A memorable time of my life: September 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Seven things about me you may not know

1. I maintain five blogs.
2. I will be 81 October 9, 2011.
3. I have traveled all over the world.
4. I am a Gourmet cook.
5. I am a jazz singer.
6. I will be starting my third career soon.
7. My sister and I used to sing and tap dance with my father's band.

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Agent Pet Peeves

*Queries with lots of big paragraphs or tiny font

*An email asking about how to submit
a query

*Use a generic greeting (To Whom It May Concern or my favorite, Dear Sirs) or address it to the wrong name.

*A Lack of Professionalism,

*Saying "God told me to write this"

*Anything cliché such as ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ will turn me off. I hate when a narrator or author addresses the reader e.g., 'Gentle reader'

*Too casual, too colloquial, too cute and anything else that tries too hard to "stand out."

*Manuscripts that open with a line of dialogue (esp. one with an exclamation point) and those whose opening line “dumps” exposition.

*Clichés in plot summary—Argh. These are way more common than you’d think: "thought she had it all," "will stop at nothing," "must risk everything"— Beware.