Thanks for tuning in again!

  Last week was sort of exciting! I mentioned in the last blog that I had just sent out my first query letter to a real literary agency!!! It was true. No bull! Remember from two weeks ago and from my web page, that I have completed my first Supernatural Erotic Romance Novel and am (painfully, but patiently) going through the real life steps of getting published along with you, my co-pilots in adventure!!! Step two proceeds, as I try to acquire an interested, motivated and enthusiastic literary agent, who has all of the contacts and, will in turn handle the publishers. 

  I sent a very vanilla query to the Knight Agency. Specifically, to an agent whom I thought might best represent my Supernatural Erotic Romance Novel. She is very experienced and has listed as among her literary interests paranormal romances and scifi among the other styles of writing, and of which she is preferential. I googled her and the agency and took a shot in the darkness of this moderately unselfexplored realm. I hate being a novice at anything, so I have ordered a book and am chewing through sites on how to get an agent, write a better query letter, polish a book proposal, get published, market your self and your book, and eons of ect's. 

  The Knight Agency has a very informative website and I read it cover to cover, but on my expanded screen laptop, natch! I thought it was kind and generous of the Knight Agency to provide wanna be published authors with some great advice. They have a submissions page and I emailed my query letter to them on June 9th. They strictly caution all interested parties that they will not respond earlier than 6-8 weeks, if they chose to respond at all.  They responded to me in 9 days!!! Better luck next time was my first query review!

  It sounds snotty when I say it, but these agencies are the life raft to us writers, who are treading lightly in an ocean span of shark trolled waters. They are the talent agents of the literary world, and they are in a position to call the shots. Authors would be advised to be thankful that any agency took time at all to show even the slightest interest in their book!!! Hey, if you decide not to represent me, you just move back into the category of perspective readers of my Book!  

  Does the author have to be such a spineless sea cucumber when it comes to doing what professional agents say? No, you can be difficult and stay unpublished and step aside for people like me who are willing to do anything it takes, cow towing to people who make 15% of what I make, not-with-standing! Professional in presenting my platform? Yes! Following the Marquis of Queensbury Rules in my strategy? You bet!!!   

  Alas, on June 17th, when I received my first "thanks, but no thanks letter", from the Knight Agency, I was honored. Nobody likes rejection, but the letter was great and encouraging and I printed it up and framed it on my wall. It represents one more hurdle in a long tough race that I plan on winning, and if along the way I stumble and fall, well so be it. I've got lots of back up plans! 

  Authors like Hemingway and Emily Dickinson received dozens of rejection letters in their time. The average acceptance to rejection ratio when submitting query letters is 12:1. I'll take those odds. I may never achieve the level of writing that the Masters have, but I am a shameless self promoter! I absolutely love people and am a patient and confident enchantress of my wares!!! I feel that, because of my outgoing personality and living in the age of communication,  I actually have a leg up on some of the Masters of those written words. I think todays Authors need to have a presence, be willing to put themselves out there so that readers and lovers of the multi-genre will be enticed into reading their novels. Is there really an author out there who thinks that their book is so stellar, that marketing and promotions will not be a huge piece of the pie. No joke, I would love nothing more than to sit all day long and write stories. But, there are benefits to staying well rounded in life and I don't wish to be reclusive.  The sun is too bright a place for the likes of you and I to be hiding away from! So, I take the laptop outside...

    Did I promise and excerpt from my unpublished Vampire Romance novel? WELL, ANNE DELIVERS... 

  Five Chapters into the book our hero, a vampire warrior of the Dark Realm, is called upon by his omnipotent Queen to rescue a mortal female in terrible danger. Our Queen beckons the heroic warrior to hasten! His target, a beautiful female scientist, is in grave danger and she also represents a key strand in an intricate royal web of manipulation. 
 Presently, the human woman is in dire straights as she is being attacked in her Virginia home by the worst Sadist and Torturer in Vampire history!
  The Queen, unused to requesting anything, appeals to our hero for expedition of his warrior skills!  
 
  "Rhys?"
He knew from hearing her first breath, that on the other end, Ursula was in distress!
  "Urse...Ursula, what is it? Are you not well?" Rhys' deep voice was tense and he immediately sat straight up in bed. Ursula's familiar song was lifeless on the line, she usually sounded so melodically animated, but not today.
  "Darling, we fear this, this vision that has come to us in our day-sleep." Ursula was trying not at all successfully to hide the terror in her tone. The Queen was saturating Rhys with her fear through the cell phone and through their distant psychic link.
Rhys frowned.  "Your visions are not soothing, my Lady?" He asked, swinging his legs off of the furs and allowing his eyes to adjust to the pitch black of the bedroom. 
The long distance feminine voice quaked. Ursula didn't quake, not ever! "No, my darling. All that we are in this morsel of time edges so near to immortal ruination. We plead for thee to leap into the darkness of the abyss, yet again."
Rhys spoke the only words that his vampire warrior soul permitted.  "Ursula, my Mistress, I am ever your champion."
Ursula sighed, as if she could ever doubt his bravery, his devotion to her.  "Thou shall ever be my warrior, my hero, my lovely Rhys."     
   
  That was all you get, for now! Just a shy peek. The title you ask? It is under wraps until I get an agent!

  In two weeks, I think we'll discuss the difference between the words ROMANCE, EROTIC AND PORN!!! Why this topic? My pack goes to my web page and sees Anne Patricia Roberts Supernatural Erotic Romance Writer and they say their first thought is that I am writing porn. WRONG! Though views on porn vary, my interest lies in a great fast paced title Tsunami of a story. The sex, which is laced throughout the story, is meant to enhance. More to come on this...and soon another shy peek at the story!!!

WBCT(Warmest Blood curdling Thanks) Anne
Oh! Quit giving me crap about my punctuation! I proofread, but I will always hold that I am a story teller, not a talented editor, so get over it and read for the content!!!