Well call me crazy, call me bonkers, smear me up with Marmite and cover me in conkers... but I did it.
I've sent it off again and to hell with the consequences.
Yep, you've guessed it, I sent my MS off to another unsuspecting Agent.
Hopefully the lady in question will see my work for the quality it is and identify straight away the potential therein.

My new, all singing, all dancing one page synopsis, a covering letter that could melt a kiln and thirty pages of white hot, sexual custard vampire action, all in an envelope. Sounds dangerous actually, doesn't it?

Whatever, fingers crossed, eh?
Reg :-)

Right.
I did it.
It took me a while but I managed to finalise the one page, double spaced synopsis !!!!!!
Am I good or what? It really is down to the bare bones of the story and cuts out an awful lot of information that fills the story out but... hey it's done and now I'm onto the Covering letter.
That shouldn't take long, what will take long is the postage to Britain. There's a postal strike going on at the moment so I might not get the quick reply I'd like, (sorry, the quick POSITIVE reply that I'd like).

Ah well, who cares?
I've got the synopsis sorted so that's half the battle, right?



... I wish it was...
Reg :-)

... and Tee's gonnna kick my butt.
Bah.

Gutted.
Riise in the 95th minute heads an owngoal.
Gutted.

The one page synopsis, double spaced, is halfway there.
It's only halfway there because I didn't double space it, I one-and-a-half spaced it. I'll work on it a bit more, cut some stuff out, put some stuff back in and we'll see what happens shall we?
There's a postal strike coming up, or it could be on now for all I know, so I have a bit of time before I send it off.

Liverpool vs. Chelsea tonight. Liverpool have GOT to win or Teresa'll have my guts for garters and my large intestine for a washing line. Thank the heavens Steven Gerrard is fit. I'm watching it in a pub that sells very reasonably priced Guinnes, so the evening should be thuper, thir.

Right, I'm off to destroy a rain forest... !
No, don't worry Mr. Sting, what I meant was that I'm going to mow my rather overgown and triffid-like lawn. Wish me luck,
Tally Ho !!!
Reg :-)

Monday evening.
Well, what's going on in my little world then?
A lot actually.
I'm scribbling a new book with Teresa, (of THAT synopsis fame) about Frank Delaney, a man on a mission!!!
I'll tell you more about it when we're deeper, (in our cups? No.) into the story.
Otherwise, all I did this weekend is work like a Klingon, watched the boxing and work some more... oh, and I forgot George's Birthday.
George, Happy Brthday mate.
It's late, I know, but a late Happy Birthday with feeling beats a punctual Happy Birthday without.

Ok, tara, I'll let you know about "Frank Delaney : The Longest Journey" another time, I'm off to bed now cos I've got to be up at 0430 hrs.
Reg {-0 (that's me yawning there on the smiley)

Teresa told me something that knocked my socks off yesterday.
Double spacing is the form for everything sent to an agent/printing house, everything except the covering letter.
Damn.
How in the name of Satan's colostomy bag am I going to get my synopsis to down to the half of what it is now?
It might as well not be there at all, I mean what chance have I now of presenting my story to a prospective agent when all I have to do it in is ten lines?????
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
It took me three months to perfect the one I have now.

Ah well, back to the drawing board.
Have a nice weekend, I know I won't.
Bah.
Reg :-/

Nearly forgot.
I actually spent some money and bought the "Writer's and Artists Yearbook for 2008".
APPARENTLY, so everybody say's, I need one.
Ah well, 17 Euro later and I have one in the post, all thanks to Ebay.
I'll let you know if it's a good read.

Is it Tuesday already?
My life seems to be spinning out of control.
I mean, on the one hand it's good because the kids'll leave home soon and I can have the house to me and my woman. And I'll be a pensioner quicker so I don't have to work blah, blah fishcakes, you get the idea.
However, it is a tad disturbing to see the years racing by and my grave looming ever larger on the horizon.
It's a terrible thing to have to think about actually. At the age of twenty I was convinced that I was indestructable and now, twenty one years later, I'm contemplating death.
God I must be on a downer or something, am I always like this?
No, so snap out of it Reggie.

