tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post115031899687918958..comments2024-03-26T18:28:06.391-04:00Comments on Evil Editor: Face-Lift 67Evil Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03879826770199639420noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150676453583756002006-06-18T20:20:00.000-04:002006-06-18T20:20:00.000-04:00Canuck writer--Nonsense. The Hurricanes are going ...Canuck writer--<BR/><BR/>Nonsense. The Hurricanes are going to win.<BR/><BR/>:)Bethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08504439129670380071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150666896388745452006-06-18T17:41:00.000-04:002006-06-18T17:41:00.000-04:00Beth,Thank you. I hope to see you in October, too!...Beth,<BR/><BR/>Thank you. I hope to see you in October, too!<BR/><BR/>Canuck Writer<BR/><BR/>Go Oilers! Go!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150489050259304472006-06-16T16:17:00.000-04:002006-06-16T16:17:00.000-04:00Canuck writer--EE said: It's okay. I don't underst...Canuck writer--<BR/><BR/>EE said: <I>It's okay. I don't understand why he learns that trust is easily broken if he doesn't even remember what happened, but beyond that, I would simply answer a few of the hanging questions.</I><BR/><BR/>This is actually the most praise he's given any query in awhile. You're on the right track.<BR/><BR/>(And I know who you are...[waving]. See you in October, hopefully.)Bethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08504439129670380071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150470151434733462006-06-16T11:02:00.000-04:002006-06-16T11:02:00.000-04:00Evil Editor, are you my clone? Three of my favori...Evil Editor, are you my clone? Three of my favorite shows/movies ever--Get Smart, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and What's Up, Doc, which does, in fact, have one of the funniest, longest chase scenes in history. Babs should have stuck with comedy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150460882070939042006-06-16T08:28:00.000-04:002006-06-16T08:28:00.000-04:00"Vancouver shaaaaakedown . . ." Nazareth rocks!"Vancouver shaaaaakedown . . ." Nazareth rocks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150435212043729542006-06-16T01:20:00.000-04:002006-06-16T01:20:00.000-04:00Just goes to show ya that novelists ain't always s...Just goes to show ya that novelists ain't always so hot at queries...:)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150415564799772722006-06-15T19:52:00.000-04:002006-06-15T19:52:00.000-04:00Goodness. I didn't realize anyone was waiting for ...Goodness. I didn't realize anyone was waiting for my response. To answer some comments...the story is set in WA as opposed to BC because, well, Canada doesn't have the death penalty as a judicial option, and Washington does. And I have nothing to whine about. I asked for a critique; I got it. Fortunately, I'd made the decision to revise _before_ reading this post, so I'm not devastated or even hurt. Bemused, mainly, as a NYT best-selling author helped me craft that query. <BR/><BR/>Thank you to all,<BR/><BR/>Spitting Image Query AuthorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150407016706609322006-06-15T17:30:00.000-04:002006-06-15T17:30:00.000-04:00kis,I don't think that we can necessarily assume t...kis,<BR/>I don't think that we can necessarily assume that anon#2, aka "The Entitled Whiner" is necessarily the author of the query, who may be taking the ribbing with good humor but just hasn't checked in yet.<BR/><BR/>At least I hope that's the case.<BR/><BR/>meanwhile, anon#2, this is a BLOG, not a public service. Grow up, already. Is "insight" really what you want from some anonymous source who's probably really a 16 year old girl looking to have some fun.<BR/><BR/>Oh no, wait. 16 year old girls don't pretend to be middle-aged guys on the internet. I think I got that backwards. Nevermind.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150406771063575782006-06-15T17:26:00.000-04:002006-06-15T17:26:00.000-04:00And hey!How come you live in BC, but your book's s...And hey!<BR/><BR/>How come you live in BC, but your book's set in Washington? Think just cause you have a Canuck setting, no one's gonna read it?<BR/><BR/>(You're probably right!) ;)<BR/><BR/>-Kis, the proud CanuckAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150403496579348042006-06-15T16:31:00.000-04:002006-06-15T16:31:00.000-04:00And I nominate EE's "I'm dying" passage as the bes...And I nominate EE's "I'm dying" passage as the best run-on gag in existence. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150403188310033952006-06-15T16:26:00.000-04:002006-06-15T16:26:00.000-04:00What I really want to know is . . . are ya gonna g...What I really want to know is . . . are ya gonna go my way?<BR/><BR/>Kravitz rocksAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150403132799918882006-06-15T16:25:00.000-04:002006-06-15T16:25:00.000-04:00Did this show up on Miss Snark's Crapometer a whil...Did this show up on Miss Snark's Crapometer a while back? I swear it sounds familiar.Daisy Batemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10031425541717458261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150399723719000032006-06-15T15:28:00.000-04:002006-06-15T15:28:00.000-04:00House IS awesome. Funny thing, though, I loved Hug...House IS awesome. Funny thing, though, I loved Hugh Laurie when he played the idiot Prince Regent in Blackadder III, too.<BR/><BR/>And it always surprises me that people will submit here, and on Miss Snark's blog, and somehow expect to be the one person in the cosmos who isn't gonna get ridiculed. Some people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150398450135224362006-06-15T15:07:00.000-04:002006-06-15T15:07:00.000-04:00Man oh man, I love House. But what I really want t...Man oh man, I love House. <BR/><BR/>But what I really want to know is, who's Laurie Ann?!Brendahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17083327647412477394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150397004281799542006-06-15T14:43:00.000-04:002006-06-15T14:43:00.000-04:00Wowsers.You can always tell when the FedEx guy del...Wowsers.<BR/><BR/>You can always tell when the FedEx guy delivers the new Bong of the Month Club shipment to Yves's house.