What's your book subject?

A current affairs book with elements of true crime ... or a true crime book with elements of current affairs. I'd like it to be the former, but some days it seems like the latter.

I'm writing about my experiences rescuing snakes.

John, I'm fascinated by this! Do you have a blog? or do we have to wait for a book?

I'm writing a short self-help book of survival support for when your life falls apart. I intend to self publish this as an e book.

I've written (and published) a short ebook on couponing and I'm working on writing a longer one that focuses more on grocery stores.

Psychology

My manuscript is about clinical psychology, namely, my clinical training in a psychiatric hospital. It is complete. Is anyone interested in reading my query letter and giving me some tips? Thanks, Jean

Archaeologists who encounter creeps, thugs, dopers, and the occasional spirit.............

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

The memoir of an operatic wannabe who became a Sikh.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

how-to

another book about dyeing with natural dyes, this one is aimed at beginners.

I write about natural history. My first book was about living with creepy crawlies in the house and garden (in Australia). The one I'm working on at the moment is about molluscs. (Not the one listed in my sig as the WIP, obviously. Although that would be an interesting combination.)

So many fascinating subjects! That's why I love nonfiction. Mine is a nonfiction soap opera, ten years inside my state's largest criminal gang.

Kylabelle said:

John, I'm fascinated by this! Do you have a blog? or do we have to wait for a book?

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Sorry, I lost track of this thread. Actually I have scrapped the whole idea.I guess I just haven't been that busy, I have written about all I can about it and only hit 10,000 words!! This includes writing about the snakes themselves. Need to do this about 3 mores years I guess to get more to write

EDIT: Thank you Kylabelle !! You may not even see this,but I was as frustrated as I have ever been when I read this yesterday but after sleeping on it last night. Your post gave me the kick in the pants I needed. I have decided to push on with this project until I get it done. Thank you!

Hi John. I figured you'd lost track of the thread when my question went unanswered for so long; no worries, it happens.

But I am utterly delighted to learn that, after becoming discouraged, you are taking up the project again. Honestly, I feel snakes get such a bad rap! I can tell you that, as a gardener and lover of the outdoors, when I see snakes I just feel so pleased! I have a bit of awareness of their function in the larger environmental picture, you see, but it's more than that.

So, I hope you do stick with it. It may take some inventiveness to find a good market for such a book, but even assembling the information, and the stories, will be such a great start, and however it gets out there will be a benefit, IMO.

Mine was a 70,000 word memoir of my marriage to a hurtful, self indulgent man and the abuse my children and I went through a fifteen year period. I finished it after ten years of working a full time job and writing part time. I have had over 150 rejections. I finally got an agent that said my writing was fluid and commercial. Not sure what she meant by commercial. Anyway she said it was to boring in the beginning and gave me a few pointers. I then laid it down and didn't write for almost 4 years and I regret I did that. I finally went back and rewrote it and now it is only 30,000 words. I need to work on it some more. I have have 15 rejections in the past 4 months. I sent it again to the agent who gave me the pointers in February and I have not heard any thing from her. I have doubt in myself now. My friends whom have read it, love it but I know it is because they know me.......oh well. My book is called THE EX-WIFE CHRONICLES. I felt like quitting, but then I realized Stephen King had over 300 rejections with CARRIE.......so hope is still here.

John Olexa said:

I'm writing about my experiences rescuing snakes.

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You need to team up with the Gator Boys in Louisiana. They rescued a snake on their last episode. Would help your book

I read through this entire thread and it was so fascinating to see what people are - or were - working on since the thread goes back a few years. I'm working on several projects right now but the main one that I'm focusing on is a true crime book. It has so many twists and turns that it's unreal. I don't have a "go" on the book yet but my initial query was to an editor at Kensington. After a couple of questions from the editor and some back-and-forth, now I just wait. And then wait some more. It's only been 3 weeks but feels like months. Oh, I am so very impatient!! I'm writing away on it though. And thinking positive thoughts.

It's historical, its called The Latino Hoax about how the Nixon administration created the Hispanic category to help him gain votes.

All my researching has been pretty hard, since there's only a couple of academic articles on the topic. I'm not a school anymore so it's hard to access the information.

You read hundreds of pages in source material and then only produce a couple of pages for your own book, which is quite annoying.

I'm in my 70's, and I've been writing The Lost Prairie Chronicles for a long time. This isn't a difficult one for subject matter. The Chronicles are true tales of the St.Marie children growing up in this big old house in Lost Prairie Montana.... one room schoolhouse and all.

The trick to writing about this sort of subject matter that could be mundane is to get the reader seeing all of it happening as if they were right there alongside the family members. Some of them are real seat grippers, others are nostalgic of an era now long gone. All of them are a family history.

I'm not yet finished but the kids are pressing me to do something with them . I don't suppose there'd be a real finish until I can no longer type. No more writing for me. My wrists are shot and typing is difficult enough.

Emerita said:

You need to team up with the Gator Boys in Louisiana. They rescued a snake on their last episode. Would help your book

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LOL!! yeah them or the turtle man

Mine is the memoir of a son who remembers his father by driving the truck they had restored to Alaska. I did this in 2000 as a cancer fundraiser in Dad's memory. It got lots of media coverage.

I finished the book in 2002. It was more the "building" of a book as one cohesive unit than the actual writing of one, or so it felt at the time. I threw everything I had in there, fluffed it up to 97,000 words, and realized how awful it was. So I threw it in the closet (literally) until just a couple months ago.

I've always known there was some good stuff in there...somewhere. It's down to 67,000 words now and getting better every time I pull garbage out. By the time it's down to 500 words it oughta win a Pulitzer Prize. :-\

If I can somehow whip it into something reasonably good, perhaps I'll launch it one of these Father's Days as part of another cancer drive, maybe down to Key West. Would be a good bookend for a 61 year old pickup truck that's already been to Deadhorse, AK at the northern end.

The story is one the media seems to love. I know there's something there. Whether I, as an unpublished writer (outside of a few related articles that got into some auto enthusiast magazines ), can do it justice remains to be seen.

Mine is going to sound awful after all these amazing topics..

But I'm working on a nail art guide, how to do several designs with a range of tools from what you'd have in the house to specialised tools you can purchase.

Who knows if it will go anywhere but it's great fun as I have most of the material from my nail art blog I ran a year or so ago

I haven't actually set pen to paper yet but I recently started researching the life of a relative by marriage. She was named in one of Victorian England's biggest divorce scandals, had an illegitimate son and divorced her second husband (her first husband killed himself)...not bad going for a baronet's daughter! It sounds as if her story has all the ingredients of a lurid bodice-ripper but the book will be a biography.

My book is a memoir of roughly 60,000 words, and is about my 15 years of homelessness between 1985 and 2000, ten of those years on the streets. I am somewhat aware mine is a well covered subject. As a newbie to AW, I am going to assume I will come to know more about memoirs than I know now. I do know a little more knowledge than I have now most certainly will not hurt.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Welcome, Malik!

Congrats on the agent interest!

Also, I'm glad to know that such units exist.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

My only subject in book is only Childrens book.