Right, where was I?
Ah yes, my rejection and the psychological scarring that it involved.
Well...
I'm cool. I'm over it now completely, having last night crafted a new synopsis, (a one-pager along the same lines as the last one from Teresa) and a query letter.
This new agency requires a slightly different form of query letter to the norm so it's taking a bit of time.
But as ever, perseverance is my middle name and I will prevail.

So now you know.
Oh, and a mate of mine has a grandfather who MIGHT translate my MS into German for me. It could make things a lot easier on the Agent front.
Or it could go horribly wrong, only time, (that Michael Schumacher driving my mortal clock) will tell.
tara
Reg :-)

Well this Literary Agency didn't muck about sending me a rejection.
Straight in there, "Thanx very much but no thanx".
Reading between the lines was the usual "We hate you, we spit on you and will dance a jolly jig on your grave when you do the world a favour and finally expire you sorry specimen".

Do I sound bitter? Twisted? Sad?
Well actually I'm cool with it. It's just a pity cos they were such a good agency.

Ah well, next agency!!!
My mate's bringing some British stamps tomorrow so I'll try and get the next one off on Monday. Just have to have a look at which one to send it to.
I really must invest in that Writer's Yearbook thing that I've heard so much about.

I feel my favourite crutch Booze tugging at my heartstrings but I'm on early shift tomorrow so I won't bother.
Have a good weekend peeps.
Reg :-/

Liverpool 4 - Arsenal 2.

Last night, about three in the morning, I wrote another couple of paragraphs on the, "Vietnam Vet" story thread.
I reread what I'd written and was satisfied.
So why is it, not twelve hours after writing the piece, I read it again and found it stilted, two dimensional and so loaded with cliche that I almost physically cringed at some of the dialogue?

Am I that bad?
Or am I just tired and irritable?
Whatever, it stays as it is and I'll see how Tee gets on with it... he he he...

Nightshift tonight, and tomorrow and then two days off to do the grouting on my wall.
What a nice life I lead. I remember the days when two days off meant one day partying and one day recuperation.
Not anymore though, oh no. Nowadays it' go to work to earn money, to buy materials to do more work.
Where's the sense in that?
Where did my life go so suddenly wrong?
Oh, I remember, the birth of my twins.

I might just bin all this constant drudgery and labour and go to Thailand to open a bar.
A bar in Thailand with gogo girls and exotic ladies of the night, or Jamaica... no Jamaica sounds good. Chocolate coloured babes, long Bacardi fuelled nights and a house on the beach. Nah, my wife would kill me.
Or I'll open a bar in Ireland, the land of the setting Guinness.
No, even better, a bar in Hamburg, on the Reeperbahn. With drunken sailors making it with the ladies and making me rich in the process...
Oh sod it, I'll stay here and finish this bloody wall.
Tara :-(

The weekend draws upon us once more and I haven't heard a thing.
Not that I expected to but, you know, it would have been nice.
Anyway, what's to report?
Nothing. I had three days off which I spent fixing stone tiles to a wall to make it look like an old country house. Mind numbingly boring work, I can assure you. However the effect when it's finished is very eyecatching.

I wrote a few paragraphs for a thread on Struggling Authors yesterday as well. Teresa, (Mad Tee on the site) started a story and I carried it on.
I don't know if we'll continue along that thread because Tee set the story on a beach, and I turned it into a man looking for proof of long forgotten American POW's in Vietnam but who cares, eh?
It's only a bit of fun, so do what you want with it Tee, I'm game babes.

Mmmm, and that's about it really.
Late shift today and all weekend actually. Well at least I get to listen to the footy tomorrow afternoon with out any kids begging me to turn it off because Kim Possible's on the tv.
Have a nice weekend, because I won't.
Reg :-)