K.E. Skedgell

E rr, or maybe not. We all know what 2020 has been like so I'm not going to go there. However...ugh! It was the beginning of the new Roaring Twenties. It was supposed to be a good year. Only it has been so tiring, so frustrating, so...so... Anywhooie! Back in May I attempted fate and sent out my query letter to seven agents. Five rejections and two CNR's was the result. I know it wasn't very many to judge by what my failure could have been. Maybe wrong timing, maybe it wasn't the query letter but the sample pages that made them go, not for me. Who knows? Agents don't usually tell you why they reject, if they even respond. I have been wanting and meaning to rewrite the query letter but my desire just hasn't been there, especially after going back to work at the end of May, and work for the past few months had been chaotic to say the least. Things are simmering down though, and now I'm starting to think about that query again. This time of the year should hope

B ack in 2012 I posted progression photos of a pencil drawing I was working on of Oscar Wilde. I've worked on a few other drawings since then. Drawing is something I don't do much anymore. I may create one finished drawing a year. That was the case last year, although I did start another, but I have yet to finish that project. 2019's pencil drawing was of 1920's actor and heartthrob Rudolph Valentino. I was on a Valentino kick, watching every movie that he starred in that was available on YouTube to watch, and I wanted to draw him. I found a still of the movie Blood and Sand that I really liked, and proceeded to draw it, in both graphite and colored pencil. Most of the photos have a yellowish tint because of my dining room lighting, and because of the shininess of graphite the darker areas in the drawing may not show as dark from one photo to the next, something I can't help. I started the drawing in early December 2018, set it aside for a few weeks, and when I got

Q uick update on the book: -It's finished, as you know from my last post (we won't look at the date for that). -It's had betas and been edited to the best of my ability, although I still tinker with little bits here and there. -I've written the materials needed for querying after spending what seems like too much time learning to write them, such as: the query letter, synopsis, pitch, bio. -Sent said materials out to a few agents to see how things roll. I'm already thinking about tweaking or rewriting the query letter. I don't update this blog very often because anything I want to share or say gets put on Facebook where it's faster and more convenient. I don't have a Twitter account but have thought to open one, only because it seems to be a preferred platform for agents, writers, etc. I don't know, I'm still up in the air on that. Last year my hometown had its sesquicentennial (150 year) celebration, and because I had written a book that takes p

Y es, I had finally reached the end. Back on the 18th. I'm a little late with the announcement (not that anyone reads this blog), but I finally did it after nearly six years of on and (mostly) off writing this novel. It is not done, there's much editing and research and filling of gaps to do, but I reached the end of the novel and I'm glad but sad at the same time. The editing process has already began and I hope to get it into the hands of betas by summer, and while that's happening begin with the torturous task of writing a query letter.

J ust sharing photos of a 1929 Apex radio I picked up a couple of years ago because I thought it was cool. It doesn't work, and I don't have the money right now to have it restored to working order at the moment, but hopefully in the future I will. Most of the inside parts are there, the power supply I was told is shot. I don't know if it is fixable, I know nothing about old radios, but what I do know about old electronics is DO NOT TURN THEM ON WITHOUT HAVING THEM SERVICED FIRST OR THEY MAY FRY! Anyway, the radio:  The receiver is on the top, the power supply on the bottom. This was done like this for one year only, 1929. That's how I know the year. It was unusual to have the power supply separate from the rest of the chassis. Original plug and wire has seen better days. The cabinet is in great shape. There's a glass ring on top and some nicks on the corners, and the speaker mesh is stained and has a couple of holes, but for the age it&#

I 'm stuck, ladies and gents. I've been working on this epilogue for a month, off and on, now, and I keep thinking this isn't how I want to go with it. I almost have it done, but I've hit the wall, because I know something isn't clicking. I know in my subconscious this isn't how I want it to end. So now, for the last week I've written nothing. I thought to write the different endings I have in mind and pick whichever seems better, but I can't even do that. So what I need to do, I believe, is to start from the beginning, finish up my odds and ends I got stuck on that I skipped over, and hopefully by the end I'll have it figured out. I think I may know the problem, especially with the version of the ending I've started on and have yet to finish. It's with Josef. I've made him soft . He's not soft. He's an asshole. With a soft spot for Millie, and that's about it. So if I go back to the beginning and read through

Y ou did it, Nashville! You made it 150 years! And to celebrate, some of the locals made birthday cake to be passed out via local restaurants and the Putnam District Library. My hometown turns 150 today; here's to 150 more! And from August 2-4, the village will have its celebration with all sorts of events and dedications and a parade and fireworks and things going on. It'll be the most exciting thing to happen in this village since it broke the Guinness World Record for world's longest ice cream sundae in 2016 (and got beaten a couple of years later--we'll be back!). Have souvenir spoon, will eat ice cream. And guess what? I'm nearing the end of writing the first draft of Lake One. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm still working on it. 5 1/2 years later. BUT! I am on the last chapter, with an epilogue and some bits and pieces I skipped left to write. For much of the last year I didn't write squat, but the start of this year I've really been hustling to