Why many agents ask for the first chapter only, rather than offer an alternative, e.g. 5000 words? My first chapter is rather short (1200 words). Should I send two chapters or stick to the rules? #writingcommunity

My beauty! 😍🐸

Trump is pulling a Brexit style shooting-myself-in-the-knee sort of thing with the tariffs 😉

Every time I hit 'send' on another query, I just know it’s doomed - wrong country, wrong demographics, wrong career profile. Still kinda fun, though. 😅 #writingcommunity

The White House suggested that Zelensky resign to invigorate peace talks. I think Putin’s resignation would be far more helpful.

So east Germany is the rust belt of Europe. Similar grievances, similar resentment, similar affinity towards populism. And similar lack of answers from the left.

What Trump, Vance and Musk don't realize is that by trashing Europe and Europeans they are basically galvanizing us and creating a much stronger European identity.

So, the plan is to give it a year to find an agent, though I suspect agents may be hesitant to take on authors from countries like mine for English-language commercial fiction. If it doesn't work out, I'll self-publish and see what happens 🙈 #writingcommunity

So in the next 5 years AI will overpower humankind OR bird flu will wipe out 70% of humans OR I should get more positive? 🙈

Thanks, great advice! 😍

I’d say my Mark has more of anot to do list

I feel you

😂

All I'm hoping for is for them to reach the first 10 or 20 pages of my MS and not get stuck at my bio, or so. 🙈

Thanks, this is comforting. 🙂

So one misplaced comma or a clumsy sentence in a query letter supposedly makes a book agent scream in pain and toss the whole thing before even glancing at the synopsis? That’s what I’m up against? #writtingcommunity

Trump banning AP for using the Gulf of Mexico name and calling it ‘commitment to misinformation’? Wow, this is getting properly Orwellian!

Congratulations! 😍

A cryptic stranger, a relentless killer, and a love caught in the crossfire—Mark must untangle the truth before it destroys him. Looking for representation! #writingcommunity

Trust me, editing makes things soooo much better, cutting stuff out in particular. Well, at least in my case.

It’s done! Finally finished my mystery thriller. Years in the making, a million edits. The final manuscript is barely related to the first draft. The discovery phase? Fun. The polishing? Brutal. And now…the hard part begins #WritingCommunity #amwriting

Edit baby edit. A message to myself.

Interesting, until the DeepSeek the profiteering logic of capitalism worked in favor of developing (training) AI models and now it suddenly works against it. Ergo, you can never predict what effect capitalism will have.

If someone told me 20 or 30 years ago that the U.S. would be governed by oligarchs, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. But I would expect them to be oil tycoons or Wall Street bankers, not sneakers wearing techies.

Torn between finishing a report, a journal article and a novel in a space of 3 months. ChatGPT suggests I use my fresh morning brain for the novel and leave my tired evening brain to deal with the reporting stuff. As to the journal articles, they always get de-prioritized anyway.😏

Me, struggling to finalise my manuscript, also me me enthusiastically working on the prequel..

I feel you

Soon humans will not be the most intelligent creatures on the planet. What should we do? I think assuming the role of cats in relation to AI would be a nice strategy. 🐱

I find it amazing how AI programmers are coding their own demise and act so giddy about it.

Trump coming into office, a friend lost their home in LA, David Lynch passing away… I’m having a crapy start of the 2025