All Over Again: Starting Anew

Short post, because - contrary to popular belief - I am writing. I've started working on my new novel. I've put MEND, it's queries and evil, EVIL, synopsis to rest for a bit. Let it marinate, if you will. I'll pick it up again later, and decide if \ when I'll start querying for it.

Meantime, I am writing. I've started with the character profiles and thus far I am very pleased with the people I will be spending the next few months (years?) with. They're an amalgamation of my family and friends. The story will take place partially in my beloved Atlanta, but mostly in the place my family came from.

I wish you all best of luck with your various WIPs and I'll keep you posted of the frustrations and elations of writing this new book. Chat soon kiddies.

It's Peanutbutter QUERY time: Again!

Thank you all for your time and invaluable feedback. If anybody happens to come by the Atlanta area, let me know. I'll buy you a beer, or ten. I mean it. I am a man of my word. Here is my second version of my possible query letter. If you don't mind my asking, let me know how it can be honest. Go ahead, rip it. And Matt, yes, you can be meaner! ;)


Dear Stellar Agent of superb and unquestionable taste:

I am seeking representation for my novel entitled MEND.

He attacks. He springs upon his victims with hatred and blind fury, slashing their bodies and shredding the peace of the city too busy to remember. He kills. With no evidence left behind, four families have fallen in his wake, and he is not finished. Only now there are two very different men, with two very different motives, hoping to bring an end to the worst killer Atlanta has seen in decades.

The first is Lieutenant Nate Barker. Intelligent and methodical, Barker must solve the case of his career while battling a skeleton that refuses to stay in the closet. The other is Jacob Santos. A man obsessed by the messages the killer sends him after he strikes and haunted by the inscriptions left for him at each crime scene.

Each step Jacob and Barker take bring them closer to unveiling the secret that links them to the killer, and to the dark chasm that lies in its revelation.


MEND is a Crime Fiction novel, complete at 70,000 words.


Respectfully,

J.m. Diaz

Oh Look, Another Amateur.

After this fantastic post by Fiction Groupie, that is precisely how I felt. These were items that I knew, I understood, I was even aware to avoid, yet did not. Oh, the shame! Read Fiction Groupie’s list, follow the blog, and revise your work. You will be glad, I know I am.

Go, do it!

Indecisions, in decisions

I have reached an impasse in my novel. I have what I believe to be a good story, yet last night a new thought occurred to me. Granted, it came from the period when one is asleep, yet somewhat aware of the immediate surroundings. The noises of owls cooing outside, crickets stringing their legs together, and thoughts… Thoughts dancing wildly in the brain.
Should I plow forward with what I have? Or, stop, drop and roll… To the beginning and make the modifications to the story that invaded my thoughts at dawn? I could hold off the idea for the next novel… Oh, what WWJMD? (What Will JM Do) ;)