Premeditating Writer

The warehouse was set on a one-way street, across from an empty parking lot. The area was deserted, a spray-painted district of businesses with two story homes in between them. The homes had pitched roofs and small patches of bare land, gated and locked.


Just beyond the gate of the warehouse, she stopped for a moment and tried to orient herself. The building, a large gray structure, squat and broad and defined by a sense of fortification was surrounded by a tall fence and cameras angled from three different spots, one above the door. The building bore the name of the proprietor, Albini, in faded lettering. Lizzie stated the job order to a black-haired woman in a booth and drove in once the gate had lifted.

The dock was to the left. She swung the truck around, shifted into reverse and began backing into the indoor dock – it was like backing into a black hole. But she was good at it. She has always considered herself a good driver, and her clean record and winning competitions confirmed it. She had won two Truck Driving Championships in the Five Axle Sleeper Berth Division and placed second three times. Heck, she could both back a trailer into a hole with one hand and apply her makeup with the other. Often she had seen truckers back up too fast, use too much throttle, until they slammed into the yellow pole.

Now she was even with the indoor dock.

She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind. But when she caught her reflection in the mirror, the fear returned; the fear of strangers. Damn it, it was in the headache she was developing, in the cramping stomach. Lizzie opened the door and jumped out of the cabin. A gusty wind pushed against her, pulled strands of springy brown hair, gathered into a short ponytail, and whipped them around her face. She moved toward the door of the warehouse at a quick pace, trying to look casual. She was dressed in nondescript clothes similar to most truck drivers – sweats, a hoodie, and sneakers. By normal standards, Lizzie was not what anyone would expect a truck driver to look like. She stood five feet tall. If anyone happened to look at her closely, they would notice the scars, the large mournful eyes, the paleness of her skin – but most of all, the scars.

By the door of the warehouse, weeds sprouted from cracks in the concrete. Lizzie cast a gaze at her truck, as one would look at a departing lover. With the help of her father, she had searched for the right truck. It was the sort of a truck that people noticed, that gleamed in the light of day; she scarcely let the dirt and grime sit on its pink paint with the squiggly green, yellow, and purple lines drawn along the sides of the cab. It was a long-haul heavy truck with a seventy-two inch condo sleeper compartment, equipped with two bunk beds. The one on top she used as storage for clothes, newspapers and magazines, on either sides of the bed stood two-tiered twin cabinets. The one on the right held a microwave and a fridge, and on top of the cabinet to the left stood a small television. A drawer and a cabinet held her few clothes.

This had been her home for the last five years. The space was tight, but sufficient. She had enough room to move around and could stand up without hitting her head. From the tractor it took exactly one step to reach the bed. And she quickly accommodated herself to every peculiarity of living in such a small space. When she first bought her truck and took it on the road, she immediately begun to treat it as her home. Except from occasional nights at motels, her truck served as her bedroom, kitchen and sanctuary. No one could barge in the middle of the night to rape her.

The motto inscribed on the back of her Kenworth trailer said, Life Sucks If You Don’t Get It.

I regularly follow other writers and bloggers blogs. The following links will lead you to discover several interesting points that could help you discover a great deal. So pull a chair over, bring your cup of coffee with you and enjoy the learning ride...
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware, she discusses an article written by literary agent Betsy Lerner. "Should I Tweet?"
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/11/tidbits.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AtLastWriterBewareBlogsAcCrispinAndVictoriaStraussRevealAll+%28Writer+Beware+Blogs%21%29

What makes readers have a hard time putting the book down at the end of each chapter? Novelist Randy Ingermanson writes about cliffhangers. Great tips here.
http://pattistafford.com/blog/2010/11/writing-cliffhangers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FreelanceWriterMusiciansWife-PattiStafford+%28Stafford+Scribe%3A+Write+What+You+Love%29

In this blog Terry Burns, an agent with Hartline Literary, discusses when NOT to make inflated claims about your book. Self promotion is good, but make sure you work is totally polishede.
So here is  Agent Terry Burns On: When NOT To Stand Out From the Crowd
https://mail.google.com/mail/?nsr=1&shva=1#inbox/12c682cabdfd1db7

A query is what gets your foot in the door. A query is your novel’s letter of introduction. You want to make a good impression. If the query letter does not hold all the component an agent is looking for, he or she will probably reject you without even looking at the first page of your novel. There is no one perfect formula for all the agents, but there are some mistakes writers make.


Here are a few suggestions:

• Follow the submission guidelines. Read them carefully. If an agent requested the first chapter and synopsis along with your query, include them.

• Research the agent. Check what they’ve published recently. If your book isn’t similar to at least a few books they’ve published recently, it probably isn’t a good fit for that agent.

• Refrain from using rhetorical question. “Will Wilma survive her husband’s constant criticism?” A weary agent will most likely answer with, “Who cares?”

• Please, please, pleases finish your novel before you send out query letters. You run the risk of having the agent suspect that you might be having a hard time finishing it.

• Don’t forget to put a word-count, rounded to the nearest hundred).

• Resist comparing your work to another novel. You don’t want to make your work sound like an uninspired rip-off. Instead, talk about your work.

• Remember to include descriptions of the plot/characters and the main goal and obstacles. After all, that’s the point of the book!

• Be personal and address the letter to the agent by name (with the absolute right spelling) and not, “To Whom It May Concern,” “Dear Editor” or “Dear Agent.”

• And no typos. After all, you are a writer.

Do you have any more to add to that?