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150396767074769732006-06-15T14:39:00.000-04:002006-06-15T14:39:00.000-04:00rei, That's a good point. You look at a page so ma...rei, <BR/><BR/>That's a good point. You look at a page so many times, its flaws just kind of vanish into the scenery. You deal with all the intricacies of world-building (whether it's SFF or some guy's life in Spokane) and you forget that the reader doesn't already know all this shit.<BR/><BR/>And then you have to find some way to reveal it without being heavy-handed or redundant.<BR/><BR/>Best thing is to have someone read it cold. They see all the things you've become inured to. That's why this blog (and the crapometer) is so valuable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150393975215420682006-06-15T13:52:00.000-04:002006-06-15T13:52:00.000-04:00[quote]I think having lived with the book for year...[quote]I think having lived with the book for years, we're prone to make assumptions and connections that the query reader just doesn't see. So Evil Editor points those out to us.[/quote]<BR/><BR/>Exactly. I've been surprised at what gets picked on over on Elektra's "Crapometer". We, as authors, work with a deep knowledge base about our work, and that hinders our ability to write good summaries. <BR/><BR/>It would be like asking one of those people who camped out for weeks in front of the theaters in Star Wars costumes in order to get the first tickets to concisely summarize the plot of the original Star Wars trilogy (after all, three two-hour movies is about the amount of content found in your average SF/F book). Find a person who's lived in a cave for the past couple decades and read that concise summary to them. You'd hear:<BR/><BR/>"So are Jedis a race? Or is this a job?"<BR/>"So Vader - Anakin - is trying to kill his son to get him to join the Empire?"<BR/>"How does a 'star' shoot out a laser that can destroy planets?"<BR/>"Obi wan appears to Luke? So Obi Wan isn't really dead? Didn't you say that he was?"<BR/><BR/>(etc)<BR/><BR/>The ideal person to summarize a work is someone who just read it for the first time -- someone who's not obsessed with it and only knows the general plot. We have to try and get ourselves into that mindset ;)Reihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17005292189176596201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150392737033397212006-06-15T13:32:00.000-04:002006-06-15T13:32:00.000-04:00Oh, that was so funny. Please don't ever stop ente...Oh, that was so funny. Please don't ever stop entertaining us, EE.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150387510334519982006-06-15T12:05:00.000-04:002006-06-15T12:05:00.000-04:00what's an "overnight murder"?do you have to pack a...what's an "overnight murder"?<BR/><BR/>do you have to pack an overnight bag to commit one? Does it take all night? That'd suck if it took all night.<BR/><BR/>I'm from Spokane originally--I'd buy this. Sleazy and corrupt public officials in the Inland Empire certainly has realism on its side.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150386430697265442006-06-15T11:47:00.000-04:002006-06-15T11:47:00.000-04:00What we are trying to do in a query is take a 400-...What we are trying to do in a query is take a 400-page novel, distill its essential story elements, and a sense of our approach, and maybe a hint of our style, into a single page. <BR/><BR/>I think having lived with the book for years, we're prone to make assumptions and connections that the query reader just doesn't see. So Evil Editor points those out to us.<BR/><BR/>Crissakes, EE was pretty damn complimentary on this face-lift. That he jumped all over the opening sentence like Albert Pujols offering at a hanging slider ought to suggest rethinking it.<BR/><BR/>Do you really think there's no "real insight" in that?michael gavaghenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00209555723658389015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150385513130502012006-06-15T11:31:00.000-04:002006-06-15T11:31:00.000-04:00Thank God I didn't have hot coffee in my mouth thi...Thank God I didn't have hot coffee in my mouth this morning as I read this masterpiece!<BR/><BR/>Evil Editor, you out did yourself today.<BR/><BR/>Anonymous #2: There are other sites less humorous--and less informative.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150382352384614322006-06-15T10:39:00.000-04:002006-06-15T10:39:00.000-04:00anonymous #2, Hence the moniker "Evil Editor". -J...anonymous #2, Hence the moniker "Evil Editor". -JTCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150381888658596992006-06-15T10:31:00.000-04:002006-06-15T10:31:00.000-04:00I think EE's comments are a teaching tool. The les...I think EE's comments are a teaching tool. The lesson: Queries must be concrete, so we do not invite the query reader to fill in the blank spaces with amusing personal commentary.<BR/><BR/>In the examples here and in my own drafts, I see a consistent mistake of being in love with our clever turns of phrase, instead of using the query to serve the greater work -- the novel we're trying to sell.<BR/><BR/>If we can't get our egos out of our queries, isn't that a big red flag that we haven't gotten our egos out of our books? What editor/agent/publishing professional wants to work with someone like that?<BR/><BR/>I'd rather learn from blogging professionals than rejection letters my own self.Joyce Ellen Armondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07765556689124541390noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150381712395734722006-06-15T10:28:00.000-04:002006-06-15T10:28:00.000-04:00If EE dropped the blog and performed stand-up, we'...If EE dropped the blog and performed stand-up, we'd all have to pay a cover charge for his brilliance.<BR/><BR/>Beisdes, I think there is insight in his cornball jokes. Mainly, get to the point and don't say something stupid.Cherylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12026082753433141520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-1150379461367261982006-06-15T09:51:00.000-04:002006-06-15T09:51:00.000-04:00anon#2, you seem to have missed the point. Never ...anon#2, you seem to have missed the point. Never mind.nonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415222406280230021noreply@blogger.com