Deadly Lucidity

My new novel is now available from http://allthingsthatmatterpress.com. It will be on amazon within a week or so. It's about a woman who is stuck in a nightmare world in which her only ally is a Ranger who knows even less than she does about how to get back home. Together they find that they must do things and go places they never imagined. Julie Achterhoff is also the author of the acclaimed Quantum Earth. She has also written a play, Angel in the House, and Native Vengeance, a novella.

Amazon

Quantum Earth is now available at amazon. It's climbing quickly up the charts. If you buy it make sure you write even a short review as this helps it go up even faster. It's just me promoting my book by myself, so I need all the help I can get. Please buy my book. Remember, it must be good having gotten published during these tough times!

I got published by Demon Minds for their Halloween Edition

नेटिव वेंगेंस query

What would happen if a woman came to visit a town that didn’t exist?
Meg is enticed to a small, New Mexico ghost town, made to feel at home, but slowly realizes everything isn’t as it seems as the townspeople cunningly keep her and another “guest”; a man named Josh held hostage to await a fate that has continued for centuries. They will eventually come into direct confrontation with the forces of evil. How can they escape the terrible destiny that awaits them when they are being watched closely by the people of this town in the main town hall at a “re-creation” of a disaster that happened over two hundred years ago?
The true terror of this novella builds with excruciating tension as the reader foresees the horror to come. The wrenching suspense lies in whether Meg and Josh will realize what’s happening in time to save their own lives.
This story leaves one with a true sense of horror embedded in the seeming ordinariness of the world we think we know. The result is terrifying.

This is my fourth effort as an author. I’ve written a nutrition course for the Humboldt College, also a three act play named Angel in the House, and a novel named Quantum Earth. This novella contains about 17,000 words.

I hope you find Native Vengeance (working title) intriguing enough to consider by your firm. I look very much forward to hearing from you.

Cordially,

Julie Achterhoff
2575 Alliance Rd.
Apt. 11F
Arcata, CA 95521
(707) 826-0828
erthwkr@sbcglobal.net

I've been sending out a whole lot of queries for my novella titled "Native Vengeance." Therefore I've also been piling up rejections like crazy. But I got one today that was a ray of sunshine because I could tell this person had actually read my story. Not only did they read it, they gave me some very good critiquing. Here's what they said:

Hello Julie

Midnight Showcase Fiction is not able to offer you a contract at this time for Native Vengeance. We felt, although the premise is a good one, a rewrite is needed to make the story more character driven. We usually take character driven stories, where the focus is on the main characters all the way through. Right now you have a lot of characters and quite a few things going on in a small space of writing. To explore them more thoroughly, and extend the work is what I'd suggest. Also the Native Indian theme, while suggested in the title, is brought in too late in the story. Readers would buy it based on that aspect and I feel it is something that needs to be presented from the start. Also, try not to add things just to make it convenient for the way you want your plot to go.

For example, there is too much focus on how they got to the town, making friends on the internet etc. We like to see the story start in the action and stay there, any backstory must be limited and certainly not found on the first page. Plus overly descriptive passages of hair in the wind, the sun and such is not needed. Pare back to the bare skeleton of what you need readers to know to tell your story. Cut anything that does not move the plot forward, including characters and conversations. Dialogue is always a tool and never just a conversation about everyday things. Use the dialogue to reveal something about the plot we didn't already know, or to let us get to know the characters more intimately through their words and reactions.

Research your topics too, make sure you have a good grip on life in that era, and on the native link.

Good luck, and keep writing, it's the best way to learn. This is from our publisher point of view, and for the type of works we publish. Another publisher might be different. Feel free to submit any future works, we'd love to hear from you again. Just be sure you follow our guidelines for submission, the main ones being 12pt times New Roman, RTF file, single spaced lines, 0.3"indent on first line on paragraphs, no line space between paragraphs, put you name and contact details in the top left hand corner of you manuscript, and no other fancy stuff like headers, footers or tabs, and only press enter when starting a new paragraph.

