Pieces of Plague Scattered Like Seeds

Well, I have a MySpace page now. Not exactly what to do with it, but I guess the first thing I need to do is invite some friends... not sure how to do that, either. lol. Anyway, it's www.myspace.com/dankeohane - so, a good way I think to determine how many people actually read this blog, who have myspace, is to post this and ask - hey, if you're a myspace junkie, as me to let you in, I'll hold the door open...

Also, if you don't have a MySpace but you read this blog with any sense of regularity, let me know (mailto:dankeohane-reg@verizon.net). I'm curious if it's only me and Michelle out here in the cold, cruel bloggy world. :-)

Well, I did it. Both my Italian agent and Fran (the only ones who read the rewrite) both thought the second half of Plague of Darkness just dragged with too much talky-talky. So, last week I jumped in and viciously slashed 7500 words from the book, all stuff that – as I cut – I realized should never have been in there. Sometimes we have one or two sentences in a big scene that we want to keep, and because of these small bits of required information we keep the rest of the dreck – like the chocolate cookie part of an Oreo. No one really wants the cookie part. Get to the creamy filling and move on to the next! Anyway, it's back to my agent to see what she thinks. On a special note, any prayers offered to said agent Cristina Ranghetti's husband, who is recovering from a stroke at too young an age, would be greatly appreciated. He's home, but it'll be a struggle for a while as you can imagine.

Back to Plague for a second more, I'm not going to pass this one on to a US co-agent just yet, since she has two others to keep herself busy for now. I might consider marketing here in the states myself, but we'll see. Might wait a bit and see if anything happens with Margaret's Ark. Speaking of which, Ark is finally getting into circulation in the US markets now. I thought it already had been but I guess not. I hope it's true this time, the book's too damned good in my opinion to let it stagnate. Of course, I'm a bit biased so don't listen to me.

What else? Ah. Word of advice for any budding editors out there - if you invite an author to write a story for your antho, you're not obligated to buy it, naturally, but you are honor bound to read it and, whatever you decide, at least let the author know what your decision is before he sees the table of contents published on your company's website six months later. Oh, and when author emails you to very politely mention this and even wishes you good luck with the anthology, it might be nice to perhaps reply.... you think? Something? As it is, a week later... nothing. Harrumph. :-(

Plague of Locusts is 3200 words and a couple of short chapters in, with some neat ideas on how to cover the 163 years between today and the book's timeline, but I spent the latter part of last week chopping Darkness into little bits, and did some more work on "The Bridge". Hopefully I can hop back in.

I need something to happen, soon. Getting antsy.