Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Words, Meanings, and Change
Every writer knows that the meaning of words changes over time. Sometimes it’ll be a really small shift, while other times, the word “bad” might mean good but retain its original meaning for most practical purposes.
But how are you supposed to be accurate while writing fantasy or science fiction, as for the most part fantasy tends to deal with times gone by or “the present, but with magic” or additional characters such as vampires, werewolves, or Elves, while science fiction is futuristic and up-to-the-minute?
Mostly, I try to stick with one approach whenever I’m dealing with a story — I tend to write in contemporary vocabulary unless the fantasy world I’m dealing with is obviously based on our past (but with magic, or a different religion, or whatever), in which case, my characters will speak in longer sentences and with more formality. This is because in some ways, contemporary American English is used by most in our culture and society in a casual fashion — not just our slang terms, but our idiomatic turns of speech are far more casual than, say, the Victorian English used by our predecessors. Or the English used in Regency-era England.
In ELFY, as well as in AN ELFY ABROAD and to an extent in KEISHA’S VOW, Michael and I came up with a language, Bilre, for the Elfys. (Bilre is also the term they use to describe themselves “when they’re at home,” or among their own people. There’s precedence enough for this in our own history that it shouldn’t draw any comment.) We came up with rules for how it works, with various terms and even a few regional variant slang terms (as in our own world, where some words are used more frequently in the Midwest than on the West Coast, for example); there is an Elfy Lexicon. All of this was done for the sake of consistency, and while Michael was by far better at this than I, I learned enough from him that I’ve been able to make up a few terms on my own since his untimely passing.
As for science fiction, noted writer Connie Willis came up with two words for her near-future “Doomsday Book” — they were “apocalyptic” for something great, fantastic, and awesome, and “necrotic” for something awful, bad and disgusting. They were used by one of her pre-teen characters — pre-teens in books are generally the ones who use the most slang terms, though not always — and helped add to the illusion that we readers were in a slightly different place. In a much tougher and far more comprehensive vein, eluki bes shahar came up with a whole new language, idioms and all, for her “Hellflower” trilogy; other authors have done similar things with regards to adding a few additional words (Marge Piercy comes to mind in Woman on the Edge of Time in her far-future sections) or a whole, new, comprehensively thought out language — from J.R.R. Tolkien to the more contemporary Robert Jordan (Jordan in particular had to come up with a number of languages, not an easy feat).
At any rate, in science fiction, the main thing is to be consistent and to stay consistent in your usage — readers will pick up on the idioms used if given time, and if it helps the reader to open a dictionary and look up a word while reading, say, a Gene Wolfe story, all the better.
Some examples of contemporary words in transition are “vacay,” which is a shortened form of the word “vacation” — I’ve seen this show up in a few articles lately and it reads oddly but sounds OK in actual speech — and “efforting,” as in, “I’m efforting Chris Capuano” — this particular turn of phrase annoys me, and takes some explanation if you’ve never heard it before. Basically, instead of “I’m trying to get Chris Capuano on the phone” or “I’m making the effort to speak with Chris Capuano,” our local sportscaster Bill Michaels may say the shorthand “I’m efforting Chris Capuano” and hopes we’ll understand him.
Granted, Michaels wasn’t the first person to say this in the sports world — I’ve also heard sportscasters Dan Patrick and Jim Rome say the same thing, probably several months to perhaps a full year before Michaels. But this is how a changed meaning to a word gets into the language — slowly, bit by bit, until it’s accepted. Until it’s understood, graceless though it may be.
My brother, who is a teaching assistant, said recently that a word that annoys him is “flustrated,” which is a combination of “flustered” and “frustrated.” He says he hears this all the time in Indiana, where he lives and works — so the rest of us may as well be warned, as this appears to be another word creeping into the language — something like “ginormous,” I suppose (a contraction of “gigantic” and “enormous,” though those two words mean exactly the same thing, while “flustered” and “frustrated” are not the same — just similar).
