mizpriz30

I don't know why this question got removed before. Please, don't flag it. I'm looking for answers and closure in my attempt to heal from an abusive marriage.

I've been divorced from him three years. He was verbally and emotionally abusive, yelled and screamed at my kids and me about anything, and showed signs of becoming physically abusive. He was always right, nobody could tell him anything otherwise. If I caught him doing something he knew was wrong, he would act like I didn't exist and just not speak to me until I gave up.

His father was horribly abusive when he was a child, beat him, screamed, swore, beat his mom, told him he was worthless, etc. He seemed quiet and sweet when we were dating, but started to become more and more abusive after we were married until he greatly resembled his father. Also found out that he and his father are pedophiles, which is when I took the kids and left.

We have no contact with him now, but I wonder what a psychiatrist might diagnose him with (narcissism, borderline personality disorder?).

My daughters have already given detailed statements to the police about what he did, and the detectives told me the next step is to speak with him. He refused to speak to them without his attorney, so now we're waiting for a warrant to be served. It's been over two weeks since I've heard anything new. I didn't know it took this long to get a warrant, and meanwhile the monster is walking free thinking he got away with it. I want justice for my children. I can be patient, but I would like to know if the case is moving forward at all or if we were forgotten.

I just found out my girls' grandfather has been molesting them. My husband and I have filed reports against him at the police station, and the girls are going in this week to talk to the investigator assigned to their case. We're pressing full charges and hoping to have him imprisoned, and we're looking into counseling and support to help them heal and hopefully not be scarred by what he did. I just want to know what to expect next. What kind of trial is done when children are involved? How long will it last? Will CPS investigate us?

This is the second time the truant officer has pulled my 12yo out of class because she'd been sick for a few days. The first time was in the fall, when she'd been very ill with salmonella, and we provided doctor notes and worked with her teachers to get her homework caught up. She then went a long time without missing any school, but had the flu last week and missed 4 days. I called her in each day, and we got another doctor's note.

So today the truant officer pulled her out of class to have a private meeting. He told her he doesn't believe she was sick all the combined days that she missed this year. He said he thinks she was lying to us about being sick, and put her on a 20-day monitor. He told her if she misses any school in the next 20 days, she'll have to go to court and they'll get CPS and school police involved. She came home crying and scared to death.

She already has problems with mean girls, and I think the officer pulling her out of class in front of everyone will make things worse. Her classmates are going to label her as one of the bad kids. She's never cut class or missed school for any reason other than being sick.

Is there anything we can do as parents do prevent the truant officer from harassing my daughter in school without us present, and without getting child protective services involved? We've done nothing to deserve being treated like we've committed a crime or are neglecting our children's needs.

I've only seen it listed a couple of times in an agency's submission guidelines that once you're rejected by one agent, you're to consider it a rejection by the entire agency for the same work. Likewise, I've read only a couple of times where it's stated that it IS okay to query another agent for the same work if the first agent you queried doesn't feel it's right for him/her. All the other agencies I've researched don't say anything one way or the other. So if an agency has several agents that represent the kind of work you're writing, is it generally acceptable to query a different agent in their company for the same book, if you've been rejected already? (Not at the same time, of course, I do know that much. LOL)

Excluding a professional yet personal greeting, and the closing paragraph, here are two variations of the current query letter I've been sending out. I'm almost constantly revising it, because I'm hoping to polish it with as much of a hook as possible, in order to get *someone's* attention in the agency profession. So there's a short query, and one that's a bit longer; I decide which one to send depending on each individual agent's preferences and submission guidelines.

I need to know: If you were an agent, what would you think is boring about this query, what sounds exciting, what else would you like to know about the story, could anything be cut out, or is there anything else that should be changed?

The first:

When sixteen-year-old Nissa Moss stumbles upon an invisible gate to another world, she becomes the unwilling recipient of an ancient magic that's larger and more dangerous than she can comprehend. As her late-night visits to Aronaur become more frequent, her falling grades and problems with her family are the least of her worries. In addition to a force of demonic creatures that relentlessly strives to capture anyone bearing magic, a growing faction among her newfound peers believe her presence is endangering them, and they'll stop at nothing to make sure Nissa never returns to their world. But repeatedly drawn back by the Gate against her will, Nissa must learn to control her new powers to either save the Fey people, or to live a normal existence in her own world.

In the tradition of Holly Black or Terry Brooks, The Moongate is a spirited, humorous, and sometimes heartbreaking adventure in a magical realm that forces a teenage girl to become a woman--likely to capture the imaginations of fans of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Inkheart, or Harry Potter. Although planned as a series of three books, The Moongate can stand on its own.

***

And the second:

Long ago, the wielders of great magic, the Fey--fairies, dragons, and mythical creatures--did exist in our world. But they removed themselves from Earth to escape a great evil. In the New World the Fey protected themselves with a magic Wall that hid the very existence of their realm, Aronaur, from their enemies. But the Wall is old and failing. The demonic Dark Fey are stirring, sensing the existence of magic that they must steal to survive. Those who can protect Aronaur--the powerful Faeirth--have turned their backs on the Fey, choosing instead to hide in their own protected worlds.

One of the ancient Faeirth had encapsulated and hidden her powers on Earth before succumbing to the Dark Fey. Her magic has waited centuries to be released, find a host, and re-emerge to help the Fey when they need it most.

Sixteen-year-old Nissa Moss becomes the unknowing recipient of Faeirth power. In addition to the dangers the Dark Fey present, she finds herself the target of a growing faction against her, led by an embittered dragon who has his own reasons to resent a human intruding into their lands. Unwilling to face the challenges arrayed against her, Nissa must weigh the life of a world against her own desire to live a normal human life.

