And the Plot Thickens

There really isn't a plot. There is a plan though. My business plan. I'm currently in the process of fixing up the business plan I wrote Friday to send to the grants people. If I'm very lucky, they'll decide to award me with a small business grant, and then I can buy the equipment and get started.

I'm not sure what the turn around time for the grant is, so I might not be prepared to launch in January. I might be. Who knows? In any case, the blog will be moved January.

In the mean time, I have a whole whack of stuff to learn about marketing and business and so forth, so I'll also be doing a whole bunch of research.

Which means, I won't be writing today. Or this week, probably. And with next week on holidays, I won't be getting back to writing at all until January... and by then, hopefully everything would have settled down.

I'm very busy, but not busy writing. I think that might be a good thing. It lets me think and generate ideas and doing a different kind of work is really very restive.

Well, I should go and actually start work. Have a fantastic Monday everyone!

Bastard-Scurvey

A kind of leprosy.

- John Brand's Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth and Caithness, 1883

Vernissage

A day before the exhibition of painting on which exhibitors may retouch and varnish their pictures already hung. A private view of paintings before public exhibition. [From the French word vernis, varnish.]

- Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1928

Varnishing-day, a day before the opening of a picture exhibition, on which exhibitors have the privilege of retouching their pictures on the walls.

- William Whitney's Century Dictionary, 1889

I've Been Googled

Alright, I have something by way of news. It's an mysterious, anonymous piece of news.

I have been Googled (can I just say how much I love that "Googled" is now in the dictionary?), and it wasn't by me.

I received this message from Ziggs.com informing my that my profile there has been viewed from a Google search:

To: Sonia Carrière
Company: S. M. Carrière

To keep you informed each time an Internet searcher views your online profile, Ziggs automatically provides the following real-time data about the most recent visitor to your profile:

Search Engine: Google
Search Terms: sonia michelle carriere
Referrer: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1T4RNWN_enCA278CA279&q=sonia+michelle+carriere&meta=
Visitor Location: Ottawa, ON (Canada)
Date: September 15, 2009
Time: 10:43 PM EST

No one except my good friends know my middle name. Well, now you do too. I know that it isn't anyone from Tor (damn it!) because the "visitor location" was Ottawa. I've been Googled by a fellow Ottawan.

Should I be concerned?

Stay tuned....

The List Grows Thin

Well, all the research I need to do on North American publishers is now complete (for now) and there were a couple more publishing houses struck off the list, leaving me with 27 possibilities, some more likely than others.

They were ordered in terms of personal preference. It took quite a while to research the companies and decide which I liked better than others and, in effect, rank them.

As I was reviewing the list, it occurred to me that there are very few North American publishing houses that I have any particular preference for, aside from Tor and they already have my proposal. That might be me being snobbish! Ranking them, for this reason, was incredibly difficult.

Perhaps I'll have more luck when I purchase the Writers and Artists version from the U.K. Perhaps not.

We shall see.

Holy Google, Batman!

Wow, this is pretty neat. I googled myself (S. M. Carrière) just for fun and of the seven first listings, I appeared four times. It was actually me, not just someone who shared my name.

I was in positions 1, 3, 4, and 7.

I'm impressed! Well, I'm impressed enough to blog about it. It doesn't take much, obviously.

Well, back to researching.

P.S. I've also now joined MySpace. Hello MySpace community!

TFSU 5 - It Made It!

I can now breathe a sigh of relief. As of roughly 1:00pm yesterday, my submission to Tor Fantasy was successfully delivered. Now I have between two and six months to wait until I hear from them. How's that for nerve-wracking?

Luckily, for you the reader, it means that you won't have to read through these silly updates for another two months. Guaranteed, though, that you will hear me groan about waiting from the two month mark until I hear from Tor... or 6 months have passed. Let's hope Tor puts you out of your misery quickly!

Track History

Date	Time	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2009/08/24	12:53	10010,USA	Item successfully delivered
2009/08/19	03:06		International shipment has arrived in the destination country
2009/08/18	13:32		International item has left Canada
2009/08/17	12:48	OTTAWA	Item accepted at the Post Office

Shipping Options and Features for this Item

Signature Required

TFSU 4

Dognabit!

As of 4:20pm today, there is nothing new to report. The submission is in the U.S. somewhere and is yet to be delivered.

Track Status

Product Type: USA Letterpost

Date	Time	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2009/08/19	03:06		International shipment has arrived in the destination country

TFSU 3

It's still in the U.S. somewhere. It is yet to be delivered.

