Anything worth doing...

As I work my way through the goals that I set for myself this week, I've had to conclude that my expectations are unrealistic. Although I worked far ahead on my assigned readings, as I began to research agents to query this afternoon, the impossibility of having 20 queries out within a week assailed me . . . and that's okay. It really is true that anything worth doing should be challenging. I researched for a solid hour this afternoon (solely in my Writer's Market) and didn't even make it out of the B's. I really want to do this right, however, so I believe that it was time well spent. Right now I am just reading over the agent entries and selecting agencies that accept the following: New, unpublished authors, YA literature, and Fantasy literature. Once I have compiled a list of possibilities, I will have to research each one on the internet and check submission guidelines. Then it will be a matter of writing a good, strong query letter that I can tailor to each individual agency, and putting together a profession book proposal (for those that will accept it). All things considered, it's a long process. I'm going to sit down this evening and rewrite my query goals for the week.

With all of these things to occupy my mind, I think I'm entitled to a little recreation as well, wouldn't you agree? Unfortunately the object of my summer movie-going is still a couple weeks off, and I'm hoping that my anticipation of the movie will not eclipse the movie itself. I'm speaking, of course, of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I understand as well as anyone that film-makers need to make changes from book to script, but I've failed to understand (in the last three movies) the addition of story elements in lieu of tried and true elements from the books. Do the film-makers not realize that what makes Harry Potter beloved to the fans is . . . Harry Potter? I, for one, certainly do not go into a Harry Potter film desiring to see something new and cutting edge; I want to see the stories that I love come to life. With any luck, this most recent installment will not disappoint.