In Making a Literary Life, the book I mentioned in my last post, author Carolyn See talks about the power of the Charming Note. She suggests a five-day a week habit of two things: 1) either writing 1000 words or doing two hours of revision and 2) sending out a Charming Note to a writer, editor, or agent you admire (that does not ask a favor).
So after I wrote about Making a Literary Life, I thought I’d send Carolyn See a Charming Note about how much I loved it, and include a link to the post. Guess what? She wrote back! How great is it to get a Charming Note responding to my Charming Note about the Charming Note’s author of a book about Charming Notes?
While I felt like a heel because I implied it was her book that spooked my long-lost friend, and while being described as "chipper" does nothing for my Street Cred®, Ms. See’s Charming note was a fantastically charming treat:
Dear Christy!
That's the cutest damn thing I ever saw! (But I can't help but wonder what spooked the other woman so much!)
Thank you, dear. You were just so sweet to write it -- and to send it to me. Might it be possible to connect on to my web site? I don't know how to do that, but if I forward it to my web master, might she glue it on somehow?
I love the rest of your blog too. It's so chipper!
Many, many many thanks...
xxx
Carolyn See
Write what you know. It's a cliché, but you can turn it upside down--trust your own crazy uniqueness and don't write what everybody else is writing.
If you want to know what everybody else is writing, check out the slush pile title list just released by excellent, and I mean excellent, Virginia Quarterly Review.
It's a rare glimpse into the rejection pile, revealing that "the ten most common titles of submissions" were about memories, fires, divine inspiration, and rebirth.
This one is for all the science fiction buffs, the kids who never quite grew up, and the fans of childhood movies. The Last Starfighter: The Musical! The SciFi Scanner has links to Starfighter video game and soundtrack for the true believers. (Thanks, SF Signal)
Finally, Paper Cuts just re-reviewed Cormac McCarthy's hardboiled crime classic, No Country for Old Men. His link to a McCarthy essay in The Believer has riled up the comments section, it's worth reading this literary squabble about the merits of this tough-as-nails writer.
