Queries: Round Four

Got a rejection from Mr. Christopher Schelling this week. In my query I'd congratulated him and Augusten Burroughs on their recent marriage, briefly mentioning mine saying I'd hope they were enjoying married life as much as I am. I mentioned how I'd hope he'd seen some similarities to Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (one of his authors). This was before Richard Florest had compared the manuscript, after having read it, to that book. So hopefully I'm on to something here.

Here's Mr. Schelling's kind response:  

"Thanks so much for sending your novel - and for your kind words on my marriage. (Congratulations on yours. We're ridiculously happy too.) There's a lot to like here, especially how you capture the emotions so clearly. I see why Eleanor & Park would be a comparison, but..." and it goes on from there.

And instead of talking about that but, I'd much rather talk about this one (I love talking about buts): I was bummed to receive Mr. Schelling's rejection this week, BUT was thrilled to receive a SASE back in the mail yesterday from none other than John Green's agent, Ms. Jodi Reamer at Writer's House. I was teaching a 20th Century American Drama night class, and by teaching I mean watching the Dustin Hoffman/John Malkovich Death of a Salesman  holding back tears in front of my students, when my wife messaged me on Facebook. Previously I'd been very ceremonious about query responses: Don't open the email until after you're home and have had dinner; Don't let your wife open the SASE if you're not home; Finish x number of student registrations before opening it at work. I decided I was probably jinxing myself. So I told Jessa to open the envelope and message me whatever it said right then and there. If I was going to cry in front of my students anyway, I might as well have a better reason than it being a real darn shame Biff had to burn those sneakers after he flunked math.

Ms. Reamer, who had received the first 10 pages with my initial query requested the first 50ish. So a once over of those 50 pages, selecting a good breaking point, and emailing the requested file on was how I spent my lunch break. And then I even had time left over to query Tom Perrotta's agent, mostly because Jessa and I realized that both my book and his Little Children feature disturbing masturbation scenes. And what else could an agent possibly be looking for than that?

Maybe one day my book can be turned into a movie with sexy, sexy people in it too. 

On an unrelated note, Jessa and I discovered we'd "made it" this week when our Google alerts pointed us to this article on citations: "How to Cite Large Sections of a Poem."

Despite our book, The Way We Sleep  having no poetry in it, the author, Adam Jefferys chose to use us, of all multiple editors of all volumes of anything ever published, as the example for how to cite a volume with multiple editors: "For a poem from an anthology, include the editor's name or names after the book's title, preceded by "Ed." For example: Ed. C. James Bye and Jessa Bye."

So yeah, it's been a good week. 

Update: I completely forgot until Jessa mentioned it that Ms. Reamer is also Bruce "Ash" Campbell's agent!

An (of course, deserved) Extremely Nice Review of The Way We Sleep!

The American Book Review  had some extremely kind words on my and my wife's anthology, The Way We Sleep  in their July/August 2013 issue (Vol 34, No 5). Here's an excerpt:

You can pick up a copy of the magazine HERE. And don't forget about picking up a copy of The Way We Sleep from Curbside Splendor or on Amazon (it's almost Christmas, ya know)! 

Cloudy with a Chance of Ron Barrett

This past weekend my wife and I were more than excited to catch up with some of our best Madison and Chicago friends at the wedding of my buddy, Elliott (who I've known since sixth grade) and his beautiful wife, Rebecca. I've had some great times with Elliott and Rebecca, but many of those times were at Pitchfork Music Fest where it's kinda hard to get to know your friend's girlfriend over the sound of squealing guitars and too-loud neon headbands ("Neon Headbands," hey, that could be the name of a band reviewed on Pitchfork!). So I had no idea that her father was the one and only, Ron Barrett.

As his bio states, Ron Barrett is the internationally bestselling illustrator of many books for children, including Superhero Joe, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Pickles to Pittsburgh, Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing, and Old MacDonald Had an Apartment House. His illustrations have been honored by the Society of Illustrators and have been exhibited at The Louvre in Paris. He lives in New York City.

Ron is also someone I've admired for some time, especially for his work with National Lampoon (as Ron refers to it, "when it was really good"--he says he "later became the magazine's art director and funeral director"). Here's a sample:

Having loved his illustration and amazing sense of humor, when my wife and I began planning our anthology of prose, interviews, and comics about beds, The Way We Sleep, Ron was, I believe, the second or third person I contacted to solicit for a piece to include in the book. He was definitely one of the first to respond. And what a generous response. He offered to develop one piece, sending sketches and pencils along the way for editorial approval (I would've approved if he sneezed in a cocktail napkin and sent it our way). Then when he had finished the several page long, full color comic, he offered to create another original piece for the book.

The wine flowed, the Wisconsin cheese and sausage appetizers amazed, and the wedding was beautiful (despite the day drifting back and forth from stormy to drizzly). And Ron was, of course, gracious and generous, spending time on the day of his daughter's wedding to ask in depth about how the book's sales were going and how we were doing. Of course, I waited until my eyes were red with exhaustion and wine, my tie was disheveled, and the night was coming to an end to ask to snatch a snapshot. But Ron still looks dapper.

From left to right: Ron Barrett; Beautiful wife; Guy who doesn't know how to tie a tie

You can check out the two amazing comics Ron gave us for, like, absolutely no reason other than he's the swellest of guys in The Way We Sleep! And, obviously, go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 in theaters!