wordsmith

There have been many times in my life where I have been a Grade-A pratt. Seemingly more so all the time. I’m hoping my latest will not affect potential publication (also, I know with at least one agent, it cut me out of the running before she would have made it to the second paragraph of my query.
The Men of Myth series’ concept was inspired by Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld series. They are my favorite books (besides Harry Potter). I’ve been following her for at least eight years and have devoured every book she has written (save two—a realistic crime detective series I just can’t get interested in). I mention this in my query (from what I’ve read, it is important to draw some comparison to other works that have already been successful. My dear friend CRL was over Friday with her family and saw the first book, “Bitten,” on my counter. She read the title and the series’ name. As she read it, I thought, ‘Otherworld. Huh… that sounds odd for some reason.’ I didn’t give it another thought besides pushing the novel onto her and telling her she just had to read it.
A few hours after I submitted my final query for the weekend, to the third or forth agent for this round, it hit me out of the blue. Rushing to check what I feared, my heart sank. The series is indeed ‘Women of the Otherworld.’ However, in my queries, I’ve have referred to Armstrong’s books as ‘Women of the Underworld.’ Seriously! What kind of writer do I appear when I can even get the name of my inspiration correct? I’ve referred to that series as Underworld for years. I’ve recommended it over and over. To me, Otherworld sounds incorrect.
I’m sure Kelley Armstrong’s agent, who was my second choice, got a kick out of that—both at how dumb I am and how incompetently I did my research as I picked a series that I pretended to read (let alone love). No wonder she never even responded. Sadly, I wasn’t even that irritated with myself. It’s classic Brandon. Makes perfect sense that I would pull a stunt like this.
You just have to laugh.
Sigh… Onward we go……