Other words I’ve noticed that have contracted are baseball terms. For example, when I was a teenager in the 80s, it was common for a broadcaster to use the term “fouled out,” as in a baseball player hit a foul ball for an out. But now, that’s been contracted into one word — “foulout” — though broadcasters in general do not use this. (Instead, you see this on scoreboards or perhaps on TV.) This is similar to the other contracted words “strikeout” instead of “struck out,” a two word, more active phrase (note that a pitcher getting a strikeout was already in the language; this particular contraction adds an additional meaning rather than a brand new word to our vocabulary); “popup,’ which may be seen also as “pop-up,” instead of “popped up” or “popped it up,” which is hitting the ball high and straight into the air rather than for any sort of distance, so an infielder might catch it; “popout,” which is the same thing as a “popup;” “lineout,” instead of “lined out” or “hit the ball hard, but right at someone for an out.”
At any rate, language changes over time, as these few examples show — we as writers need to be observant as new words enter the language, even if we think they’re silly or stupid or unnecessary (as, quite frankly, I find the word “efforting” to be).
What are some of the “new” words you can’t stand? Or those you really like?
Bad Commercials: How to Damage the Narrative.
We all see commercials on television every day. Someone thinks up these commercials, writes scripts for the commercials, casts actors in the commercials and shoots the commercials. Which means someone is trying to frame the narrative in a constructive, preferably positive, way.
But what happens when you get a bad commercial, one that not only fails to frame the narrative in the expected way, but actually brings up a terrible reaction?
I’m not the only writer who’s thought of this issue; there are blogs and blogs of information about bad commercials out there. Here are just two:
http://www.screenjunkies.com/tvnews/12-more-insanely-bad-tv-commercials
http://www.uglydoggy.com/2009/01/bad-commercials-from-big-brands.html
There’s even a Web site posting that claims even bad commercials, those which you can only describe as “cringe-worthy,” are good for you:
http://culturepopped.blogspot.com/2009/03/bad-commercials-are-good-for-you.html
My contention is far more humble. I have watched much live television lately (Milwaukee Brewers baseball games, mostly) and cannot fast-forward through commercials, so have been forced to deal with three horrible commercials. I am uncertain how to put up video links, so I will describe the commercials instead — if I later get video links, I will be happy to update this post.
The first, and worst, commercial I’ve seen during the Brewers telecasts is one for Motorola Droid phones. There’s this thirtyish nebbish, a dark-haired, dark-eyed, rather frazzled man who’s still at work but is about to take a break. He looks at his Droid phone, which has Blockbuster pre-loaded as an application (or “app”), and suddenly he can see his three-inch cell phone clear as day due to eyes that look to be straight out of the original “Terminator” movie.
Now, why doesn’t this commercial work? (In a writerly sense, why does this narrative fail?) Simple. First, the guy is at work. Yes, people check their cell phones at work, but very, very few are going to be watching movies at work — and if they do, they most likely would be doing it as a work exercise so could use a better computer.
For the record, I also thought the guy was too intense, too focused and too driven to watch a movie at work; when his eyes bug out and turn into reddish-black orbs that expand outward, I felt disgusted and almost lost my lunch. The visual image that Motorola was trying to convey was that their little three-inch phone is more than powerful enough to play a movie — but what I got instead was a picture of an insecure, unsettled man who’s about to throw his job away because the telephone has messed with his brain.
Big thumbs-down to that.
My second least-favorite commercial during Brewers games is one for Miller Lite Beer. (There are several for Miller Lite I don’t care for, but this is the worst of the lot.) A couple is sitting in the park; the guy (he’s African-American, as is his girlfriend) is extolling the virtues of his beer. (Very common in beer commercials.) Then, when his girlfriend asks why her boyfriend loves her (as he’s been saying why he loves his beer for most of the minute commercial,) he can’t come up with anything. As time starts to run out with the commercial, he tells her that he likes her hair (though he says “I like what you’re doing with this,” twirling a piece of her hair in the process), he loves “all her teeth,” and asks in desperation why she loves him.
Of course, she says, “You’re my soulmate.” (Odd soulmate to have, IMO, but I’ll go along with it for the case of argument.)
What is his reply? “Ditto.”
The narrative intended to be framed here is simple: if you drink Miller Lite, you’ll love your beer so much it’ll crowd everything else out of your head. But what I got instead is, if you drink Miller Lite, you’ll turn into an insensitive, inarticulate jerk.
So these folks get a big thumbs-down as well.
