The Bouncy Castle in Space

Dannica

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So, I don't know if this is the appropriate place to post this or not, but ya'll can move it if not. okay?

I used to love books for adults. I have favorite authors, but I could pick up most any novel and lose myself in it for an hour - or five - before falling asleep.

Not anymore. Reading children's literature has spoiled it.

I get so bored with the incessant details. I get irritated with the poor editing. I get pissed at the inconsistencies.

I truly appreciate the remarkable job that the MG writers, agents and publishers are doing for kidlit. Most of what I read is hard to put down, and because so many of them are short, I don't have to. But why am I noticing a lack of quality in the adult lit. I used to enjoy?

Okay, that's my rant for the day.

You know, it's funny, but I too feel that on average children's books seem to be better edited than adult books.

I was reading the first few posts in this sticky to try to understand, what IS a thread titled "Bouncy Castle" supposed to be about?
 

SheilaJG

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I was reading the first few posts in this sticky to try to understand, what IS a thread titled "Bouncy Castle" supposed to be about?

Well, when you're jumping in a bouncy castle, it's hard to stay on one line of thought. Your brain tends to bounce along with you, so we just talk about anything, mostly.
 

MsJudy

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yep, this is where we come to play. Kind of the playpen--um, I mean, social club--of the kidlit bunch.
 

MsJudy

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OMG. you're never quite ready for some things...

My 17yo son got his first post card from the Marine Corps this week.

What's even more interesting is that I've signed the form so the high school isn't supposed to release his info to military recruiters, but somehow they got his address anyway.

Today he got his first letter from a university.

My little baby...!
 

Marzipan

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OMG. you're never quite ready for some things...

My 17yo son got his first post card from the Marine Corps this week.

What's even more interesting is that I've signed the form so the high school isn't supposed to release his info to military recruiters, but somehow they got his address anyway.
My parents did the same for me. I'm not sure how they collected our address. It was before I registered to vote. Even now that I'm 23 and married, they are STILL sending things to my parents. Congrats on his university letter though :)
 

JoyMC

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I'm on a bit of a roller coaster over here. I just finished the first draft of my WIP - so: yay!!!!

But I had literally just finished it and opened my email browser to find ... a rejection from an agent who had a partial. So: boo!!!! But, she said she "absolutely loved" the voice and writing (yay!!!!!), but there was a plot element that didn't work for her (boo!!!), and I can completely see it as a valid point -- I just happen to disagree with her.

So, it's not horrible to hear that someone absolutely loved it and would love to see future work (she said she'd love to see a revision, too, but I don't plan to revise to her comment), so that's good. But it was still a bit of a bummer after the high of finishing a first draft.

On to revisions!
 

sissybaby

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Joy - congratulations on finishing your first draft. That's always a great feeling.

So sorry about the reject - but sounds like there was much positive feedback, so yay! actually. Does that make sense?
 

Morrell

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Oh, Joy, that does sound like a roller coaster! "Absolutely loved the voice" is stellar praise, though. Hang in there... the next one may love that plot element.
 

Ferret

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Joy, don't let the rejection get you down. If the voice and writing are great, and it's just a difference of opinion over one plot element, you have a good chance of finding an agent who loves it. It's good you're not making changes you disagree with.

When I started getting really nice, personal rejections, it wasn't too long before I got an offer of rep. (Okay, it seemed like a long time at the time, but in hindsight, it wasn't really.)
 

SheilaJG

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Joy - congrats on finishing your WIP - that is a great feeling. And as rejections go, yours was pretty nice. High praise indeed. Keep sending it out - you are getting so close, hang in there!
 

JoyMC

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Thanks, everyone. I know it's basically good, but still discouraging. Mostly because I'm actually pretty done sending this one out. I've sent it out to about 60 agents, gotten four requests, and only one is still out. I know I could keep sending it out to more and more agents, but now I'm kind of focusing on the new WIP and hoping it will be stronger/better suited to the marketplace and give me another chance at my top choice agents. So, we'll see. I had about the same numbers on my first manuscript - around 60 agents, four requests, one full still out. Maybe third time will be a charm!
 

heza

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Thanks, everyone. I know it's basically good, but still discouraging. Mostly because I'm actually pretty done sending this one out. I've sent it out to about 60 agents, gotten four requests, and only one is still out. I know I could keep sending it out to more and more agents, but now I'm kind of focusing on the new WIP and hoping it will be stronger/better suited to the marketplace and give me another chance at my top choice agents. So, we'll see. I had about the same numbers on my first manuscript - around 60 agents, four requests, one full still out. Maybe third time will be a charm!


I'd probably try to exhaust all options, but your choice. Sometimes, when you're done with something, you're just done. But *fingers crossed* for your one query still out!
 

