WD Editors

Another Q&A column by Jane has been posted over at Identity Theory, in response to a reader who has concluded that 20 percent of agents are “crooks.”

For moments of extreme stress, overwhelming anxiety, incapacitating futility, or just if you’re feeling a little peckish:

Ingredients:

1 pack of M&Ms, regular (or peanut if you want the added protein)

1 Diet Coke, with caffeine (or regular Coke if you’re not concerned with carb overload)

Directions:

Seated at desk, open the Diet Coke and the bag of M&Ms. After a soothing sip of Diet Coke, take about 5 M&Ms (random colors; fewer if using the peanut variety) and put them in your mouth. Suck slowly until the colorful candy shells begin to dissolve, then nibble them away from the chocolate coating (helpful activity for nervous energy). Allow the chocolate to melt over your tongue while visualizing the serotonin level soaring in your brain. Repeat until muscles in your neck relax, lightning bolts stop flashing before your eyes, butterflies and rainbows dance above your cubicle, or until the M&M package is empty and the Diet Coke can goes in the recycling bin.  (NOTE: based on personal experience, not scientific study.) 

WARNING: Not recommended in mega-doses (i.e., with industrial-size bag of M&Ms from Sam’s and a 2-litre bottle of Diet Coke). Migraines, heart palpitations, and dangerously high sugar buzz may result (also from personal experience).

The September issue of Writers on the Rise (run by WDB author Christina Katz) is now posted: www.writersontherise.com/newsletter.html. Great how-to information for writers, especially freelancers.

For the THIRD week in a row, The Gilded Tongue by Rod Evans was the best-selling title in the trade through the week ending Aug. 27. Click on the cover to read more about this title.

Rules of Thumb, a spring 2006 title from WDB, features more than 70 authors who discuss their one fiction writing fixation—their one rule of thumb that they try to follow whenever they sit down to write.

Here’s one essay from the collection’s editor, Michael Martone. Look for more selections in the coming weeks.

Prescriptions/Proscriptions

“Rrrrrrrring! the alarm clock went off.” Never begin a story this way.

No cats. No tea. No dreams.

When told to cut, expand. When told to develop, cut.

Show and tell.

Always use odd numbers. They seem more real.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

If you like something a lot, use it again.

Never use Does it work? or Does it flow? when speaking of fiction.

The Theory of Neat Stuff: Not everything has to contribute. Some things are just neat.

Digress aggressively. Break the tyranny of the time line.

Did I tell you to repeat?

You can start a story with a coincidence, but you cannot end with one.

Don’t do anything half-assed.

Lose the mirrors, the photographs, and the card-playing unless it’s euchre.

You can never have too much peripheral detail or too little on the color of a character’s eyes.

A story is always a controlled crash.

Not the line but the blot.

Everyone loves recipes. Thus, we will begin posting favorite recipes from WDB staff, authors, and friends. Send us your recipe!

Editorial Director Peanut Stew
(from Jane Friedman)

1 tbsp peanut oil
several cloves of garlic
28 oz diced tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp salt
1 cup rice
6 scallions, chopped (garnish)
1/4 cup salted peanuts (garnish)

1. Heat oil, add garlic, sizzle for 30 seconds.
2. Add everything except the rice. Boil.
3. Once boiling, add rice. Reduce heat to simmer and cover.
4. Cook until stewlike, about 20 minutes.
5. Garnish with scallions and peanuts.

Jane has filed another publishing Q&A column over at IdentityTheory, on how polished your manuscript should be before you send it to an agent. Go read How Good Is Good Enough?

The Writer’s Market editors appeared at Joseph-Beth Bookstore (Cincinnati) on the evening of Aug. 23. You can browse a few photos here.

Lauren Mosko, editor of Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market, has posted some excellent handouts for fiction writers on our Q&A page:

• Making first contact with a publisher? Not sure what to include? Download a handout on the difference between a cover letter, query, synopsis, and outline.
• Be sure to prepare your manuscript with as much care as you took to write it. Download this handout on manuscript preparation and submission basics.

In Spring 2006, WDB published I’m an English Major, Now What?, by Tim Lemire, which was so packed with information that we didn’t have enough room to fit everything in.

But now you can read, enjoy, and learn from the interviews and profiles that we had to cut!

• Profile of Rod Siino, founder and editor of Night Train
• Steve Schneider, Peace Corps
• Kristin Swanson, freelancer
• Chris Coggiano, Inc. editor
• Robert Powell, Marketwatch editor
• Eric Lagergren, freelance editor
• Julia Homer, founding editor, CFO magazine
• John Lustig, comics writer