Ever have the feeling you're about to attempt the impossible and nudge a publishing brick wall? Have your given that publisher more than enough time to respond to a simple query, synopsis, outline/proposal, chapters or full manuscript? I'll bet you let them slide for extra days or weeks, just hoping that you were temporarily lost in the sea of slush. I've gone so far as to allow a couple of months over a standard response time and still heard nothing but crickets. I can understand those houses...

I have probably had more comments and reactions from my character the Wax Man, than any other. He appears in The War Gate, a paranormal romance/thriller. He is actually a sub-antagonist, an assassin hired by the main antagonist. Most of these of observations have come from beta readers and direct email, only one popped up in an Amazon review. I'll list it here. It was quite a nice cap feather.

"Thoroughly enjoyed this novel, enough it makes me reluctant to start another...

At the forefront of my earliest years of writing and publication I queried quite a few professional authors for advice and guidance. I wanted to know the easiest, less painful ways of achieving publication with full size books. I had a plethora of old-timers and experts from which to gain any hints or tips that would cut through the crap and get me off to a good start. These contacts came primarily from the Science Fiction Writers of American. They had some standard warnings and insider information...

This post was inspired by a thread in the AbsoluteWriters forum. It really hit home with me, since I've had my own experience. It went something like this:

Where do I begin? How do I begin?

Over the last year I've had three fans, four counting my publisher, compare my book, Planet Janitor Custodian of the Stars, to the Firefly concept/world. The last fan asked me if I'd ripped off Firefly to create my now planned series. I told him I didn't even know what Firefly...

I remember reading one of Terry Pratchett's books, where the title related to the curse of 'May you live in interesting times'.

Certainly has been interesting around here. Once again, I must thank you all for the support. It's helped enormously in keeping my sanity in check.

Firstly, Edie. The school took the whole matter very seriously, but, I'm not too sure how serious the actual incident was. Whilst not doubting my daughter, she's 5. She's also one for the boys...