Kitty Pryde

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Ahoy! How are my fellow bouncers? I had a stressful but not awful day. My coworkers were blowing off steam the last 45 minutes of the day and cracking me up while I was trying to do awful online data entry busywork. One of my students has extremely hippieish parents. My boss was telling them how she had coffee but coffee makes her confused and insensible, so the kid's dad offered to bring her "some herbs". He promised the herbs would take her "up, and up, and up, and then you'll be up heeeeere, and then come down niiiiiiiice and slow" (accompanied by vigorous hand gestures). We told her to bring those herbs to happy hour on Friday :roll:

Terrible things the children have been saying to each other this week:

*AJ eats her boogers. (I believe she actually does not)
*That's why your mom doesn't love you. (In response to an argument over a basketball foul. The answer to that line was a punch in the stomach so hard he fell over, and both kids got ISS)
*Oh look, a chino (Chinese) and a h0m0. (to a Filipino boy and a white boy coming out of the restroom. That particular angel was sent home for her efforts to spread mayhem and malice.)
 

Marzipan

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Oh God. You always make me roll with your school antics Kitty. It makes me wonder if she really has herbs or if she is refering to some 'special' herbs, lol. She must be a trip on field trips :)

As for the naughty little girl, my gosh that's sad, but I can almost bet her parents had something to do with it. Le' sigh.
 

sissybaby

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HA! HA!

Kitty, you crack me up. Kids are so delightful, especially when they aren't around their parents and figure they can say whatever they like. So much information!

last year over Easter I was at a convention with a group from our church. It was a leadership workshop for our kids, and I wasn't judging or monitoring the halls at the time, so I volunteered to take our preacher's grandson (then 5) back to our room so he and my son could let off some steam. They'd been so good all morning and were getting bored.

Well, I prepared lunch for forty people while I let the boys have a pillow fight in the other room. They had a blast, and the only rule was not to get hurt, so I figured I'd let them alone.

This little one is a very picky eater. I figured I'd let them go ahead and make their sandwiches while everyone else was arriving, and I'm trying to guide him. He helped himself to chips, cookies, pickles and onions (kid has always loved raw onions), but told me he couldn't eat any meat. I said, "How odd, why can't you eat meat?"

"I'm allergic," he told me. Then he looked at me with big round eyes and said, "But don't ask my mom about it. She already knows."

I told him I wouldn't tell his mom, but I'd have to talk to his grandma about it, because she had trusted me to take care of him, and I could have poisoned him by feeding him the wrong foods, since she had forgotten to tell me about the allergy.

He frowned and said, "Okay, I think the doctor said it wouldn't kill me if I ate just a little bit of meat. Do you think you could not talk about it if I do that?"
 

JoyMC

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*AJ eats her boogers. (I believe she actually does not)

I love that you have assessed this and chosen a position on the matter.

Man, elementary school zingers can really be awful. I still remember some of the stuff that came my way. Am I the only one who gets my revenge by using parts of the names of elementary school bullies for unflattering characters in my writing? (My mom was actually reading one of my MS's over Christmas and she looked up from reading and said, "Why is this name so familiar?")

I freelance write from home, and I do a wide variety of things, but over the last few years, I have focused in on ghostwriting middle grade fiction. But the last several months have been very slow, and so I am SO excited (and a bit daunted) that I have just settled contracts to ghostwrite five novels (around 32,000 words each) over the next nine months. Aaaaaaah! It's going to be like NaNoWriMo all the time around here. But I'm provided with the storylines and I really pound them out, so I know I can do it and I'm excited that all my work will get to be creative this year, plus I'll get more and more and more practice (while getting paid). Woo-hoo!!!
 

Morrell

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Wow--five in nine months? That'll be some fast writing! Huge congrats on the contracts, Joy! Have you ghostwritten for this publisher before?
 

JoyMC

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Yes, I've done two middle grade novels for them before. They're not a big six publisher or anything - they're a strange little outfit in a faraway land. But they pay me to write fiction, so I don't really care who they are. :)
 

sissybaby

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Joy - wow! if you write that way, you are amazing! I wish you huge success with it.

And I have to agree about the revenge thing. My family always recognizes bullies from my childhood in my novels, even though I change their names.
 

JoyMC

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I should be clear. There is no crafting of prose or thoughtful consideration of plot. It's not like writing one of my own novels. With writing-for-hire, I figure I can write 1000 words in an hour, so each book should take me around 40 hours, allowing some time for revisions. Since I work about ten hours/week, it should work out. I've never done them back to back like this, though. I'll keep you guys posted! (The trick will be staying on top of my own WIP, too.)
 

Spiral

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Wow Joy, that's incredible!

Speaking of bullies, my son has been having issues this year. Today he got in some trouble because some kid came up to him and kicked him in the you-know-where, and my son hit him back. (This isn't the first time he's had trouble with this kid, and said kid also harasses one of my son's friends on a regular basis...like pushing him into lockers and name-calling and stuff) So both my son and this other guy have four detentions next week. The teachers expect that they should make up and come up with a solution so that "it" doesn't happen again. My knee-jerk response was, tell the kid if he doesn't kick you in the parts then you won't hit him back...but for some reason I don't think that answer is what the teachers are looking for.