In the tradition of Holly Black blah blah blah...

An agency I'm querying says in their submission guidelines to send "a sample chapter." They're not clear whether they want the first chapter or just any chapter of the book. Is it okay to use a chapter that I think puts my book in the best light possible?

I'm rewriting my first book, and hoping to get it ready for a big writer's conference that's coming up. I use a word for a race of beings, of which the main character belongs to: Faeirth, which I was planning on simplifying to Faerth. Unfortunately, I recently found out this word is very close to a word used in the Eragon books--fairth, which is a kind of magical painting. I'm not a fan of the Inheritance series, which is why I only just now discovered the similarity.

Should I change my word? I've been using it so long (3 years to be exact) that it would seem like changing the name of a main character I've been working with for years. But I suppose I will change it if I must. If it matters, my word is a major title in my book--but the magical painting doesn't show up very often, as far as I know, in the Eragon books.

This girl was talking trash to two of my daughter's friends, so my daughter stuck up for the other girls and told her to knock it off. Now anyone who has said anything to this mean girl is her target. Tonight at a church function of all places, this girl tried to shove my daughter with her shoulder as she walked past. When and how do I step in as a parent? My daughter hasn't really had any problems with bullies up until now, so I'm not sure how to handle this. I want my daughter to be able to resolve problems on her own, but I don't want this to escalate. So far nothing physical has happened except the attempted pushing, and my daughter and her friends have stepped out of the argument and are trying not to aggravate the problem. This girl seems to like to attract drama to herself and keep the conflict going. (They're all in 10th grade.)

There's a little opening covered by a metal plate on the floor of my fireplace, but I've been reading that it could be an ash dump. When I opened it the other day, a lot of cold air rushed in (along with even more cobwebs). There's a little metal door at the bottom of the chimney outside which I'm assuming is the air inlet access door, but other than the opening in the fireplace floor, I can't see where this door leads to. How do I use the air inlet? The fires I build aren't very long-burning, so I'm thinking I must have an air problem.

For the past few days it's been doing this. When it kicks on to heat the house, there's a rather large burst of fire and a huge FOOM noise. Then the pilot light usually blows out. My husband turned off the gas yesterday, vacuumed and cleaned out dust, etc., and plans to replace the filter. But it still does this. Any ideas what could be wrong?

My book's current word count is about 128,000 words. I'm rewriting, and trying to shorten sentences, cut out unnecessary sections, etc. but it's hard. I go to a professional writer's group, and a few members have read the book, as well as a couple of book-loving friends that I trust for their honesty.

One of my readers, an author and editor (and also the most brutal of our critics), has said that my book is marketable and well-written, but it needs to be cut to about no more than 100,000 words. There are a few scenes I could cut, but the other readers have expressed dismay at my threat to cut these scenes - although they're not exactly necessary to move the story along, they say these scenes add to the story in character development and personality.

So a question for the authors: how do you reduce the size of your books during the rewrites? Already I've cut some of my descriptive passages to almost nothing, and I'm not overly descriptive to begin with. I don't want to pull all of the personality and scenery out of my book just to keep it a certain word count.

I just bought some earrings with 12-gauge posts, thinking they wouldn't be too hard to put in. I got one earring in my left ear without too much trouble, but I can't get the other one in my right ear. I haven't worn earrings in a while, so I had to use a traditional-sized earring post and push it through very hard before it would go in. I've been coating the post and my ear with Neosporin, and I can get the earring almost all the way in, but there's a last bit of skin that it refuses to go through. It's bleeding a little and really hurts. Is there any safe and easy way to get it through? They're the only earrings I found that I liked, and the surgical steel is not hurting my left ear at all now that it's in. My ears are very sensitive to most types of earrings, which is why I don't wear them often.

I have a nice playlist with almost 200 songs, and would always play it from Myspace, but now it's not allowed. I've emailed Myspace, but they won't answer my question. I know I can play it from Playlist.com's site, but it was convenient to just play it from one of my pages instead, so I'm just wondering.

I'm 35 and have had tonsil problems for years. The turbinoplasty is supposed to help me be able to breathe through my nose better. My doctor tells me it will probably be the worst surgery I've ever had in my life, so I'm nervous. Have any other adults gone through this, and what can I expect during the healing process? I can't even sleep at night if I have a sore throat - which I do often, right now actually, since I'm always getting tonsillitis.

My doctor has been very thorough and helpful, but I just want to hear from people who have been through this.

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop. One of my kids spilled syrup on the left mouse button, and now it's so sticky underneath that the button hardly moves. A damp cloth can't get under the button where the problem is. Is there any way to take the laptop apart so I can clean the stickiness off under the button?

My husband's grandmother gave us her piano a few years ago, and it was never tuned because none of us played. I don't know when it was tuned before then. My daughter is starting to play, and it's very out of tune. I'd just like to know how much to expect to pay to get it tuned, and is piano tuning a tippable service?

I want to send an email to a good friend of mine who recently moved back to Mexico. I don't trust the Spanish to English translator programs to not mess up what I'm saying. He can speak perfect English, but I want to tell him in his native language. Along with "I miss you very much," I also want to say "I love you" which I think is "Te amo" but I want to be sure, in case there are differences between saying it in a friendly vs. a romantic way. He is only a friend. Thanks!

Since I've written my book in first person, I'm trying very hard to avoid my main character being misinterpreted as the dreaded Mary-Sue. I certainly don't wish I was in my character's place or had her experiences. LOL I especially don't want my character to come across as another Bella (the horror).

I've seen the Mary-Sue tests, but they're mainly targeted toward fan-fic. I'm interested in hearing advice about this from authors and people in the publishing industry.