The third is less offensive, but just as annoying. It’s for a local car dealership, Porcaro Ford in Racine, WI. These commercials (there are a series of them) always start out with someone using the “Dragnet” theme — “dum-de-dum-dum,” then one of the guys starts talking about what a crime it was that a lady customer had gone somewhere else. But now that the woman has come in to see them (it’s all rendered in cartoon format, too, which I find cheesy rather than amusing), she has her pick of cars and Porcaro will give her top dollar on her trade whatever she picks.
The narrative here is that Porcaro is honest — they won’t “rob” you (their whole thing about how they’re “working robbery out of the Racine division” tips you off to that aspect), they won’t cheat you, they’ll give you “top dollar” — but also that they’re so relentless that they won’t leave you alone.
Now, why would I get that out of a simple 30 second spot or at most one minute spot? Simple. This commercial is played over and over again, as are the other two I mentioned during Brewers telecasts. And because they’re played multiple times per game, and there are 162 games in a season — well, let’s just say these commercials go from mild dislike to active hatred to visceral disgust in a matter of days. And the longer I see them, the less likely I am to get a Miller Lite beer, purchase a Droid phone from Motorola (much though I know Motorola needs to stay open and employs many people in Northern Illinois), or most especially go to Porcaro Ford.
These commercials, as marketing, are probably reaching someone. I can’t imagine who really likes these commercials, though I can see a guy being mildly amused by the Miller Lite commercial and perhaps if you’ve only seen the Porcaro Ford commercial once, it might not annoy you. (I can’t figure out for who, or what the purpose was, or even why that Droid commercial was aired once, much less multiple times. Sorry.)
But as an exercise in framing the narrative, they have failed.
What are the worst commercials you’ve seen? And do you think most commercials actually hit the target, miss the target, or are somewhere in between? (In other words, do most commercials actually frame the right narrative?)
A Flurry of Ideas
Sometimes, writing is tougher than it appears.
The last few days, I had a flurry of ideas that I felt may make up some good blogs. The first was about the difficulty of writing while overtired, the second was about the craft of writing reviews, and the third was a specific look at writing humor — it may look easy in retrospect, but it’s not.
However, when I tried to nail any of them down, I was left with the equivalent of a mouthful of feathers instead of a whole, live chicken to work with — or, if you’d rather another analogy, instead of finding the grand prize, it was as if I’d found the booby prize instead. Writing is like this, because sometimes you just have to struggle with the words until they come out.
This made me wonder if I was the only writer alive who had this problem for a bit (I know; ’twas a midnight thought) before I realized that every writer must have this difficulty time and again. So how are we supposed to deal with it?
Getting to the three subjects I considered: in order to write humor, we writers often exploit tired, hackneyed, clichéd subjects. Getting someone to laugh about seemingly nonsensical things helps get whatever truth remains in these older, seemingly-worn ideas and bring it into sharper relief.
But it’s not easy to write humor, no matter how easily the joke or phrase or pun may fall off the page. I know when I work out a good passage in “An Elfy Abroad” (sequel to “Elfy,” and as such another comic urban fantasy), I usually have to first figure out what’s going on, then write it down as best I have it, then re-work it as many times as need be in order to get both the jokes and the story right.
This may seem odd, but writing reviews often requires the same exact mind-set; it sometimes takes me several attempts to write a review. Because I have to really consider what I’m going to say, oft-times I find that I have a slightly different written opinion than I do verbally. I think this is because when I write, I think critically; when I am merely talking, sometimes what I say just comes out — and that’s not workable in any sort of credible review. Once again, while writing a review may seem easy (everyone hates a critic), it isn’t, and most reviewers try very hard to give the best sense of a book, movie, piece of music or performance they possibly can.
Finally, writing while tired is something I try to avoid at all costs. My definition of “tired” is “been up longer than eighteen hours” or “have had less than four hours sleep three nights running” — and the reason I avoid writing fiction, reviews or blogs during these times is because my words often come out not just wrong, but catastrophically wrong.
But when I can’t avoid it — the idea I have is too strong to ignore, or I have a new short story idea that must be written down or lost — I try to be as positive about myself and my writing as possible, while remembering to look over whatever I’ve written the next day (or maybe two) in order to get a better handle on it. This way I’ve satisfied the need to write without completely driving myself crazy; I am a perfectionist and as such, writing while overtired is an extremely difficult and frustrating task.
