Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Josie Two Shoes‘ (or, Josie Two Shoes…. or, it could be Josie Two Shoe’s….. Josie Two Shoeseseses)…. in any event, welcome to Josie (of the multiple foot coverings)’s Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. It’s easy to participate. The benefits are as varied as the participants, but, then that’s the internet for ya.
1) dogs
2) Una and Phyllis
3) books by friends click here for Cynthia’s excellent website, below on the book to see it on Amazon)
4) Chapter 11 of ‘Home and Heart’ coming early this week. Chapter 10 is out on jukepop (don’t forget to vote!)
5) I received a rejection letter from an agent this week that I choose to perceive as progress along a certain continuum. Most are professional and polite and, inevitably impersonal. The follow excerpt made we sit back and say ‘whoa’ (and ‘ …whoa’ and ‘damn’) etc:
While I found your characters to be engaging, I personally didn’t connect with the pacing, and because of this, I feel that I cannot represent this novel to the best of its ability.
So the thing about this letter that qualifies it for inclusion on this week’s TToT is that there is constructive feedback in it. (What it suggests is that while writing a book as a serial is good, it may have an effect on the how the story comes across when finally complete and compiled. Note: this agent asked for 50 pages as part of my query letter, most submission guidelines ask for 10 pages.) While a rejection letter might, at first blush, appear to be an Item of hypo-gratitude* in this case it was not.
6) Una Garden update (‘runn, Foress…ruunn’)
7) the Wakefield Doctrine
8) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) specifically and by example, provides a rule that allows using negative events as an Item. SR 7.3.2[sub chap: b{9}] which states, in part, “..having had a week populated with flat tires, broken shoe laces, Dear John letters, good fer nuthin boyfriends, failure of appliance a day after expiration of Warranty (and an hour before totally necessary use), writers block, writers cramp, stiff neck, sore back and a spellczech that changes your refined insights into the mindless, obscene braying of a drunken crowd at an after-hours demolition derby, sometimes things just suck. In such circumstances, with sufficient documentation, it is acceptable to cite an event/occurence/mood or screw-up as one of the Ten Things of Thankful, provided it has been clearly identified as such. (Exception Case 9..1 “…[m]ore than 3 Items of hypograt and you’re just messin with the Rules; more than 8 and you probably need to update your bookmarks.”)
9)
10) SR 1.3
* no, really! hypo-grat is a ‘real thing’… check Item 8
The fact that you submitted your manuscript is a thing of thankful. It’s wonderful that the comment you received will help your future writing/publishing endeavors. And, again, I see Una and Phyllis are heaped together as an item of gratitude. Each time I see this, I wonder why each doesn’t have her own thing of thankful. I’ll catch up on Chapter 10. I’m looking forward to relaxing and reading today.
yeah, it presents an interesting perspective on the writing… can’t say I’m a huge fan of this learning curve (how is it I can go from ‘hey this came out pretty good to ‘god this is the work of an un-inspired 5th Grader’? lol)
Fabulous post Clark.
50 pages. Impressive. Comment, while saying “thanks but no thanks”, good :)
Yay for the garden!
#3? Deserves a comment all by itself :)
Go Cynthia!! You are a shining star for our people :)
And everybody else too :D
yeah… go Intuitive!!
Congrats on sending out query letters. One rejection just means that you’re that much closer to getting to “yes”. :)
And THANK YOU for sharing about my lil book. :) Much appreciated and obliged! Glad I’ll be sending you one! :D
Hope you have a great rest of your weekend! Fun call in last night.
thankee
cool, will totally watch the mail.
In church service today, I learned that every “delay” has a purpose in God’s eyes. It is time to stop and think, to learn, to grow. I am not judging your writing at all. . . We can learn a lot during the delay period.
agreed… not enthusiastically but agreed lol
It kind defeats my goal of feeling gratitude when I allow myself to leave here feeling so dog-gone jealous of Phyllis again! I can not believe she has a tree house AND a mini…..with a racing stripe no less! I love her life!
lol… she does seem to have that knack
Good for you for submitting your book. I’m definitely sold on self-publishing so I don’t know that I’ll actually do that part – at least not at this point. Getting something constructive from an agent is definitely worthy of thanks.
