Welcome to the Musings of a Creative Mind

My name is Allan Krummenacker.  That name probably won't mean much to a lot of people.  I'm hoping to change that one day soon or... "In the not-too-distant-future next Sunday A.D. la-la-la-la..."  OOPS that's from Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Sorry got carried away, it happens.  But that's the thing about having a creative mind and spirit.  We're drawn to things that spark our interest because they are different and original.  They inspire us to see what we can come up with.  For me it started with art.  Pencil, charcoal, pastels.  I'll try and post some of my work here very shortly.  It'll give you all a little insight of the things to come.


Currently, my creative leanings have led me to try my hand at writing.  I completed a novel a few months ago and have been sending out query letters along with a sampling of the first couple of chapters.  So far I've heard back from a former literary agent, a friend of a friend, who was kind enough to look over the first 2 chapters and a synopsis.  She got back to me within a week and gave me some tips.  Mainly about how to format it for submission.  She told me I have talent and there was very little wrong with my writing style.  I've sent it to 3 agents so far.

The first agent sent me a form letter and that's it. This person had good reason.  I made the mistake of simply copying and pasting my query letter and sample chapters from MS Word into Gmail.  Those of you who have done this know what I'm about to tell you and please excuse the use of capital lettering.  I'm only using it for emphasis....

ALWAYS CHECK THE E-MAIL BEFORE YOU SEND IT OUT!!!!  The copy/paste undid the entire format I had so painstakingly set up.  I found this out as I was getting ready so send the query letter and sample pages to a new agent.  What I saw made me wish there was a large rock for me to crawl under.  Unfortunately I was indoors, so I looked for a dust-bunny to crawl under.  Once more I was thwarted.  My wife had vacuumed the day before.  I looked for a knife to commit Hari-Kari.  But both Harry and Kari had already left for the day and had taken the knife with them.  You wouldn't believe how tempting the spoons started looking to me at that point.  But I digress.  The letter and the sample chapters had become one blur of indistinguishable nonsense.  An inebriated monkey with a typewriter could have done a better job.

I have made sure not to make that mistake again.  The second agent I sent it to responded within a day with a personal note saying she was going to pass it wasn't the right fit for her.  But that she felt some other agent would want to represent me and my work.  So now I'm waiting to hear back from the third agent.  She e-mailed me not too long ago to let me know she was behind on submissions, but only because she reads every one that comes her way.  And she takes the time to respond to them.  I'm sure I'll hear something in the near future.  In the meantime I'm working on the sequel to my novel.  This is one of the biggest and most important pieces of advice I keep hearing from established writers.  Don't just sit around and wait to see what kind of reaction you get.  Keep writing.  Work on that next book.  Don't worry about the first one until you've been told whether they want it or not.  If they don't, send out another query and get back to work on the next book.

That's all I've got for now.  More soon.  Good night and good luck.

Comments

  1. Hi Allan,
    wanted to let you know that I am reading your blog! I can vouch for the fact that you are a talented Artist, and I am looking forward to one day reading your works of literary fiction.
    And thanks for the advice about the subject of writing... :)

    ReplyDelete

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