Report From The Trenches

It’s been a hectic few months here in the hot desert a mile above sea level. The low points are the low points and they pass, by and by. Sometimes you’re the dog and sometimes you’re the hydrant. At the moment, I’m the dog. Being the Pessimistic Optimist that I am, I know the roles will reverse soon enough. But I’m going to enjoy wagging my tail while I can.

I fired my agent a week ago. I suppose that could be seen as a hydrant moment; and it was. It was hard, despite how easy he made it, if that makes any sense. You’d have to know the details and I’m not revealing them. Burning one’s bridges behind them can be great fun but, occasionally, one should leave them intact. Not that they should remain intact in his case, he deserves a good burning, but one must always be aware of how far a good burning can spread.

In retrospect, I realize I should have fired him a long time ago. Such is life, live and learn, all those other nifty cliches. It’s a shame that I have to table Stealing The Marbles for a bit. Hard to shop a partially shopped book. Agents tend to be leery of such things. Luckily, Meter Maids Eat Their Young is finished so I’m back on the query-go-round with it. Ten equeries out so far. Got two quick rejections and a request for a partial right back. The partial goes out today. I was glad for the quick replies. Waiting is always the hardest part.

Being the glutton for punishment I seem to have become (I guess that makes me a writer now), I also sent out a number of short stories. And guess what? One of them got accepted! The story is titled Quiet, and it’s currently online in the June issue at Staticmovement. Increase Staticmovement’s hit count and check out the story, okay? It’ll take you all of five minutes to read.