March 2007 Blogs

The March Photo of the Month comes from an author event I attended on March 1, 2007. Pictured here is Margaret Maron, Sarah Shaber, and I. Margaret and Sarah are two of the best mystery writers in the country, and I believe Margaret served as President of Mystery Writers of America a couple years ago.

Saturday March 24, 2007
I've got some final footage of Susan's and my trip to New York. First up, here's a panoramic shot from the Empire State Building.

This next video is from Central Park near the Wollman Rink.

And finally, here's a picture of me looking positively happy in Central Park.

Friday March 23, 2007
I've got a few more photos from New York. Today, I walked down to the Empire State Building. This first photo looks toward the northwest from the observation deck. Midtown Manhattan...

This one is of yours truly.

This is from the observation deck looking southward. I zoomed in on the Flatiron Building.

Afterwards, I decided to walk to the Flatiron Building, which is where the St. Martin's Press and Tor/Forge publishing house is located.

Thursday March 22, 2007
So, we're in New York. It's not a particularly exciting picture, but here's the view from our hotel room window.

Yesterday, I went to the New York Public Library, where I snapped this self-portrait.

And for lunch, I had a burger at Island Burgers, right around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Sunday March 18, 2007
Below, you should see a video documentary of the Lulu Authors Group Meetup, which I organized for March 17, 2007 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I'm going to be in New York this week, and so any emails or blogs you receive from me will be coming from there.

Tuesday March 13, 2007
Can you say busy?

Holy cow, I don't have enough hours in the day. When things are hopping, they're hopping. Two jobs, a baby, literary agents emailing daily, dozens of emails daily...

I keep writing these blogs at like one in the morning because it's the first chance I get to do it each day.

I love it!

Stacey

Monday March 12, 2007
So, I went to Charlotte on Saturday for the first Write to Publish Group Meeting in that town. The group met at a Caribou Coffee, and the discussion focus was on literary agents. All total, we had nine people, and I managed to get some photographs.

I had a great time, and we're planning on starting up a critique group for writers in Charlotte. It looks like the first critique group will meet in Charlotte on April 14. If you have any questions or would like to join, feel free to drop me a line.

Stacey

Thursday March 8, 2007
We're back from the beach, and I have a few photos to share. First, though, if you've sent me email in the past few days, I must apologize. The reason I haven't responded is that I did not take my computer with me. I didn't even try to get to them tonight. I'll work on it tomorrow (Friday).

At any rate, here are the photos. These three are all from our balcony at our hotel. This seagull let me get very close...

This is Sam's first view of the ocean...

And Susan snapped this one of me while I walked the dogs on the beach.

We had a great time, and my allergies subsided nicely while at the beach. Now, I've got to get back to work. I'm driving over to Charlotte Saturday for our first Write to Publish Meetup there. I also have a pile of papers I'm going to have to buckle down on between now and Tuesday, as well as getting to the aforementioned emails.

Incidentally, I have had four agents respond already to the query mentioned earlier this week requesting to see sample pages from The Colorado Sequence. That's always exciting.

Stacey

Tuesday March 6, 2007
At NC State University, it's Spring Break this week, and so Susan and I are hitting the road today. We'll be in Atlantic Beach until Thursday. Time for some rest and relaxation.

Stacey

Sunday March 4, 2007
Well, it's done. I put the last of the agency query letters in the mail just a few minutes ago. All total, there have been a total of 424 sent out since November for my novel The Colorado Sequence. That is every literary agent in the country who will read an action-suspense novel. I've queried everyone.

It'll probably take about a month or two to get all the responses to this very last batch, but I can rest assured that I tried every possible agent.

My goal is to work through each of my novels the same way. All total, I've queried somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 agents for The Colorado Sequence, Claws, and Maggie Redcrest.

The next novel that I plan to do a 400+ query for is Death Cabin. I'm still working through the suggestions that my writing group partner made on the novel over Christmas, and then I'll probably ask Susan to read that corrected draft. That puts the timeline somewhere around May/June for the next massive round of queries.

By the time that's done, I should have the completed first draft of the novel I'm currently writing. Maybe sometime around October/November. That novel is Sacred Kill.

Incidentally, I'm keeping all the rejection letters in separate folders in my filing cabinet. One of these days, I'll break 'em out and take a photo. It's a good-sized stack already with about 400-500.

This Saturday I drive to Charlotte for the first Write to Publish Group that I'm organizing in that town. Right now, we have about twenty-five members.

Stacey

Thursday March 1, 2007
It's a new month, and I cleaned up my blog. In the following video clip, I ask Sarah Shaber about her experience winning the St. Martin's Press/ Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Contest. This contest is one of the best for launching careers of mystery writers.

Sarah will be on a panel I'm moderating at Quail Ridge Books on April 29, 2007.