All three of these subjects have in common one thing — the need to persist. If I keep trying to get my humor right, the passage will come to me; if I keep trying to get the review right, I’ll be able to convey what I thought about the book as best I can. And if I am able to bull through my body’s attempt to shut down my creative impulses (while doing my best to get as much rest as I’m able, of course, in the process), I’m going to eventually be able to work out the idea, passage, or story to my personal satisfaction.
The moral of this whole somewhat accidental blog about “the flurry of ideas” is simple: don’t give up. Because the simple fact you have a flurry of ideas means you need to write about them, you need to comment upon them, and you need to realize that sometimes, writing takes as long as it takes.
Quick Note about MuseItUp Publishing
Some days, the best thing any writer can do is get up, peruse the writing boards, and congratulate people. Because when we do — as I did today at Forward Motion, the writer’s group I’ve belonged to for seven years — we often find links to new publishing houses we’ve somehow missed hearing about in the past.
Such is the case with MuseItUp Publishing, which is maybe a year old (if that much), but already has a good reputation in the SF, fantasy and romance communities due to the strength of its publisher, Lea Schizas, affectionately called a “force of nature” by her writers.
At any rate, after reading about them, I queried MuseItUp regarding ELFY because ELFY has paranormal elements; can’t guarantee they’ll want to see it, but trying is the first step toward getting an acceptance.
Note that I normally do not discuss which agents or publishers I’ve tried here at my blog, but in this case I thought I would as I know many writers with works in the science fiction/romance, fantasy/romance and flat-out romance categories. Not to mention straight-up SF, straight-up fantasy, etc.
This seems to be a reliable place with a solid reputation; they’re young, but growing, and they have the word of giving good quality feedback, which is why I have made an exception here.
Check them out at http://museituppublishing.com/musepub/
Persistence Pays Off — How Writing Compares to Brewers Pitcher Chris Capuano
Talking about persistence — the refusal to give up and give in — may seem like an odd topic for a writer’s blog. Especially when compared to Milwaukee Brewers left-handed pitcher Chris Capuano’s personal experiences — that is, if you don’t know anything about Capuano, who came back from a second “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery on his pitching arm and fought his way up to the major league level earlier this year.
But the two things have more in common than it might appear at first, because we writers need to refuse to give in to the small voice inside us that says, “You’ll never sell another thing. No one will ever read what you’re writing, so why bother?” And Chris Capuano needed to say to his small voice, “You know what? I don’t care how long I’ve been injured. I don’t care what you, small voice, are saying, because you are wrong — I’ll make it back to the big leagues, and I will win.”
Tonight Chris Capuano won for the first time in three-plus years. He did it because he overcame adversity and made his way back to the bigs, and then by refusing to give up on himself as he was only given one start back in June, then placed in the bullpen, seemingly to languish. But Capuano didn’t take no for an answer — in fact, he seemed pleased to be back in the majors, and was not worried by the length of time his comeback was taking.
We all could learn a great lesson from Chris Capuano. And that lesson is, persistence pays off. We just need to keep trying, because if we can just keep working away at our writing, slowly but surely, and trust enough in ourselves to know that it will matter in the end.
Here’s the story of tonight’s win:
And here’s a relevant (albeit lengthy) quote from that article, including some words from the hero of the day, Chris Capuano:
Starting in place of the injured Doug Davis, Capuano (1-1) notched his first win in the big leagues since he beat the Nationals at Miller Park on May 7, 2007. He would spend all of 2008 and 2009 recovering from his second career Tommy John surgery, a grueling elbow procedure from which some pitchers never return.
But there he was in the box score with a “W” next to his name for the first time since Ned Yost was the Brewers’ manager and Monday’s catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, was a Draft hopeful at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. Now 31 and married to his college sweetheart, Sarah, who was in the seats Monday night, Capuano allowed three hits over five innings. He struck out four and issued one walk, which led to Pittsburgh’s lone run.
“The winning and losing part of it becomes a lot less important when you’re faced with, ‘Am I going to be able to play again?'” Capuano said. “Going through a time like that, where you’re not sure if you’re going to be able to make it back, it really puts the bad stuff in perspective.
“So, coming into this year, I wasn’t really thinking about [the winless drought]. But tonight, pitching in the game and then coming out [to] watch the rest of the game, I surprised myself how much I was aware of it, how anxious I felt. And how good it felt for the team to get that win.”
