Two Announcements

First, quickly, my daughter Madison is being interviewed by Natalie at Literary Rambles today. But first, if you have a moment, please stop by Middle Grade Madi, and say hi!

Second, today Sheri Larsen is celebrating signing with Literary Agent Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary! And she's holding an epic giveaway celebration:

Here are the details:

Giveaway #1:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway #2:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Grand Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck to all who enter!

Noah Lukeman

Today's post will have to be quick because I am still working on Guinevere's guest post for tomorrow and I need all my free time for that but I just quickly want to say how cool Mr. Lukeman is.

I'm sure you recall I discussed that seemingly strange email that I received from him yesterday. Well I was suspicious enough of it for whatever reason that I replied, asking if it was really him and what the catch was. This is how he responded:

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for writing.

Yes, this is really me. There is no catch: I am just trying to do my best to give back to the writing community, in whatever way I can. I am always happy to give away whatever free material that I can, and to see authors prosper from it. Feel free to let others know.

Best of luck in your writing.

Best wishes,

Noah Lukeman

Sure, it's short and sweet but I checked out all the links he provided yesterday and they are legit, and in fact they are also some very useful resources for us writers and even though he has written several successful books on writing Mr. Lukeman is still giving some of these ones away for free.

I do find myself sometimes wondering how they find the time to do it. I mean people like Nathan Bransford, Kate Shafer Testerman, Kristin Nelson, and of course Noah Lukeman are some of the most successful agents in their industry, reading literally hundreds of thousands of query letters ever year, numerous manuscripts as well, and yet they still find the time to give freely of the knowledge they have worked so long and hard to earn.

I would just like to take the time to say than you.

Any thoughts? Please don't forget to come back tomorrow.

I Won't

I won't gush I swear I won't, but something funny did happen yesterday. I wasn't too worried when I actually wrote yesterday's post (right when I got to work at about 5:50 AM) but then by noon there were only two comments ... and I started trippin!

Go back here and read my comments from yesterday for a little more insight but basically blogger had broken or messed up for whatever reason and the comments simply weren't showing up yet. Then at about 12:30 I realized what a knucklehead I was being when all the comments showed up and everyone basically confirmed that I was acting a fool. It was all pretty silly but I do have to say it feels good to know that people do read and do give a shit. I know I certainly do. So thanks.

Then last night when I got home I found this potentially awesome but initially strange email in my Gmail inbox, from Noah@Lukeman.com:

I thought you might like to know that over the last several months I have made available (and continue to make available) much free information to help the writing community:

* My book, HOW TO WRITE A GREAT QUERY LETTER, is available as a free download at www.writeagreatquery.com

* My blog, ASK A LITERARY AGENT, is filled with valuable advice to help aspiring authors in their careers. Feel free to visit it, and to ask any general questions you may have about writing or publishing www.askaliteraryagent.com

* While there, you can also sign up for my free monthly ezine, which is filled with unique tips for authors.

* I have made available over 100 free pages of excerpts from all of my books (including THE FIRST FIVE PAGES, THE PLOT THICKENS, A DASH OF STYLE and HOW TO LAND (AND KEEP) A LITERARY AGENT) at www.noahlukeman.com

* And feel free to follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/lukemanliterary

Best wishes,

Noah Lukeman

____________________
Noah Lukeman
President
Lukeman Literary Management Ltd

At first it totally looked like spam but after investigating it a bit I think it may be real. The only thing is I have no idea how he got my email address as I don't believe I ever queried him. No matter, I'm going to look into it more today because if it's true that's pretty cool and these may be some great tools for writers. If it's not, whatever.

Has anyone else out there received an email like this?

And in other, totally unrelated news I am currently reading three novels. The first is the Celestine Prophecy, which I first read in the 90's when I was young and impressionable. I realize that originally this book was supposed to forward a kind of new age agenda, but if you take it at face value and just consider it a fictional adventure it's not a bad story.

The second is The Ranger's Apprentice, which my daughter loaned me, and which is a sort of unique blend of high fantasy and young adult. I'm only two chapters in but so far it is pretty good.

Third my colleague at work has loaned me his copy of The Girl Who Played with Fire, Book II of the Millennium Trilogy, which I have blogged about before. I read the excerpt at the end of the first volume, which was chilling, and now, even though I don't know about all the hype connected to these books, I am excited to get into this one.

So there you have it. I'm over my irrational fear and self loathing from yesterday and I promise not to jump to conclusions when blogger breaks down in the future. What's up with you all?

UPDATE EDIT: I looked into the email and it's not spam. Check out some of those links for great writing resources from Noah Lukeman!