Phyllis’ car is too cute!
I envy you the energy to take on the self-publishing, the time and, most of all, the energy it demands (or so it seems from what I see of those who do).
Feedback is such a double-edged sword.
It’s nice that Una shares her big ol’ bed with you and Phyllis. Nora allows me a little space in my bed and cleverly pins me into place where I can’t jostle her (and can’t get up to go to the bathroom, which is not good, because, you know, old bladder).
Constructive criticism is a pretty awesome thankful.
yeah… getting my head around the insight, keep on keeping on is my mantra
Constructive criticism with the rejection letter is helpful, even if disappointing. That is just one person’s opinion. Someone else will love it.
That tomato stake looks so much bigger that how you described it. Good work with the camera.
I’ve never bought one of the adult coloring books for myself, but I have given a few as gifts. The drawings are intriguing. I did bookmark Cynthia’s website for future reference.
Your #8 makes me laugh. You do have a way with words!
It does kinda dwarf the plant and all… lol
The Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) is truly a fun thing to have (available)
First off, I love your seagull photo! I’m finding that the writing and reading of these descriptions leads to closer scrutiny and deeper appreciation for the picture presented! Una, identified by her pink tongue, is adorable. It is so difficult to photograph animals with dark fur well! The bedpost as a giant chess piece, looking very much like one, made me smile. :-) Phyllis looks adorable in her Mini, and I’m sure Una’s face waiting eagerly at the window is just as sweet!
The Una garden is growing things! Tomatoes up and running, how exciting!! I love the natural stake as opposed to the ugly metal cages so often used, and I suspect the vines will appreciate this more natural post to cling to as well!
Cynthia’s colorbook sounds amazing, especially in the sense that it more than just random pages to fill in spaces with color. A very clever way to promote peaceful, mindful thoughts and activity!
Yay for continued progress on your current novel, and I would say “boo” for the rejection letter, but instead I tend to agree with you that some time was taken to provide useful feedback, and I also agree that the pacing of a serial story is someone different when read as a whole. I have thought about that with my “Secrets of the Old Farmhouse” tale and feel it might come across as quite piecemeal if read in it’s entirety.
I totally loved items eight and ten, and the thought put into that explanation for the benefit of new readers. I am sure they understand the rules much better now!! :-)) My week was somewhat similar with a fair list of hypo-grats, but “All is well that ends well” and “On we go,” and all that stuff! Hope this week is being kinder to you! XO
yeah, I was talking to someone about that, about how it’s good practice. in fact, how the essence of writing is, perhaps, simply, finding the words that would allow another person to experience what I experience. way more difficult that it seems in a funny way, i.e. the first few were difficult but simple, the remainder have become increasingly more difficult and less simple…lol kinda like every thing else, non?
That, btw, is one of core principles of the Wakefield Doctrine, that we all experience the world as individuals. So, like our saying about ‘relating ourselves to the world around us’, the words used are critical. Example: if we were both standing in front of a restaurant, it (might) be accurate to say that we both see the same thing, however, it would not be accurate (and, at the same time, it would be most telling) to say that we both experience the restaurant the same.
Cynthia is very amazing, I totally agree there
the BoSR/SBoR is an awful lot of open-ended fun
I love the first photo and how you explained it to me. I love seagulls and was quite focused on birds where I was just the other day. For me, there, it was ravens. I was also at a nature reserve and they had a bald eagle who’d lost a leg. She was as curious about us as we were of her I was told. Thanks again for the descriptions that only you could give and double edged sword indeed. Brave of you to get this far and I hear it takes many queries and rejections to get anywhere. Keep up the good work.
probably did that cool ‘bird examining gesture’ head turns to present one eye directly, tilts to the side about 45 degrees, switches to other eye and repeats.
lol… I’ve thinking about variations on ‘style’ (of photo descriptions) already… if I gots the chops, that is