We, as writers, need to believe in ourselves. And remember that no matter how long it takes, the only one who can take you out of the game is you.
Believe in yourself. Be like Chris Capuano. And live to write another day.
Tried “I Write Like . . . “
. . . which is a site which purports to say which famous writer your style is the closest to — and I got David Foster Wallace. This guy was a major icon, and he was most concerned with irony — his last book completed before his death was called Infinite Jest. And he also believed fiction was meant to make us “feel less alone inside” — I saw an interview he did with Charlie Rose where he said that.
The other thing David Foster Wallace has in common with me is that he wrote fiction and nonfiction and he didn’t let genre boundaries bother him whatsoever. He had a passionate interest in politics (so do I) and he suffered from bouts of depression his entire life from what I’ve been able to tell. (I’ve read about David Foster Wallace before; when he committed suicide in ’08 it was a shocking, stunning blow to the literary world who’d embraced Mr. Wallace even as he made fun of them. One thing I can say for the literary folks — they knew quality when they saw it, even if it did come in a way that probably made them manifestly uncomfortable.)
Btw, to see who I compared to, I posted the most recent section of AN ELFY ABROAD, then posted an early section of ELFY, then posted yet another section of KEISHA’S VOW. I got David Foster Wallace, David Foster Wallace, J.K. Rowling (for some of KEISHA’S VOW; the earlier and later parts of KV to date also came up as David Foster Wallace), James Joyce (for my novella in progress, “The Gift,” which is not Elfyverse), and finally one of my other stories in progress came up with Dan Brown. My husband’s stories (with my additions) came up with Margaret Atwood — if this site is at all accurate, that makes me feel better about what I’m doing because they, at least, see a cognate to what I’m doing (and to what Michael did, for that matter) even if I haven’t managed to yet sell an agent or publisher on it as of yet.
Read about David Foster Wallace (via Wikipedia; best I could come up with on short notice) at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace
Here’s the link to the badge which proves what came up most:
And just in case any of you want to try “I Write Like,” please go to: http://iwl.me/
What ELFY is About
Today’s subject is simple: what is my book, ELFY, about?
ELFY is about Bruno (né Jon), a young, rather confused person from a parallel universe which houses the Elfy Realm. The reason for his confusion is that the Elfy High Council, which is afraid of Bruno’s potential power, has had him intentionally mis-trained, to the point where Bruno feels he has no power at all. He gets sent to our version of Earth, ostensibly to study the aberrant mage currents coming out of Northern California, and is promptly captured by two people who mean him no good: the parents of his love interest, Sarah. They are protegés of a charismatic minister who is masquerading as a human, but isn’t; instead, he’s a Dark Elf, who’s intent on corrupting as many humans (and Elfys) he can get his hands on, and has started with Sarah’s parents. When Bruno’s mentor, Roberto, tries to save Bruno, he instead gets captured by Sarah’s parents (which allows Sarah to hide Bruno), upping the drama and complexity immediately.
Because Bruno’s been lied to about everything, including his age, how much power he has, who and what he is, etc., he doesn’t think he has a thing to offer anyone, and he doesn’t know how he’s going to fight that Dark Elf. But he’s wrong about the former, as Sarah shows him from the start, and in the process of ELFY he figures out how to successfully defeat the Dark Elf, save his mentor, forge an unusual yet powerful romance with Sarah, and return to the Elfy Realm in triumph. Bruno learns that no matter how screwed up things are, life as we know it is worth fighting for, love is worth fighting for, and becoming yourself is the most powerful gift of all.
As for how ELFY starts, it’s as follows: Bruno (né Jon) is a prisoner who’s listening to two adult humans fight. These are the two people who’ve captured him; they are the parents of his love-interest, Sarah (née Daisy — kind of). Within the first two pages Bruno actually hits the man (Sarah’s father, who hasn’t told Bruno his name and won’t, though he eventually finds it out via other means) across the back. Bruno is a short person — he’s three feet tall — and that’s as close as he could get to hitting Sarah’s father upside the head.
When that doesn’t work, he goes into the kitchen to feed himself because Sarah’s parents don’t think he needs to eat ’cause he’s magical (being an Elfy); that’s garbage, and Bruno knows it, but they won’t listen to him.
