Strange not-quite rejection
>I guess I think it’s strange (or rather funny-strange) because I’m a pretty easy-going, difficult to offend, live-and-let-live sort of person. Obviously there are many who aren’t…
Anyway, as you know (via my submission watch) I’ve been submitting to agents–a manuscript that I’ve never sent out.
Today I get an envelope with my familiar sticker (the one I put on my SASEs) and read the return address — one of the higher tiered agents. Oh, dang, I thought — another R. (Cause we all know if they really wanted to read the ms, they’d email or call.) But I open it and it’s the first page of my manuscript with the first word circled and a handwritten note.
Okay, so these are the first few lines of my ms:
“Jesus!”
Reflectors rumbled beneath the tires and jolted Cassandra Christo out of her road trance. With a quick turn of her wrist, she realigned the BMW coupe into the middle of the lane.
Cassie exhaled a shaky breath, peeled her shoulder from the seat and lowered the window…
Still, she has a good point. Just because I’m so easy-going and not-easily offended doesn’t mean others aren’t–regardless of whether I was being careless (which I wasn’t) or just ignorant (which I was).
I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot because I tend to use the Lord’s name in vain in my dialogue. I also swear in my dialogue. I also have sex and violence in my books. Those are realities for my characters. (And to some degree for me–the swearing part at least.)
I was okay with that. But now, I’m writing another book where both my characters have a certain level of spirituality lingering from their childhood and I want to bring that into the story, but I’ve been putting it off because I don’t want to offend. Another issue I’ve been tip-toeing around in this book is racism–white/Hispanic. Again, do I bring it out so it fits the characters, or do I push it to the background so I don’t offend?
I don’t know the answer. But I have decided to write this ms with the deepest characters possible, which means including both the religion and the racism. Hope it doesn’t backfire on me.
>Strange not-quite rejection
>I guess I think it’s strange (or rather funny-strange) because I’m a pretty easy-going, difficult to offend, live-and-let-live sort of person. Obviously there are many who aren’t…
Anyway, as you know (via my submission watch) I’ve been submitting to agents–a manuscript that I’ve never sent out.
Today I get an envelope with my familiar sticker (the one I put on my SASEs) and read the return address — one of the higher tiered agents. Oh, dang, I thought — another R. (Cause we all know if they really wanted to read the ms, they’d email or call.) But I open it and it’s the first page of my manuscript with the first word circled and a handwritten note.
Okay, so these are the first few lines of my ms:
“Jesus!”
Reflectors rumbled beneath the tires and jolted Cassandra Christo out of her road trance. With a quick turn of her wrist, she realigned the BMW coupe into the middle of the lane.
Cassie exhaled a shaky breath, peeled her shoulder from the seat and lowered the window…
Still, she has a good point. Just because I’m so easy-going and not-easily offended doesn’t mean others aren’t–regardless of whether I was being careless (which I wasn’t) or just ignorant (which I was).
I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot because I tend to use the Lord’s name in vain in my dialogue. I also swear in my dialogue. I also have sex and violence in my books. Those are realities for my characters. (And to some degree for me–the swearing part at least.)
I was okay with that. But now, I’m writing another book where both my characters have a certain level of spirituality lingering from their childhood and I want to bring that into the story, but I’ve been putting it off because I don’t want to offend. Another issue I’ve been tip-toeing around in this book is racism–white/Hispanic. Again, do I bring it out so it fits the characters, or do I push it to the background so I don’t offend?
I don’t know the answer. But I have decided to write this ms with the deepest characters possible, which means including both the religion and the racism. Hope it doesn’t backfire on me.