The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Volume 8

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Rick

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(((Kiahanna))) I hope Sable pulls through, and I'm sorry you're not getting support at work.

(((Caleb)))

Lily - fingers crossed for your book placement!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAER and BLUE!!!
Happy B-day twins!

I'm at work today (only day this week), clearing the path for my official job search, which begins Wednesday. I had to meet with the Ethics counselor to clear up which defense companies I can't work for and for how long, and got that cleared up. I should have the official letter by tomorrow. Then it's - Damn the torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead!
 

JoNightshade

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAER AND BLUE! Hope it's a good one for both of you.

I guess I'm the outlier on querying here. After many rounds of querying, when I finally came up with THE query that worked, I got my positive responses almost instantly. After I got one or two requests I went back and re-queried agencies I really wanted, and I think I got about six requests within a week or two. On previous rounds of querying, I'd get trickles here and there and a request once in a blue moon. If I had to do it over, I'd go back to the drawing board with my query until I got one that struck gold.
 

Tasmin21

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Back from a loverly lunch with Caleb, and I can vouch for the non-black shoes. (forest green Converse, if anyone is wondering)
 

Maryn

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We demand proof of green shoes, damn it!

Maryn, not the sucker she seems
 

Blondchen

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OMG! BIRTHDAY FOR BLUE AND DRAGON!

:D (get it?)

BlueDragon_zpscc17b4d9.jpg
 

Cake

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:hooray::partyguy::hooray::partyguy::e2flowersHAPPY BIRTHDAY:hooray::partyguy::hooray::partyguy::e2flowers


I am shamelessly stealing this.

Nightshade - that's interesting about querying, it's so tough to know when it's ready to go into the big old world :(
 

mayqueen

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Happy birthday, Blue and Dragon!!

In regard to querying, I have a question for all of you. Should I be worried that it's mostly been silence in my inbox? I mean, I suppose agents are just busy, but hearing from you experienced people would help me worry less.
I can't say I'm an expert (though I've been querying for almost a year now), but I think it depends on if you have no response means no agents or not. I always just look on QT to see and mark them in my spreadsheet. But the silence does drive me nuts, sometimes. I want the Rs to be sure my emails are going through. : / But I have gotten requests after long silences, so it doesn't mean anything bad.
 

Tasmin21

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I actually did NOT take pictures of the green shoes, so we will have to rely on Caleb to furnish his own proof. (I was too busy gloating over the fact that I won the "who pays the check" game this time. Normally, Caleb is faster)
 

Shveta

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Thanks for the responses, Purgies. What's hardest about this is there's no way to know what's "normal."

I do know I got a lot of help with my query and am proud of it, so hopefully it'll bear fruit soon.

Blond, that is an adorable blue dragon!
 

Red-Green

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So I suspect I'm about to have a (hopefully) polite dust-up with my publisher about the novel I just subbed to him. Primarily, the problem is about happy endings. My book has a not entirely happy ending. Some of it is happy, but one particular part of it is really sad.

I'm curious about where Purgs stand on this matter. So... Purgy Poll?

How do you feel about books with sad endings? What's your favorite sad ending book? Can you help me come up with some very successful books that had sad ending? Other thoughts?
 

Calla Lily

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Red, if the ending is right for the book, I have no problem with it.

Some modern novels (1950-on) deliberately twist the story to create an unhappy ending. I object to that. /opinionated opinion

Happy Camper's book and phoenix's book had bittersweet endings, IIRC. I know I got all sniffly.
Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.

Gah. Brain cramp. Nothing else is coming.
 

dystophil

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Happy birthday, Blue and Dragon!!!

Hugs to Fire.

Yay for dog weddings and green shoes! (What, I am ridiculously sleep-deprived, so this perfectly makes sense.)

And I'm pretty sure a good bit of this is sleep deprivation talking, but I feel like my German classes are killing me, especially the intermediate ones. They are overall ridiculously disruptive and the few students who are really into it don't seem to make up for it and I'm having one of those "am I getting anything through to these kids at all?" moments right about now?

Then again, one of my English made a German mini-poster for me on which she translated a Captain Jack Sparrow quote into German for me, so that kind of made my day, because she stopped by even though I didn't even have her in class today. It's the little things.

Anyway, hopefully my coordinating teacher or maybe my content supervisor will have some insights for me. I don't feel like I haven't gotten anywhere at all, but man, it's tough going with this one class. My beginning German kids on the other hand and some of the more advanced ones are awesome to work with. So maybe there's hope yet.

Anyway, sorry for the venting.

Hugs and happy Monday, everyone!
 

xiaotien

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hey red!

i don't believe in happy endings entirely,
esp if it doesn't fit the story. some have said
SP isn't a happy ending--but to me, it was the
right ending.

but you said successful books. ha!

i would say lisa see is the queen of
the not entirely happy ending. i mean, as
you say, some things can be happy, but not
ALL is resolved with a pretty bow, because that
is life. especially if you tend to write more literary.

i don't believe Snow Flake had a super happy
ending. same with Shanghai Girls.

and one of my favorite books: Anna Karenina.
 

sunna

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I have no problem with any ending that fits the book, meself. :)

Of Mice and Men, Bridge to Terabithia, House of Sand and Fog...


{{{Dys}}}
 

Snappy

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OMG! BIRTHDAY FOR BLUE AND DRAGON!

:D (get it?)

BlueDragon_zpscc17b4d9.jpg

Steals. I'm seven pages behind with no time to catch up. So :e2grouphu for all and if you have burning news, PLEASE REP.
 

Maryn

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Damn it, *I* was going to name "House of Sand and Fog"!

Maryn, putting the thinking cap on again
 

JoNightshade

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So apparently my publisher has some people tasked with producing reader's guides for each book. Except that because of some scheduling screwup, they won't have mine in until after the book goes to print. Which means my book won't have a reader's guide... UNLESS I WRITE IT MYSELF.

I am quite certain my editor has no idea what she has just unleashed.

MUAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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