Thursday Thoughts

It's snowing. Again. I enjoy the snow, but these are flurries and don't really amount to much. I like it when it accumulates because the puppy enjoys playing in it and that gives me a much needed break.

Have you all heard of the Nielson ratings? It's how they rate TV shows based on frequency of being watched. I participated in one last year, but it was during the strike so I didn't watch anything but DVDs. Plus, the little booklets the Nielsons send are time-consuming to fill out. And you get no compensation. Well, a few weeks ago I get a call from Nielson asking me if I wanted to do it again. I said no. A couple days later I get another call asking me the same thing. Again I said no. So on Tuesday I get their stupid little booklet in the mail with the instructions on how to fill out the days and times I watch TV. Aargh! What part of "no" don't they understand? This totally explains the demise of some of the most fantastic television shows ever broadcasted. The rating system is run by idiots. No one fills out their freaking booklets. The whole thing is a scam! /rant

I realize I didn't post a teaser from Mystic Taxi on Tuesday. This is because I'm close to finishing the book and it will go out on submission before too long. So I'm not comfortable posting much more, and probably shouldn't have posted as much as I did. Posting work on the internet is contraversial and I hear both sides. But I have to say the feedback I get from readers is invigorating. Sometimes, as writers, we need that kind of encouragment. It's difficult to write in a vacuum. As far as teasers go, I'm going to cool it for a while.

Hey, all this week, Nathan Bransford is focusing his blog on positivity. I love it! There's too much doom and gloom out there. We need to hear good news now and then, or at least positive perspectives from the professionals in the industry. Thank you, Nathan!

Colleen Lindsay of Fine Print Literary announced a Query Fail Day on Twitter. Colleen says: A group of online agents, book editors and periodicals acquisition editors are posting about their queries in real time. The idea is to educate people about what exactly it is in a query that made us stop reading and say "Not for me." Cool. I joined Twitter, but I don't know how to use it right, and forget to post to it all the time. I don't know how to follow people, either, yet I have a few followers of mine. I've got to figure this thing out. Maybe I'll use the Query Fail Day thing as a teaching tool. I'm such a technotard.

You know, speaking of queries, I heard agents are seeing a huge increase in the number of queries they're receiving lately. I also heard the reason for this is because so many people are out of work, they've all decided to write books and make a living that way. Yeah, that's the ticket! Write a book and make a butt-load of money. Ha! Ignorance is such bliss.

I'll continue to refresh my inbox all day to see if any news from the agent shows up. So far, nada. Very frustrating.