail from a major publisher about my first novel, a science fiction adventure, asking me if it was still available, because it had been sitting on someone's desk for 3 years, because this editor finally got around to reading it and wanted to kick it up to upper management. I was about to submit it to another publisher, but decided to agree to let the editor move it up the food chain.
Well, it's going on a year since it was "kicked up" and I'm still waiting.
Which brings me…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on May 9, 2009 at 3:56am —
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Then I have something for you.
I'm not the type to toot my own horn, but I'm trying to drum up as much support for this project as I can. You see a while back I was recruited for a special project. The idea was to get a large group of authors, give each of them a premise, and a title to start with, and get them to each write a short story telling some facet of a global Lovecraftian Apocalyptic battle for world domination.
Well, the project eventually became the two book epic
Sha'Daa: Tal…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on April 9, 2009 at 8:30am —
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Or did anyone else have trouble logging into Crimespace over the past week?
I tried to visit the site, but all I'd get was an error screen saying the "connection had been reset" and I couldn't log on. This went on for at least a week, apparently ended today, and I don't know why my "connection" kept getting "reset."
Did this happen to anyone else?
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on April 6, 2009 at 2:27am —
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I'm still doing my ongoing serial story.
Here are the installments so far...
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
Enjoy...
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on March 28, 2009 at 12:26pm —
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Every once in a while I like to just do a story on
my writing blog that has no plan, no outline, and no clue what I'm going to do next beyond a very vague premise, and a couple of characters. I call it literary improv, and I don't do any editing beyond my computer's initial spelling and grammar check, so it is literally as raw as you can get.
This time around, it's a story I call Tooth & Claw, a fusion of Depression era outlaws & G-Men, a…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on March 21, 2009 at 12:18am —
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Two obits in one day. Sheesh...
Ricardo Montalban, one the classiest actors in Hollywood history, known by millions as the charming and enigmatic Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island, but beloved by generations of geeks as Khan Noonian Singh the greatest Star Trek villain of all time has passed away.
Justify Full
He started out in Hollywood in the 1940s as one of the few Hispanic actors working in the industry. And in the tradition of old-school miscasting, was often cast as Asian characters. He also…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on January 15, 2009 at 1:06pm —
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Patrick McGoohan passed away at the age of 80.
He is probably best known for The Prisoner, a bizarre, surrealistic take on the 60s spy genre that he helped create, and even wrote episodes for under the name Paddy Fitz. In the show he played a spy who resigned for unknown reasons, someone, it's never identified who, kidnapped him and placed him on The Island, a strange, creepily pleasant prison for people with secrets.
His captors take away his name, which is never revealed, call him Number 6,…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on January 15, 2009 at 8:46am —
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The following is one of the Private Eye parodies I do for my
main blog about the business of showbiz, and thought I'd post it here too. Enjoy.
_______________________________
It was a quiet day in my humble little office wedged between the Happy Ending Massage Parlour, and Big Dick's Discount Double Entendre Warehouse. Christmas was right around the corner and I had to get a new tree for the office because the one I had been using got mocked…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on December 23, 2008 at 5:54am —
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Now my smug-know-it-allness is official.
;)
| There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge
|
Where you |
…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on December 9, 2008 at 4:29am —
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Currently, I'm working on a non-fiction book about the business of pop culture, I'm writing a sci-fi adventure, and last night I got hit with the beginnings of a mystery story, that had me writing until 1:30 AM.
Goes to show, you can't really control inspiration, and you gotta go for it when it comes. I had been stewing the idea for a while, a sort of geeky take of the classical "cozy" structure, and I needed something to help intro the detective, the victim and the suspects, and last night it…
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Added by D.R. MacMaster on December 8, 2008 at 12:23pm —
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