Divermarv

I have just published my post that was going to ThrillerFest. Sorry for the delay. You see, the first morning I was feeling a little… verklempt. I could tell you were all talking amongst yourselves. This being my first foray into the wide world of writing, the disorientation I was feeling was a bit overwhelming. However, the staff, the volunteers, and all others associated with ThrillerFest XXI have been some of the most helpful groups of people I’ve ever had to depend on. Kudos to them.

That first day, Wednesday, became easier as I acquainted myself with the room layout of the meeting areas and sort of settled into the protocol for the whole thing. All good. Except for that thing at 10:50am. The hands on my watch swept nearer to that time. I could feel the shadow of extending over my feet… spreading up my legs. Consuming me. You see, I had signed up for something called QueryFest. You follow a strict format, and send a full query letter, plus synopsis, plus first five pages of your manuscript to a selected person (an agent or editor) to review. This is not a formal query letter where you hope to get representation, or (gulp!) a contract offer for publication. Only a review of the query letter. Now as you can see by my writing on this blog, I write gooder than most. But the rub was that I signed up for this whole ThrillerFest kind of at the last moment. And my QueryFest submission was due much sooner than I thought. I received a cordial “you’re late” email from the coordinator of the QueryFest, and had two days to learn how to write a query, a synopsis, and… no I had already learned how to write my manuscript. In my heart of hearts I just knew that they would learn that I was (gasp) an imposter. A mangy wolf in writer’s clothing. You can imagine my emotional rollercoaster flying off the rails as the time drew near.

The person I met with was, as I had been told numerous times, just another human being. And folks that was true. They were. I braced myself, but they were courteous and gave me the good news first. The good news being that there was no bad news! No critical notes on my query, synopsis, nor on my manuscript pages. The jotted notes were all complimentary. I was rattled. No. Wait. Where is the scathing reproach? Where was the, “who do you think you are breathing the same air as all these noble creatures penning words of wisdom, love, and depths?” No, it was, as all us reg’lar folk say, “all good”.

I did ask my query reviewer about the event coming up on the next day (Thursday), something called PitchFest. My question being: is it proper etiquette to pitch my story to them during that event. And I was delighted to hear “please do”.

And that folks was how it came to pass that my feet didn’t touch carpet until about 6pm on Wednesday. But don’t you worry… I’m still the same lovable curmudgeon I’ve always been.

And PitchFest post will be coming next.

Peace and love
Marv