Stepping Out

So before I got caught up in contest fever, I was writing a series of blogs based upon the ideas and first line suggestions of my Facebook buddies. On deck for that was the post inspired by Avery Debow. She wanted me to use the line ... "It wasn't even my shoe."

So I wrote a poem.

It wasn't even my shoe,
slipped my foot in anyway.
Planned to walk a mile, maybe two.
A stroll nothing more than child's play.
But that ever-changing view,
left me confused, bathed in dismay.

Now I'm no poet. Pentameter, and all that jazz still baffles me, but I am a big fan in taking that walk in somebody elses shoes before you get up on your high horse and criticize.

Right now I'm working on a Post for a friend's blog. Soon as I get it written, and she posts it I'll share the link, but I'll give all of a preview and reveal it has to do with writer's, (specifically unagented/unpublished writers with novelists ambitions) that routinely criticize and blame literary agents for dashing their dreams.

Are there bad, irresponsible agents out there? Yes. They are people in every job that are inept, but if we as writers often get caught up in the notion that agents are some kind of evil guards. The only think blocking entrance into the magical kingdom of publication and that my friends is pure nonsense. I won't say anymore to defend that position until I write that other post, but I have plans to do my part in fostering a better relationship between we, the unagented writers of the world and the agents who simply are looking for books and writers they both love and feel as of they can place with publishers.

I am declaring November 1st, Literary Agent Appreciation Day, and as such I want writers to send me their best story involving a kindness extended to them by a literary agent. An anecdote when an has gone above and beyond to help them out. Especially if they provided that service not as your acting agent, but simply to offer a helping hand. I will post as many as a can that day and hopefully these stories will change the view of at least a few of the most jaded among us. Send those stories anytime to my email travis AT traviserwin DOT com.

And yes, I hear the voices of those very same jaded now. "Sure Travis is more than willing to suck up and kiss the arse of agents now. He just won a contest over at an agents blog and he's feeling the love. But what was he saying last week, last month, last year, when those rejection letters were stuffing his inbox?"

And to that. I say the same exact thing. Don't believe me? Then have a gander at this post titled, Put That Shoe On. And when you do, please take note of the date, April 23, 2007 when I first expressed these sentiments. So yeah I'm feeling good right now, but I truthfully do see agents for what they are supposed to be. Advocates and business partners for we writers who seek to make a living in this very complex world of publishing.