Track Status

Product Type: USA Letterpost

Date	Time	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2009/08/19	03:06		International shipment has arrived in the destination country

Hopefully soon.

It's Here!

It's here! It's here! It's here!

About a fortnight ago, unbeknownst to anyone but myself and my credit card company, I ordered the 2010 Writer's Market. It's a giant book with "3 500 listings for book publishers, consumer magazines, trade journals, literary agents, and more." About fifteen minutes ago, it arrived. Huzzah!

Some prospective authors will roll their eyes at me and call me a sucker for buying the book but, frankly, I love books, and I find it easier to research from a book than from the Internet. I think that this is for North America only, so I may just buy the one that comes out of the UK as well.

I realise that I have already submitted my manuscript to a publishing house, and to be honest, it is the publishing house that I would most like to publish my work. I won't be sending my manuscript off to anyone else until I hear from them, but it would be a very good idea to have the list of houses and agents that are likely to publish my work already researched. It'll save me a lot of time. Let's face it, I have between two and six months from the time my proposal is received until I hear from them, so I may as well research in that time!

I'm excited to get started, so I'll sign off now.

Tor Fantasy Submission Update 2

I should really find a better way to write that title! From here on in Tor Fantasy Submission Updates will now be TFSU.

All besides the point. The package is now in the U.S.A!

Track History

Date	Time	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2009/08/19	03:06		International shipment has arrived in the destination country
2009/08/18	13:32		International item has left Canada
2009/08/17	12:48	OTTAWA	Item accepted at the Post Office

I don't know when they entered the "Item has left Canada" stuff. It wasn't there at 4pm yesterday. It doesn't matter, though. The package is in the U.S.

Stay tuned for another thrilling adventure in "Where's My Package," a fearfully dull mini-series only on blogger.com.

Tor Fantasy Submission Update

Here's the fun of the waiting game. As of precisely 4:00pm my time, the package I had sent to Tor Fantasy yesterday is still, according to Canada Post, in the post office I dropped it off at.

The exact tracking report looks like this:

Track Status

Product Type: USA Letterpost

Date	Time	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2009/08/17	12:48	OTTAWA	Item accepted at the Post Office

Track History

Date	Time	Location	Description	Retail Location	Signatory Name
2009/08/17	12:48	OTTAWA	Item accepted at the Post Office

Shipping Options and Features for this Item

Signature Required

To quote a good friend of mine "le sigh."

One of Many

It is unusual for me to blog twice in one day, but today I have news.

Well, it is done. I have made my first ever submission to a publishing house.

Some of you will probably ask: "What took you so long? You finished the manuscript in July!"

The answer is very simple. It was one part editing and three parts sheer, unadulterated terror.

That might surprise you, but it's the truth. Submitting your work is terrifying. In fact, as I stood at the post office and watched the postman put all the stickers on the package, I almost had a change of heart. I almost snatched the parcel back and ran from the post office. I was scared. He was about to send what was essentially my heart and soul to New York to be ripped open and ripped apart by some stranger. That is a terrifying thought.

I think it is akin to telling the boy (or girl, if there are guys reading this) you barely know but have admired for longer than you care to acknowledge that you, in fact, admire them. The fear is exactly the same, and so is the impetus. You can't sleep, you can't eat, or perhaps you do too much of both, until you've said it. Until you know for sure. So it is with submitting one's work for judgement. There is a need to know.

You cannot bear the thought of rejection, but you cannot stand not knowing.

So it was that with much trepidation that I sent away my book proposal to New York for consideration, and now I have to sit and wait for a response. The response, they told me on the website, can take anywhere between two and six months. This wait will probably kill me, as they are the publishing house I would most like to publish my work.

"They" are, in fact, Tor Fantasy, a branch of the massive publishing company MacMillan. I would like to be published by them if only because they had the good sense to publish Steve Erikson (among others like Sara Douglass) and Mr. Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series is wonderful. I should very much like to be published by them.

I realise that I am probably shooting for the stars by having the audacity to hope to be published by Tor, but hey, go big or go home, right? One of the main reasons for my choice, other than the books they publish, is that they are one of the few publishing houses that still accept unsolicited submissions. Bloomsbury used to, but were probably overwhelmed with manuscripts after the success of Harry Potter.

In trying to get published, as in any endeavour, there really is only one thing you can do:

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

That is technically two things, but take it as a package.

So that is what I will do. I will brace myself for the probably rejection, and hope that I get an offer.

Fingers crossed!