Monday, April 25, 2011

In Case You Missed it

It's been a while since I've served as a conduit for showing everyone what people I know are doing. And people are doing some interesting stuff.

Amy Ashley for instance obtained literary representation a while back and I probably should've congratulated her on that. Uh. Oops? But at least I can say now that I was editing her back before she was famous. I always expected this would be one of those "Oh hey, I know that woman in the wanted poster at the post office" conversations, but maybe it still will be. I am all in favor of making the wanted poster the picture on the back cover, you know?

Next up, Emily Weaver (an excellently odd writer) occasionally throws poetry enthusiasts a bone on her blog "I write 2 stay sane." While I am not at all sure that the site is filling its intended therapeutic purposes, there is some good stuff on there. You all know how much I hate poetry (partially because of particular poets I know and partially because it never seemed like a good medium for telling a story)but Emily's stuff I actually like. I think it's because there's always a feeling of tragedy emanating from her stuff. I likes me some tragedy. And it's easy to say "isn't poetry always sad?" Well, maybe. But angsty teens writing poems about how no one understands them using black eye liner is a bit different than actually tragedy. Tragedy is about sacrifice and consequences. It's about loss and learning the hard way. Read through that site. Tell me you don't see tragedy in there. And this has to be the weakest plug I've ever made.

Humorous bizarro author of horror, Jeremy Shipp, a certified Stoker nominee has produced his most entertaining and terrifying works yet- a set of promotional materials featuring beasts never before conceived by man as a thank you to his readers. So you should go out there and buy some of his books. If not for the sake of a laugh, then for the sake of your sanity. That man runs a damn commune filled to the brim with lovecraftian horrors. Follow him on twitter and you'll see what I mean. Plus, he's a pretty good example of authors promoting themselves, so he's worth a look for that reason alone.

On a sadder note, and one which doesn't involve one of our agency's authors, a couple months ago Crazy Writer Girl just sort of vanished. You know, she was one of my first readers. I did a couple of guest posts on her blog, did a critique here of one of her WIPs, and when she landed herself an internship with an agent, I thought "This is my chance to just quit all this bullshit. I'll leave up a sign and direct any viewers to her blog and then run off into the night." Afterall, the contents were similar enough with the exception of her being nice. And she liked blogging more than I do and tweeted regularly. Her disappearance is a great loss for the literary world. But, I suspect, a great gain for for the world of INTERNATIONAL ESPIONAGE. That's why her blog itself went down. It's the secret government agency she undoubtedly works for now that had to erase all evidence of her existence to maintain her cover, you know? Well, if you're still reading this (or maybe these days you call it "monitoring" for "suspicious activity") I just wanted to tell you one thing, Crazy Writer Girl. The porpoise has landed. Um. In the crisco on 22nd. Do you copy? God I hate these codes. They never make any fucking sense. What's the code for "speak English"?

6 comments:

  1. Hey thanks for the plug! Guess I better write some more angsty poems now huh?

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  2. You'd probably approve of my WIP it's really angsty and dark and kind of depressing.

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  3. LOVE Emily's stuff! Robin, thanks for the mention! Your edits proved so helpful with that book, which I'm still working on.

    SHEESH, I've been so busy I haven't been commenting here much at all. Hopefully things ease up soon. If not, fall will be scads better. Oldest goes to school.

    CWG--Go easy on those spy people.

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  4. Emily- someone needs to depress people. I dunno if I'm old fashioned or what, but to me, if a story is supposed to have meaning (meaning beyond making people laugh, anyway) it needs to have consequences. And that means the inclusion of at least some tragedy. So you show the world. Being happy is for suckers.

    Amy- don't worry about not cyber-stalking. Also, what did you think of the wanted poster as author picture idea? If you don't use it, I think I will if I ever manage to get Have Degree or Travis D or anything written, represented, and bought. I think you'll have plenty of time to decide whether you want to use it or not :)

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  5. Alyson Peterson (still a little Crazy Writer Girl)April 28, 2011 at 10:29 PM

    Hey man, I did drop off the face of the internet world, but I'm going to stick to your explanation because it is waaaay cooler than the facts (boring stuff galore). I appreciate the love and the nice words, proving what I've always thought... you are a decent guy (despite me calling you a jack ass... or was it douche?... in the past. It wasn't personal).

    It'll be a long stretch before I get back to the literary world. In fact *whispers* I might be hailing from another country in the near future where I can write about all kinds of craziness. Fun right?

    Keep up the awesomeness. You know you are rolling in it.

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  6. Ha! I think it was "asshole" actually. S'cool. I know it. Little confused by the context, but whatever. I'll forgive you in exchange hearing about your exciting escapades. Err, once the heat dies down. Good luck with whatever it is.

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