Who I Turned Out To Be
Aug. 30th, 2006 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_pretentiousThanks to everyone who offered advice when I was so stressed out about the bio the agent asked for. Thanks especially to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anghara and matociquala, who were generous with their time, even though they were both just barely home from WorldCon. The only useful thing I have the power to do for them in the spirit of reciprocity is to exhort everyone I know to rush out in a frenzy and buy their books, so here I am, exhorting you.
They really are quite lovely books.
Anyhow, in case you're curious about what I settled on, this is more or less me:
Sarah Avery grew up as an army brat on bases in Kentucky, Japan, Korea, and Germany, with a stretch among civilians in Maryland. She studied creative writing at Vassar, did a brief stint in the MFA program in poetry at Johns Hopkins, and then moved to New Jersey to earn a doctorate in English literature at Rutgers. There, she taught courses in poetry, mythology, and creative writing, and taught hundreds of freshmen in the composition program, until she left academia and started a private tutoring practice so she could have time to write fiction. As a scholar, she has presented papers at national and international conferences, including the Parliament of the World’s Religions; as a member of her local community, she has run a poetry series for three years, presenting award-winning poets to an audience of devoted regulars; as a fiction writer, she has spoken at Writer’s Weekend on imagery, grammar, and the care and feeding of writing groups. Her poetry has appeared in Calyx, Free Lunch, Feminist Studies, and The Beloit Poetry Journal. She lives in New Jersey with her husband of many years and their cat.
I went back and forth about using the word brat, because it does seem too informal, but really, the term army brat has centuries of use behind it, and the more formal designation, military dependant, sounds painfully bureaucratic. In the end, I had to decide that I don't mind being a brat who made good.
Now it's time to go back to freaking out about fixing the synopsis. I need to email these out tomorrow morning.
At least now I know that the 1000-page-capacity manuscript mailers I ordered have been shipped, just in case there's anywhere to ship the 900-page ms. Finding a mailer that will hold more than 500 pages turns out to be surprisingly difficult. When I gave the box manufacturer my email address, he said, "Yeah, we get a lot of .edu addresses around here." Somehow, I'm not surprised.
anghara and matociquala, who were generous with their time, even though they were both just barely home from WorldCon. The only useful thing I have the power to do for them in the spirit of reciprocity is to exhort everyone I know to rush out in a frenzy and buy their books, so here I am, exhorting you.They really are quite lovely books.
Anyhow, in case you're curious about what I settled on, this is more or less me:
Sarah Avery grew up as an army brat on bases in Kentucky, Japan, Korea, and Germany, with a stretch among civilians in Maryland. She studied creative writing at Vassar, did a brief stint in the MFA program in poetry at Johns Hopkins, and then moved to New Jersey to earn a doctorate in English literature at Rutgers. There, she taught courses in poetry, mythology, and creative writing, and taught hundreds of freshmen in the composition program, until she left academia and started a private tutoring practice so she could have time to write fiction. As a scholar, she has presented papers at national and international conferences, including the Parliament of the World’s Religions; as a member of her local community, she has run a poetry series for three years, presenting award-winning poets to an audience of devoted regulars; as a fiction writer, she has spoken at Writer’s Weekend on imagery, grammar, and the care and feeding of writing groups. Her poetry has appeared in Calyx, Free Lunch, Feminist Studies, and The Beloit Poetry Journal. She lives in New Jersey with her husband of many years and their cat.
I went back and forth about using the word brat, because it does seem too informal, but really, the term army brat has centuries of use behind it, and the more formal designation, military dependant, sounds painfully bureaucratic. In the end, I had to decide that I don't mind being a brat who made good.
Now it's time to go back to freaking out about fixing the synopsis. I need to email these out tomorrow morning.
At least now I know that the 1000-page-capacity manuscript mailers I ordered have been shipped, just in case there's anywhere to ship the 900-page ms. Finding a mailer that will hold more than 500 pages turns out to be surprisingly difficult. When I gave the box manufacturer my email address, he said, "Yeah, we get a lot of .edu addresses around here." Somehow, I'm not surprised.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 04:57 am (UTC)"army brat" is the proper term for the kind of childhood you had; variations on "dependent, minor, on-post" are not only too cold, but don't do justice to the idea of having more addresses than most kids have close friends.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 05:13 am (UTC)Amazon.com boxes repurpose beautifully as manuscript mailers.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 05:54 am (UTC)And now we know why someone's out of bookshelves... [grin]
no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-30 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 01:59 am (UTC)It sounds good though, dr_p. I'll be sending "pay attention" vibes to Shiny Agent. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~