PageToFame, Girl With Dragon Tattoo, and More TV

Hey guys. :)

So, I admit, I haven't really had anything to blog about, which is most definitely why I haven't posted since, well...my last post. But thankfully, that's changed. At least for today.

First and foremost, I wanted to bring up a fantastic website I've blogged about just once (I think): WEbook! And, on WEbook, is PageToFame, something I've utilized four times now, and something that I really think will help me (and possibly you, too!) with my novel.

WEbook, if you're wondering, is a website where writers, readers, or anyone else, really, can post work, receive feedback on said work, give feedback on others' work, participate in writing competitions, obtain help (like what to do when you have writer's block), and much more. It's home to the PageToFame competition, where you post your first page of either a "Short" (short story, poem, etc.), or a novel. For me, I'm a full-length novel writer, so I've posted the first page of my main story in addition to another story that's in development (your whole book doesn't have to be done to do this). From there, others with accounts on the site can rate your first pages on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 obviously being the lowest (lousy) and 5 being the highest (heavenly). There are 3 rounds, and if you receive good enough ratings, your 1st page is elevated to round 2, where you post your first 5 pages, and lastly, round 3, where you post the first 50 pages. Best part is, participating literary agents read your work each time you're elevated!

Phew. That was a big block of words. :)

Anyway, here's the link: http://http//www.webook.com/

So, that's that. Now, onto something veeeeeery interesting...

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson!

I just started this one today, and must say I'm completely sucked in! I've heard amazing things about this thriller, and have learned the U.S. is coming out with the theatrical version in the next year or so (already insanely excited)! In fact, a huge character in the novel, Lisbeth Salander, has been chosen to be played by Rooney Mara. (The Swedish films had Salander played by Noomi Rapace.) So, I simply wanted to say I started it (anyone already read it?). I'll definitely be checking out the movie when it flies into theaters!

Movies relate to TV, and for my last little discussion, I wanted to talk about a very favorite show of mine... (Nice transitional sentence, right?)

Saturday Night Live!

This show... What can be said??? It's amazing, hilarious, has a mind-blowing cast... Did I mention hilarious? I did? Oh well. Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious...

I'm pretty sure you've all seen and/or heard of this show, but still... I just wanted to bring it up because I just watched a reran episode a few days ago, and I was completely laughing out loud!

Ah, the joys of television... =D

Well, I'd say that's it for now. Nothing new with the novel. Oh wait, there is some news, actually. I got another rejection from a query I sent over a month ago. It was sad, but I'm totally fine with it. :) Rejection #30, I believe...

So, that's it for now!

Thoughts on TV =)

So, I got to thinking today... Why is it that so many people are attracted to shows like The Real World and Jersey Shore on MTV? Yeah, I admit, I really, really enjoy watching The Real World, but honestly, why? It's almost like a waste of time, watching strangers live in a house together, with tons of drama, alcohol, violence, cops, etc... But even I can't stop watching it.

I simply decided to blog a little about what's swirling around in my head, for no particular reason. Do any of you guys have favorite shows on TV? I wouldn't really say The Real World is a favorite of mine; I only felt like blogging about it because I watched the newest episode a few nights ago. :)

Hmmm. And, as the TV's flipped on right now as I type this, The Hills is on. MTV seems to be popular. ;)

In book news, I've been mulling over the first few chapters of my novel, just wondering if they're, for lack of a better word, good enough. So, I've been testing myself by writing some fake little first chapters, just to see what could possibly work should I receive a critique or just feel that the first chapter or two needs a rewrite. It's actually easier than I thought, because, as any writers out there know, writing is definitely NOT an easy thing to do, by any means.

Hopefully I soon receive a partial request from an agent. Thankfully, I had my query critiqued, and I think it's totally amazing right now. So, we'll see...

So, favorite shows??? For me, it's all over the place. I LOVE Discovery Channel (especially Shark Week, which is sadly coming to an end tomorrow), Travel Channel (Samantha Brown, anyone?), and Full House. C'mon, who doesn't like Full House?

Well, that's it for now. I think I'll watch the final days of Shark Week :( and maybe do a little more test rewrites. :D

New Book, New Title, New Query

Hey all. :)

So, I have to admit I haven't updated the blog for roughly four or five days (I'm too lazy to count). But, the truth is, there's been absolutely no reason to.

So, to further prove this point, I've compiled some reasons as to why I don't really update daily...

Number one: I'm blogging about my journey in seeking publication, and that whole "seeking" bit is an extremely slow process. So, as with all slow things, you can guess it's been going pretty, what's the word?, slow. :D So basically there's nothing to ever update about, unless of course I start to freak out and hyperventilate when something (hopefully soon) AMAZING happens regarding my novel.

Annoying, yes. But that's the book business.

Number two: I don't want to pile useless information about my day onto this blog...unless I so choose. I may contradict myself in later posts, but, uh, yeah. For now, I don't want to.

Hmmm. I can't really think of a number three, which is good, I'd reckon. (I don't hear the word reckon often, so I thought I'd use it!)

There are two things to talk about, though...

First, I received another rejection today. Number twenty-four, if you're that curious. (I'm keeping count; it'll be interesting and fun to look at past rejections once I'm hopefully a published author.) But trust me, it's not angering. It's more frustrating than anything. So, yep, not too big a deal. Just need to keep submitting, keep submitting, keep submitting...

