Nuts & Bolts
First before
we get into the nuts & bolts: Fated Souls is now available for
pre-order on Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00C9KNYWK
I mentioned
in a post earlier this week that I submitted a novella to another publisher as
a result of a Twitter pitch event last week. I haven’t heard anything back yet. And I didn't expect to; they announced day of the pitch that all submissions would get responses by the end of
May. Unfortunately having that knowledge in advance has not stopped me from checking my email every five minutes like an obsessed teenager. [On
a side note, it was submitted from a different email account than the one I
used to query reviewers/bloggers regarding Souls
& I check that every five minutes too. Is there a support group for this?]
This
particular story I shopped around some years before. It was received favorably
but with the same caveat from each publisher/editor: Change the ending. Obviously, I refused or I wouldn’t still be
submitting the piece. During a conversation with the man of the house regarding
this he said, “Baby if you want to be marketable you may have to change the
ending. If it comes down to selling the story or artistic integrity are you
really in a place in your writing career to stick to your guns?” But with this
particular story, I feel quite strongly that yes, I
have to stick to my guns.
It’s the
first in a series revolving around a female CIA agent. An American
version of James Bond. She’s a love ‘em and leave ‘em secret agent with a
natural talent for languages and accents; an excellent marksman, she's just as deadly
at hand-to-hand combat, and better than average with a hack, she travels internationally
under assumed alias and disguises leaving a trail of broken bodies and broken
hearts in her wake while protecting the land of the free and the home of the brave. And every publisher said it had to have a Happily Ever After
ending.
To which I
call, a large exuberant – BULLSHIT. If she was a dude, as evidenced from the 5
decade long success of the James Bond movie franchise (that’s not even counting
the Ian Fleming books that inspired the movies!), no one would bat an eyelash. That is a seriously
outdated and ridiculous double standard. In conclusion to my tiny little
feminist rant, [it was only a hotel-sized-Ivory soapbox] I’m thinking that maybe
if the publisher isn’t interested, I’ll give self-pub a try. Maybe.
It’s something to consider in the five
minute intervals between checking my inbox anyway.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
There are plenty of unhappy endings in Bond movies, as in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, where Bond gets married and his new bride is shot between the eyes as they are going on their honeymoon. You can't get more unhappy than that! It's the same in the original novel of the same name, too!
ReplyDeleteIf you believe in the ending, Becky, then stick with it, hun!
Well exactly! That's what I'm saying. No one expects or asks that Bond has a pat little happily ever after ending. In fact, when they tried the happily in love Bond they killed off his love interest (Lazenby's OHMSS that you mentioned & Craig's Casino Royale). I'm a Bong girl. And every movie in between he bed hops like a frantic little well BUNNY with one hell of a car.
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