Regards

Wendy Mackrell

Aquisitions

Midnight Showcase Fiction



I thought this was pretty cool of miss Wendy to do for me and it has inspired me to get back on the horse and do some more editing. Maybe I should pare it all the way down to a real short story instead of the novella that it is. It would mean shaving off several thousand words, but that might be what it needs to keep it nice and tight action-wise. If anyone is interested in reading it and possibly giving me feedback that would be great. Maybe miss Wendy is full of it in someone else's opinion. Maybe it's darn near perfect just the way it is. I'd love to know what people think.

On other fronts, my forehead is feeling pretty fine after surgery last Monday to have a benign lump called a lipoma removed. They gave me lots of fun drugs and did a good job of it. They went in from just above my hairline so I won't have a scar anyone can see on my face. I've seen surgeries like this done on the tube before and went for it when the doctor gave me the option. It just feels kinda freaky.

I've also met a nice man on the internet (CL) who apparently has a harem of women to go through, so I don't know if I have a chance with him, or that I would want one quite frankly. It's interesting the way he talks about the other women he has to weed through as if it's a chore on a list. I think I may put him down as vain and move along. It would just be nice to have a sweetheart. I've been alone for a while now and miss having a lover. There is one gentleman who's interested in me, but baby, there ain't no sparks! Ya know what I mean? Ya gotta have those sparks!


Until next time.......

Rejection Daze

I've been sending out a whole lot of queries for my novella titled "Native Vengeance." Therefore I've also been piling up rejections like crazy. But I got one today that was a ray of sunshine because I could tell this person had actually read my story. Not only did they read it, they gave me some very good critiquing. Here's what they said:

Hello Julie

Midnight Showcase Fiction is not able to offer you a contract at this time for Native Vengeance. We felt, although the premise is a good one, a rewrite is needed to make the story more character driven. We usually take character driven stories, where the focus is on the main characters all the way through. Right now you have a lot of characters and quite a few things going on in a small space of writing. To explore them more thoroughly, and extend the work is what I'd suggest. Also the Native Indian theme, while suggested in the title, is brought in too late in the story. Readers would buy it based on that aspect and I feel it is something that needs to be presented from the start. Also, try not to add things just to make it convenient for the way you want your plot to go.

For example, there is too much focus on how they got to the town, making friends on the internet etc. We like to see the story start in the action and stay there, any backstory must be limited and certainly not found on the first page. Plus overly descriptive passages of hair in the wind, the sun and such is not needed. Pare back to the bare skeleton of what you need readers to know to tell your story. Cut anything that does not move the plot forward, including characters and conversations. Dialogue is always a tool and never just a conversation about everyday things. Use the dialogue to reveal something about the plot we didn't already know, or to let us get to know the characters more intimately through their words and reactions.

Research your topics too, make sure you have a good grip on life in that era, and on the native link.

Good luck, and keep writing, it's the best way to learn. This is from our publisher point of view, and for the type of works we publish. Another publisher might be different. Feel free to submit any future works, we'd love to hear from you again. Just be sure you follow our guidelines for submission, the main ones being 12pt times New Roman, RTF file, single spaced lines, 0.3"indent on first line on paragraphs, no line space between paragraphs, put you name and contact details in the top left hand corner of you manuscript, and no other fancy stuff like headers, footers or tabs, and only press enter when starting a new paragraph.

Regards

Wendy Mackrell

Aquisitions

Midnight Showcase Fiction



I thought this was pretty cool of miss Wendy to do for me and it has inspired me to get back on the horse and do some more editing. Maybe I should pare it all the way down to a real short story instead of the novella that it is. It would mean shaving off several thousand words, but that might be what it needs to keep it nice and tight action-wise. If anyone is interested in reading it and possibly giving me feedback that would be great. Maybe miss Wendy is full of it in someone else's opinion. Maybe it's darn near perfect just the way it is. I'd love to know what people think.

On other fronts, my forehead is feeling pretty fine after surgery last Monday to have a benign lump called a lipoma removed. They gave me lots of fun drugs and did a good job of it. They went in from just above my hairline so I won't have a scar anyone can see on my face. I've seen surgeries like this done on the tube before and went for it when the doctor gave me the option. It just feels kinda freaky.