Secondly, I'm about to start a new book! Recently, I just finished the first novel in the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan, titled The Ruins of Gorlan. IT. WAS. FANTASTIC. Seriously. It was a fast-paced, enjoyable fantasy that flows very well and has a hold-your-interest plot that kept me buried within the pages. I'd wholly recommend picking this novel up if you have the chance. In fact, I've already started the sequel, titled The Burning Bridge.

Now, back to the book that I was talking about. The one I'm about to start.

The Light by D.J. MacHale! =] It's the first novel in the Morpheus Road trilogy, and ever since I picked it up over a month ago it's been idly sitting around, just waiting to be read. So, yes, though I'm already reading the second Ranger's Apprentice (and another book; I'm one of those people who doesn't mind reading multiple books at a time), I just couldn't resist staring at it longingly anymore. So, I'm about to start it!

Well, that's it for today! I've submitted more queries, attempting to craft them various ways and such just to see what the effect would be. On one of them, I even changed the title just to do a little "experiment" so-to-speak, and see what the response would be!

Wish me luck with the queries! And now, I leave you with these questions that you're more than welcome to leave the answers to in the comment box below: do you like to read multiple books at a time?, what are your favorite books?, and, lastly, what are your favorite covers?

Until then, happy reading and writing! ;)

Submissions, Submissions, and More Submissions...

Um, yeah. I think you can guess what I've been doing. :)

Submitting my book to literary agents is definitely a nail-biter kind of thing to do, because honestly, it's very difficult to wait for a response; you really are left with yourself and all your questions, many including: "Did I do everything right?", "Is my query good?", and, perhaps one of the biggest, "Will they like my sample pages?"

Trust me, you're not at all alone when you ask yourself these questions. But just remember that every rejection is a step closer to the YES we all really want to receive. ;)

Now, I'll let you in on how I go about my submissions, besides the typical "e-query" that I'm pretty sure many, many aspiring authors out there utilize.

Don't get me wrong, the e-mail query is definitely simple and quick, but, when I kept receiving more and more rejections, I kept asking myself what else I could do in terms of submissions.

And that, oddly enough, is when I discovered a website: WEbook! :)

I discovered it around Christmas, and, in fact, got an account on Christmas day!

Now, before I post the link, I'll tell you a bit about this website. In short, it's basically a website that allows writers in all stages to post their work, receive feedback, give feedback, submit work, and do many other things. It's home to PageToFame, which is an interesting competition-like tool that allows you to post a first page of whatever it is that you are writing (novels, they prefer) and watch that very first page get rated by others on the site (you can rate other pages as well on a scale of 1 to 5). There are four rounds, and if your first page receives high enough ratings and the site's algorithm predicts it will move on, it ascends to round two! And (this is the good part) once your page passes on to round two, participating literary agents look at your page and rate it! They can also "follow" your page if they'd like.

In addition, as you progress through the rounds, you add more and more pages until you're up to round four (the final round) and your entire manuscript is available for literary agents to check out!

I've used this twice now, and it really is great. :) So, I'd recommend checking it out.

Lastly, before this post gets too long, I'll tell you about WEbook's other amazing tool they have in place that I've been using for my submissions.

It's called AgentInbox.

It's a little difficult to explain, but basically it's a way to reach out to literary agents that have an account on WEbook by submitting a query, sample pages (if they ask for it), a short synopsis, and an author bio. Best part is, you can track which agents have opened your submission, and you're notified immediately when an agent makes his or her decision.

I'd recommend checking both PageToFame and AgentInbox out! (You'll need an account on the website to use these.)

Well, here's the link: http://www.webook.com/

That's it for now!

Oh Yes! (In Other Words, I'm Done!)

The feeling of finishing a book is great. :) Because yeah, as you guessed, I just finished my book. Completely. And now, tomorrow and the next few days, I'll be reading through it a few more times just to tweak little things and make sure everything flows and all of that.

So, yeah, I'm sure you guys have written books yourselves, or even short stories, or pretty much anything. And if so, I'm sure you can agree with me that the feeling of typing that last words is just perfect. =]

If you haven't written anything, go for it! :)

Well, that's it for today. I'm exactly an hour late as I write this, but whatever...happy Fourth of July!

So...

I believe it's time to discuss my novel...even if just slightly. I mean, you're following my blog to watch me head into the world of writing and publishing novels, right? My novels. So, it would only be fair if you knew a little about my book.

So, uh, I'll start by telling you it's fiction. :) And, because it's all I read and I think it's amazing, it's young adult. I'd categorize it as an action/adventure novel. It has fantastic good guys and maniacal bad guys. I'm planning it to be the first in a series. And the title? Well, it's up in the air right now, though I do think I've got one that should stick.

The reason I'm being so vague is simply because I like to keep my projects under wraps until it's truly allowed to be seen/read/whatever. But be positive about it and know that it'll amp up the surprise-factor. ;)

Well, that's it for today. Not much is happening. Just relaxing. Editing my book. A typical day for me. :)

Oh yeah, I slightly changed the look of the blog. Like it?

My First Post EVER!

Why, hello. :)

Welcome to An Author's Quest. My name is Miles, and, as I'm sure you've guessed, I'm an author on a whirlwind journey. A quest, so-to-speak. A quest to get my first novel on bookshelves around the world and into the hands of readers. A quest to be a published author.

Yeah, that might take a little while...

Which is why I've started up this blog. So you can watch me journey into the world of publishers, agents, queries, manuscripts, edits, submissions, waiting, excitement, publication, and all that fun stuff on the comfort of your computer.

Yep.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you return and perhaps "follow" me on my journey! :)