Fortunately, that’s when he meets Sarah, their daughter, who’s also been badly treated by her parents, and they go to discuss an immediate alliance so they may escape her parents’ clutches forever.
All of the complexities that follow are due to a 240,000 word plotline — and the complexities include: why is Sarah’s house haunted? What is that Dark Elf doing on Earth, as they are deadly enemies to humans and Elfys? Why doesn’t Bruno remember more about his parents? And why won’t everyone stop telling Bruno about the facts of life, ’cause whenever they do, he faints?
ELFY is a comic urban fantasy/mystery/romance, folks. It’s tough to sum up a big, fat fantasy (or BFF) of this nature in a short blog post/article like this one. But it’s a fun book, an interesting book, and a deeply romantic book, all in its satirical way; I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it. I know that I am proud of writing it, and also proud that I completed it while Michael was still alive to enjoy it, too.
Hoping this helps — and that the formatting will work this time,
Barb Caffrey, who writes the Elfyverse — and all points west.
The Quest for Publication (which may not be as difficult as the Quest for Fire, but it’s close)
Today’s blog post is about the quest for publication, which shouldn’t be as difficult as the quest for fire — but it’s close.
So, how are you supposed to keep your motivation, when you know it’s going to likely take months to years before you see any of your stories or novels in print?
I don’t have the answer to that, other than inner fortitude (which seems like a cop-out), and of course to keep working on your writing. However, I do have at least a partial answer about the search for markets and agents.
One of the hardest parts of being a working writer is trying to get your works into print. There’s a different process for short stories and novels, which I’ll explain as quickly as I can. (Most of my writer-friends already know this stuff, but to those new to this business, maybe it’ll be of some use to you.)
For a short story, you finish the story, check it over for spelling and syntax errors, and preferably have someone else read it and give you comments (changing anything that you agree needs to be changed) before you send it out. Various markets need different things, and the best places to research your markets are Ralan.com and Duotrope.com — both are free, and both are extremely helpful. (If you are able to donate to either, please do — especially Ralan Conley, who runs Ralan.com, as he’s been doing this for at least eight years as a public service.)
So, you research your markets, and you start with the highest paying markets first. Yes, these are also the ones which have the most competition, and yes, these are the ones you’ll have the least likelihood of actually making a sale — but you don’t know until you try. The highest paying markets for short fiction right now are Strange Horizons, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Analog, the new Redstone SF, and many others. Check what they’re reading for — some are vague, meaning they’ll accept just about anything if they believe the writing is good enough and it fits their needs, while others are very specific (Redstone SF, for example, seems to want hard SF of the type written by Charlie Stross or Cory Doctorow, though they’ll look at anything that’s explicitly science fiction and/or has a hard SF base even without the terminology). Then, send your MS on its way.
In my case, I write mostly fantasy, which means Redstone SF is out; Lightspeed, which wants SF only, is out. So I tend to start with the others and work from there.
The key to keeping your short fiction alive is to keep it going; unless you get specific commentary from a professional market that you agree with, keep that story out there until it sells. This is what I’ve heard over and over again from people with far more short story sales than myself — it’s the best way to get things done. (As the saying goes, “You won’t sell your story if it’s tucked away in the drawer.” Or, in our modern age, locked away on the computer.)
As for novels — there you have two choices. You can find an agent — which is preferred — or you can submit your completed novel to various markets yourself. The reason the agent is preferred is because agents know what various publishers are most likely to want, so they cut down on the work you have to do as an author. (This is what you’re paying for with regards to agent representation.)
The main problem with submitting your novel to various publishers yourself is that it’s time-consuming, but it’s worth if it you are willing to remember that ultimately, you need to keep your manuscript out there and going strong. Keep the maxim above — that you can’t sell it if it’s not available to be viewed — alive, and try to check your ego at the door, because the process is long, arduous, and if you’re thin-skinned, you’re unlikely to make it to the finish line.
At any rate, the keys to your publisher search are at Ralan.com and Duotrope.com; the keys to your agent search are at Preditors and Editors, Writer Beware at SFWA.org, AgentQuery.com and QueryTracker.net — these are the fastest and easiest way to find agents who are available, and what other people think of them. And the best part about all of these sites is, they’re free.
Good luck!
Barb Caffrey, who writes the Elfyverse — and everywhere in between.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 