Susan B. James

How many agents do you query at a time?

Answering some of our most asked questions.

Leave room for error and never query your whole list at once!

#writer #author #writingcommunity #querying #writerslife

And Pan made sing for thee his forest-hive;
Aye on the shores of darkness there is light, And precipices show untrodden green.

~John Keats (died #OTD 1821)
🎨Allen Todd Yeager
#bookchatweekly

Join us this week as #BookologyThursday explores:

🌊 What Lies Beneath 🌊

Creatures, treasures, and monsters that lurk in the depths in literature, art, and lore.

art by Sebastian Giacobino

#TBRuary #Booksky

I do remember why, but I never remember to get the book!
Thanks for reminding me.

unspooling thoughts and knots of doubt-wonderful image!

Five women authors by whom I've read at least five books:

Juliet Marillier
Jane Austen
Beth Brower
Kate DiCamillo
Naomi Novik

Marillier's Daughter of the Forest is one of my top all time favorite books. My daughter's too.

And the first of the Bridei books- Well of Shadows?

I love her heriones and their love interests. Red, oh my.

And thanks, for listing Brennan. I've wanted to read her books and somehow forgot!

Hello, writers. I’ll be reopening submissions beginning the first week of March for adult fiction and nonfiction. I will be giving total priority to diverse voices; however, writers of all backgrounds are welcome to submit. #MSWL #queries #nonfiction #fiction

Alphabet #BookChallenge #Booksky
I wasn't online yesterday so two letters: T and U

the first being so delightly odd

the second being that rare Hardy novel that doesn't make you completely depressed

"Oh, I'm burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them!"
~ Emily Brontë, 'Wuthering Heights'

Boreas (1903)
John William Waterhouse

Crop of a painting by Haeko-Maruda showing a skull from which strange blossoms are blooming.

"Chattering finch and water-fly
Are not merrier than I;
Here among the flowers I lie
Laughing everlastingly,
No; I may not tell the best;
Surely, friends, I might have guessed
Death was but the good King's jest,
It was hid so carefully."

- G K Chesterton, 'The Skeleton'
#BookWormSat #poem #poetry

#WIPSnip #WriteSky #WritingCommunity

Illustration of a train at night in a book by George Cupples, 1882. Crescent moon, starry night, clouds, rolling fields, trees, steam train.

‘This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door,’~ Auden, Night Mail.
This #BookWormSat coincides with Auden’s birthday so we will mark the day with C20th poetry. Join us!

Still_Water_At_Dusk Midsummer night quietude. Lake Päijänne, southern Finland. Jun, 2011 by Miguel Virkhunen Carvalho (Wikipedia)

"...I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water. ..."

✍️Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"
#BookWormSat

Our system of check and balances working as it should! The constitution is an amazing document.

#WritingCommunity #pretendpanel

I do often feel pleased, even proud, of my writing. I've had wonderful comments and praise from writing groups, even editors and agents, but then, the continued rejections make me doubt that any of it is true.

Alphabet #BookChallenge
Today's letter: T

#Booksky #BooksbyWomen

#BookChatWeekly #FridayReads #BooksbyWomen

This is an incredible read and a must for all lovers of books. It's And parents. Any caregiver.
It's also full of great book recs. It's backed with science but not at all hard to read/follow.

Ah, that's the best!!! There's a whole book about the incredible brain and well-being benefits of reading together, aloud. The Enchanted Hour.

Thanks! I'll look into it. (But I wouldn't call myself a fan of horror fan- a little creepiness is OK)

#WriteSky #WIPSnips

"of equal authority but different character"- wonderful! The whole piece is awesome.

Alphabet #BookChallenge #Booksky
Today's letter: S

There's also Novik's excellent Scholomance series.

from my #AshWednesday service

For our blindness to human need, indifference to injustice & cruelty

For our waste and pollution of creation & lack of concern for those who come after us

For uncharitable thoughts, prejudice & contempt toward those who differ from us

Accept our repentance, O Lord

Alphabet #BookChallenge #Booksky
Today's letter R

Literary Agent Spotlight on Michael Kaler today, who is newly acquiring with Lucinda Literary!

Michael enjoys reading across psychology, science, history, and politics, and socially conscious books.

tinyurl.com/MichaelKaler

#amquerying #literaryagent #writing #author #writer

Art by Manabu Endo.

#MythologyMonday ✨
#Dragonflies shimmer between worlds. In Japanese lore they were emblems of courage & victory; in parts of Europe they were called “devil’s darning needles,” feared yet fascinating. Born in water, rising to air, they embody transformation, illusion & the magic of midsummer light. 💫

But the better part of him wondered what had happened in Keoni’s life to turn him into that bully. Maybe his father had bullied Keoni and so, that was, to Keoni, what it meant to be strong, what it meant to be a man. Maybe someone in his family had hurt Keoni and then rubbed his nose in it, maybe his dad or older brother. That happens all the time. People don’t wake up one day and, out of the blue, decide to be an asshole and a bully. “Hurt people hurt people,” Marcus had once told him. So, maybe there was another side to that story. What did it mean to forgive someone? Does it mean, “No worry, brah, it’s fine?” Because it wasn’t fine and never would be fine.

Grown-up Luke wonders about his childhood tormentor. #WIPsnips #hurt #writesky

Alphabet #BookChallenge #Booksky
Today's letter Q