Baby steps, on a query letter…

So, I took the first step into the pool of agents over at Query Tracker…

I already know of an agent who I thought was fab.  The first year I was at the Conf. we were given a chance to set up appointments with a few and, that year, I was skittery and the whole experience was really nerve wracking.  Why I liked that agent was because he was nice.

Except, that was the year my mother-in law passed away of old age — and that year was just one in another of a series of losses which have almost driven me…

I really want the next decade to be a lot different than the last one was.  I do.  It’s going to be 2010.

Anyway, I researched some about that agent, first.  I really liked the fact that he represented such a different mix of people — and I especially like this one.

I wish I were more like her, but, I have less power in huge ways, and especially after the last decade.

This morning there was an obit for the literary agent who was Ray Bradbury’s.  It flashed by in the twitterstream really fast but I read it.  I guess that, that is the sort of relationship I wish I could have with an agent because I don’t think a person should jump around.  I just don’t.

Anyway, that first year at the Conference it was totally fab because the woman who referred me to this agent sort of picked the four I should go see.  And, she was such a great thing for me that year too.  I think I am one of those retiring sort of authors in a way.  In person but not on the page?

Dunno.

Anyway, I never forgot that agent.

But, I am also totally intimidated by literary agents, because of my experiences that first year!

It took until the next year before I gained more courage just to sit there again.

Really.

I have no idea why it is so damn difficult.  I don’t.  Except that, that other client comes from a part of the baby boom that was more force-filled in a way?  If I could, I’d ask her, but there isn’t a contact.  There are a lot of great blogs in the web by agents that tell you what the agent does for the writer — it’s like a buffer?

I’m the kind of writer who needs that buffer.

xxoo!

I do.

I bet the fact that Mr. Bradbury had a great literary agent helped him write the “love” that he talked about into his fiction.  He was talking about that the last time I was at the Conf.  It must be really difficult for him today, and I’m sure that goes both ways — if a literary agent loses a client.

So, reflecting on that.  I’m going to go to her blog and say hi.  I decided.  I love that little new book she did for kids and she would be someone who would understand the deeper ecopsycholgical themes at play in Heart of Clouds.  I know she would.