A sneak peek…and news

The finalists for the GUTGAA agent contest won’t officially be announced till Friday, but it’s not looking good for me so far. As of right now, only three people have stopped by to comment on my entry (how many have actually looked at it is anyone’s guess) and none of them were judges. I won’t lie, I’m disappointed. I was really hoping to make it through to round two and possible see a request come my way. But I have been having a lot of fun with the whole blogfest and I’ve made a lot of new friends and I’m really happy for everyone who is moving on. There are a ton of talented writers out there and the ones getting through deserve all their hard-earned success. The small press competition is coming up, but I’m not going to be competing in that. Good luck to those of you who are!

FYI, if you want to enter the small press competition, you need to sign up here.

So back to querying I go. Between GUTGAA and PitMad, I’ve acquired some new people to add to my query list, which is also helpful. The GUTGAA pitch polish helped me fine-tune my query pitch and the comments I received on it in my agent contest entry were favorable. See? Good things, right? Plus, PitMad was good exposure since I was throwing out pitches every half hour or so, right? Visibility is good, right? I’m working on the power of positive thinking here, people.

I think I need to keep working on my positivity skills.

Would you like a peek at what I’ve been working on the last couple of days? You would? Okay, then, but I’m warning you, it’s quite rough. Still, I’m excited to be spending more time in Lokana, hanging out with old friends in familiar environs.

The woods called to him; they always had. Ever since he could remember, Michael had had an overwhelming desire to find out what lurked beneath the branches, what lay hidden in the underbrush. He dreamed of pirates and buried treasure despite the fact that the nearest ocean was two thousand miles away. But with age came wisdom and a deeper longing to understand the connection to the forest his father so despised.

Henry Briant had forbidden his son from going anywhere near the forest and Michael, quite naturally for a boy about to turn eighteen, refused to listen. Honestly! It’s just a forest – what’s the big deal? he mused as he surveyed the tree line near Riverside Park. The area had been home to housing projects when his parents were young, but the tenements had been demolished recently as part of the city’s urban renewal plan.

A break in the trees caught Michael’s attention and he ambled toward it. He didn’t stop when he reached the trees, but kept walking, as if he were a fish on a hook being reeled in. His eyes adjusted quickly to the low light. It’s kinda nice in here, he thought as he continued on through the woods, nice and peaceful. I could get used to this.

Michael spied a clearing out of the corner of his eye. A tree had fallen some time ago and now appeared to be in the latter stages of decay. Still, it was quite picturesque and since he had encountered none of the dangers his father had so often warned him of, he decided to return the next day for a picnic with Maria.

Suddenly, he stopped and looked around. He was in the heart of the forest. His feet seemed to have a mind of their own telling them to move for all they were worth, because they were soon carrying him through the woods again. Michael panicked. “What the…?”

Instead of trying to stop his feet this time, he turned them to the left and kept going. He finally managed to face them back the way he had come. Then he began to run.