Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Cabin Fever & Bio

Perhaps it was the cabin fever (though yesterday I soaked up as much sun as I could, knowing it was going to rain/snow again), but I queried a literary agency about Vultures.
This is the first time I've done it since the whole Amazon ABNA contest and, even though I said I wasn't going to, I think the winter blahs got the best of me and it seemed like a good idea. We'll see....

Anyway, the main point is not the query, but the bio. It's always a challenge to come up with a short, catchy bio (the irony here is that a blogger would have a hard time finding something to say about herself). For this particular query, I wrote a new two-paragraph bio. Usually, I stick with one or, at the most, two sentences, but it was probably the cabin fever and resulting 'screw-it' attitude that pushed me to ramble on. My finger hovered over the 'Send' button as I debated the pros and cons. Finally, the 'screw-it' attitude won when I figured worse-case-scenario would be a total lack of response. (At least I hope that's worst case scenario - I have a long way to go before I establish enough of a reputation even for black-listing. I hope.)

So, here's my new bio (probably short-lived):

"MK Stover is a native West Virginian who finally moved back home. She is a wife, mother, and writer, though not always in that order. Her writing includes small mountains of unsubmitted fiction, a smattering of published non-fiction (though she finds sticking to the facts to be rather confining), ad copy, and small town newspaper columns, articles, and opinions.
Unable to find a decent cup of cappuccino, she and her husband are in the process of converting the first floor of a 118 year old brick building into her hometown’s central site for caffeine consumption and assemblage. The second floor houses her writing studio which is in dire need of organization. Currently, she is working on humorous recollections of her redneck upbringing and feels that her office mess is a symbolic representation of the mental health of her many relatives and, therefore, is a necessary aid to her work-in-progress."


According to Spell Check, 'unsubmitted' is not a word. I use a lot of those not-a-words, so that's not really a concern. What is a concern, though, is that Spell Check's suggestion for correction is 'uncommitted.'
I suppose I should be happy for the 'un.'

3 comments:

Granny Sue said...

Uncommitted sounds safer than committed. The only committed people I know are in institutions!

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. It's a good sign that your novel stayed in the running for so long. Do you have a writing group that you belong to?

MK said...

Granny Sue,
Thank you for the well wishes :).

I don't belong to a writer's group; I haven't since we moved back here two years ago. I just realized that I have a choice: Morgantown or Philippi. Any input on which direction would offer what?

Anonymous said...

People should read this.