Sorry it took me so long to respond to everyone's answers to my question on Friday. This was a weekend from hell, which included a 6-hour cleaning session in my daughter's room. She takes after my brother, who wouldn't clean his room for months at a time, until he ran out of clothes and had to do laundry. She's kind of gotten him beat in that she's got millions of little Barbie pieces and beads and crap that she like to just spread all over the floor along with so much trash, and her idea of cleaning is shoving everything under he dresser, her desk, her book case, in the toy box, in the closet, and under the bed.  We spent all Saturday cleaning the house and then about half of Sunday finishing up, for we were having family over for a birthday party for Gaaron. I can't remember the last time I had so little fun....

Anyway, thank you everyone for contributing your thoughts on series fiction. I'm going to just answer everyone's posts here, so folks don't have go back and find the other entry.

[Unknown LJ tag][Unknown LJ tag]

I spent most of my day reading agent blogs...well, Nathan Bransford's in particular, whom I've decided that when the time comes I will query regarding my novel. He seems like a nice, personable guy who'd be nice to work with (and he's pretty darn funny). I should probably be making some personal notes about each of these agents, things I notice that could help me craft queries specifically for them (like NB despises opening queries with rhetorical questions. Not that I would have, or had even contemplated doing so....). Barring any sudden inspiration on the short story front, I'm probably going to spend this week researching agents and reading blogs and getting a feel for who's out there and who I might eventually want to approach for representation. I also talked myself into joining Pike Peak Writers, which hosts an annual writer's conference in Colorado Springs which I'd like to go to but am glaring at the $300 price tag. I don't feel anywhere ready to have a one-on-one with an agent or an editor, and the thought of reading any part of my novel aloud in front of a crowd for an agent or editor to critique makes me physically sick to even contemplate. Or maybe I've been hiding on the internet too long and have forgotten what it's like to be in a face-to-face crit group like back in college (though in college there's was always the comfort of knowing that 90% of them didn't know anything useful about writing and took the class thinking it would be an easy 3 credits.). If I decided to go this year, it would be only in an observational capacity, but I'm not sure if that's worth $300 bucks plus hotel. Anyone been to the PPWC and care to share their experience? Or to any conference for that matter?