Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
On Writing - The Future - The Results of My Trip to The Big Apple
My tr
ip to NYC October 13th to 16th was personal business with serious effort to get a book deal on my research that I completed for my PhD (I graduated August 31st, btw). It's called, The Love Survey, and is a quantitative study of couple's experiences in their romantic relationship that measured intimacy, passion, commitment and relationship satisfaction. It was a national study and I received over 1,000 surveys from all 50 states, from ages 18 - 70. Anyway... don't get me started or I'll talk too long about it. I do truly love the work I do. I really hoped that an agent or publisher would view my book idea as the next Hite Report (groundbreaking work in the late 70s). Alas, I didn't set NYC on fire and although I got good feedback from really VIP folks in the industry, I am like one of the American Idol contestents sent back to their farm in some small town. Sigh.
ip to NYC October 13th to 16th was personal business with serious effort to get a book deal on my research that I completed for my PhD (I graduated August 31st, btw). It's called, The Love Survey, and is a quantitative study of couple's experiences in their romantic relationship that measured intimacy, passion, commitment and relationship satisfaction. It was a national study and I received over 1,000 surveys from all 50 states, from ages 18 - 70. Anyway... don't get me started or I'll talk too long about it. I do truly love the work I do. I really hoped that an agent or publisher would view my book idea as the next Hite Report (groundbreaking work in the late 70s). Alas, I didn't set NYC on fire and although I got good feedback from really VIP folks in the industry, I am like one of the American Idol contestents sent back to their farm in some small town. Sigh.
And so being away those days put be me wayyyy back on work and laundry and crap... so I've been trying to catch up, which is why I've not blogged... although I think about blogging everyday, wanting to do it.
New York was great. I met BLU (from the old AOL The Book Shelf chat room of a dozen years ago). My God... she is an icon and poster child for the all-together strong woman in corporate who has a suburbs gentle side to her, too. She's a great new friend. She is coming to visit and stay with me in January!
I also made a couple of dear friends who are now also trusted professional colleagues - a prosecuting attorney with a great book idea, and a comedian/filmmaker/writer talent who just sent me these photos of me she enhanced in Photoshop. I'll be pumping up their PR stuff here at my blog as their projects get rolling.
I will post some pics of the cool things I observed in NY in my next post.
For now... the dreams of writing a non-fiction as a PhD psychologist are just that... just dreams. I do have a manuscript under peer review with the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and the publication also asked me to peer review an article by another scholar... so I know I'll be doing some academic work that I love.
Meanwhile, there is a ton of work to do in the day to day living... started a new semester teaching and working on two large marketing projects at the other job. So, in a sense, the trip to NY was kinda like a vacation... I had good food, great conversations with strangers who became friends... visited Central Park, Time Square, the Fashion District, and walked until my feet felt like they would fall off. Traveling alone wasn't so bad, either. I think I could do the city-girl thing!
My New Book Proposal
OK, two weeks later... I finished my query letter and book proposal, 25 pages. Writing this thing gave me chills, thrills and spills (literally - coffee on my keyboard), but it is done and I am so happy with it. I haven't sent it to the agent of choice yet... I asked a couple of friends to read the pages first and see if they have any suggestions for improvements.
It's always good to have another pair of eyes on your written work. The writer sees the construct of a sentence the way he or she wants it to read, sometimes overlooking an obvious forgotten word or a disconnect in thought. If you write, you don't necessarily need a professional editor, anyone with a good eye and a basic knowledge of grammar and usage can usually help overcome some of the basic errors even the most experienced writers make.
Now that I have a Sunday night to myself (oh, sure, there is plenty of dissertation work I could be doing), I shall peel myself away from this blasted computer, sit on my bed with a pile of warm, just-out-of-the-dryer laundry and fold while I maybe take in a tv show or chick flick. Speaking of watching TV, I saw a movie on cable the other night which was awesome. It's called Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith. Awesome!!
Although I am in the sunshine state, today it is 44 degrees and now that the sun is setting, it will be even colder. My chihuahuas are confused. When I let them out in the backyard this morning, they both flipped me the paw, and said "WTF?" and came in and pooped on a puppy pad. in lieu of outside. I couldn't really blame them and didn't take too much offensive to the paw flip. Now they are lumps in my bed between the sheets and the blanket. How is it that two 7.5 pound pups can overpower a queen sized bed each night, leaving me a curled-up ball sleeping in one corner? But that's exactly what happens!
Hope everyone is warm. It's a hot cocoa night, indeed!
I'm happy tonight for the work I've done. I've worked hard on something JUST FOR ME... and that feels really good!
A Book Proposal
I am pitching a book idea to an NY book agent I once met years back who I've kept in mind for the future (which is now). I'm preparing a package to send off next week that is a proposal for a non-fiction book on the psychology of love (with my unique spin on it). The book idea coincides with my dissertation research, and I'm hoping for a two book deal out of it...the first being an introduction into theory and the second book to be the findings of my research (still in progress).
I have identified a specific publisher I want to target, but I don't want to approach them directly because I don't want to end up in the slush pile (that's the stack of book proposals and query letters that were sent unsolicited and looked only in an editor's spare time). Going the agent route gets a proposal looked at immediately... that is, of course, if you can find an agent who believes in your work and is willing to represent you.
I think I've got a winner here. If I didn't think I had a winner, I wouldn't waste my time or, go right to the top NY agency at first try.
It is time. It is time to make something happen.
For now, I'm keeping a low profile because it's all talk right now. If something comes from this, you know my blog is the first place I'll run to tell of it....
I'm excited!
I have identified a specific publisher I want to target, but I don't want to approach them directly because I don't want to end up in the slush pile (that's the stack of book proposals and query letters that were sent unsolicited and looked only in an editor's spare time). Going the agent route gets a proposal looked at immediately... that is, of course, if you can find an agent who believes in your work and is willing to represent you.
I think I've got a winner here. If I didn't think I had a winner, I wouldn't waste my time or, go right to the top NY agency at first try.
It is time. It is time to make something happen.
For now, I'm keeping a low profile because it's all talk right now. If something comes from this, you know my blog is the first place I'll run to tell of it....
I'm excited!
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