I've also met a nice man on the internet (CL) who apparently has a harem of women to go through, so I don't know if I have a chance with him, or that I would want one quite frankly. It's interesting the way he talks about the other women he has to weed through as if it's a chore on a list. I think I may put him down as vain and move along. It would just be nice to have a sweetheart. I've been alone for a while now and miss having a lover. There is one gentleman who's interested in me, but baby, there ain't no sparks! Ya know what I mean? Ya gotta have those sparks!


Until next time.......

Writing

I've been writing since I was a young girl, scaring the begeezus out of my teachers with my horror stories. Horror is still one of my favorite genres, but right now I'm finishing up my novel Quantum Earth. I'm very excited about it and feel confident I'll get a lot of rejection slips. Then one lucky publisher will see how wonderful it is and want to publish it.

I've also written a three act play called Angel in the House and a novella (very hard to place) called Native Vengeance. I think my next project will be some nonfiction narrative since it's in such high demand.

Here's my query for Native Vengeance

What would happen if a woman came to visit a town that didn’t exist?
Meg is enticed to a small, New Mexico ghost town, made to feel at home, but slowly realizes everything isn’t as it seems as the townspeople cunningly keep her and another “guest”; a man named Josh held hostage to await a fate that has continued for centuries. They will eventually come into direct confrontation with the forces of evil. How can they escape the terrible destiny that awaits them when they are being watched closely by the people of this town in the main town hall at a “re-creation” of a disaster that happened over two hundred years ago?
The true terror of this novella builds with excruciating tension as the reader foresees the horror to come. The wrenching suspense lies in whether Meg and Josh will realize what’s happening in time to save their own lives.
This story leaves one with a true sense of horror embedded in the seeming ordinariness of the world we think we know. The result is terrifying.

This is my fourth effort as an author. I’ve written a nutrition course for the Humboldt College, also a three act play named Angel in the House, and a novel named Quantum Earth. This novella contains about 17,000 words.

I hope you find Native Vengeance (working title) intriguing enough to consider by your firm. I look very much forward to hearing from you.

Here's my query for Quantum Earth

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and hurricanes are on a sharp rise. Whether this is due to the Greenhouse effect, Native prophesies from the Hopis, or predictions from the Mayans that the end of the world will happen in the year 2012, Drs. Mel “Hawk” Hawkins and Shauna Troy, along with their handpicked team of researchers are out to find the answers.
Going on the assumption that there is a metaphysical link to all of this, they plan to interview the dead who didn’t survive disasters through their very own trance channeler, Noah Meade. An entity known only as “Jackson” comes through Noah when he is in trance to find out if the negativity of human thought creates what happens. Do we create our own realities?
A mysterious rich investor comes through with financial support for their endeavors. But who is he and what does he really want?
Shauna and Hawk step into a world in which they will eventually come into direct confrontation with the forces of evil. As their investigation progresses they begin to understand that what they are dealing with has been in the stars for centuries. Hawk has a theory of how to stop the oncoming cataclysm. The true terror of this novel builds with excruciating tension as the reader fears for the possible reality that the world is truly coming to an end for humans on this planet we call Earth.
The wrenching suspense lies in whether Hawk and Shauna, along with their research team will be able to figure out whether there is any way to save us all.
This story leaves the reader with a true sense of mounting terror embedded in a supposedly ordinary world that we believed would be there for us forever. The result is horrifying.

This is my third effort as an author. My previous works are an unpublished novella named Native Vengeance, and an also unpublished or performed play called Angel in the House.

So far I am near the end of writing this book and am at 50,000 Words now.

I hope you find Quantum Earth (working title) intriguing enough to consider publishing by your firm I look very much to hearing from you.

So far I must have sent out 50 queries to agents and publishers for my novella and gotten a dozen very kind sounding rejections. Most of these were submitted through email. I've only queried a couple people about my novel since it's not finished. It should be done within the month, editing and all. Then I'll put it out there. Anyone interested in reading these please let me know. I'd love the feedback.

I'd like to recommend the site duotrope for finding sources for publishing.

til next time...