Ayn's Multiple World

Mostly on being accepted for reviewal by a Publishing Agent ... WooHOO!

Good morning this is me. Ok, we’re skipping to some good stuff right away this morning … well sort of at least. We’ve been up for about 45 minutes just catching up with things. We haven’t been over to MP.com this morning. We figure we’ll save those entries for over the weekend.

This is the exciting stuff though. 5 minutes before we left for Dr. Marvin’s we checked our email. Turns out we got an email from the Writers Literary Agency. (WL). It was some very good news, though it’s too early to tell if we’d be accepted, but the thing is they are willing to at least look at our manuscript. This is what they said:

“Thank you for your query to the Writers Literary Agency. Based on your query form information we would like to see your work.”

I about fell off our chair – we had remembered somebody had submitted something to a few places, but we hadn’t directly been thinking of them. In all actuality the other place had turned us down as did several before this from the last attempt closer to Christmas.

I have to watch my excitement because I know they see a bunch of stuff and they have to choose the best of it and I have no idea how close I would be to that. I had sent them a query and in doing that I’d filled out a form. Here I’ll show you the results of that. This includes their original questions and my responses.

Illustrations other than the cover?: no
Edited: No
Salessupport: I can work with you in learning the trade and in making
revisions to the work as necessary. I am willing to give you my 100%
attention and ability.
Bio: I am a successful layperson working for adults with developmental
disabilities and I am a 15 year old mistress who has multiple personalities.
I have a degree in psychology and have enjoyed writing continuously for the
last 6 years.
Illustrations Detail: In successive books electronic pictures are added.
Edited Detail: n/a
Title: Ayn's Multiple Worlds
Synopsis: The work is a daily blogged autobiography of my(our) lives and it
includes discussion on multiplicity, working in the field of Adults with
developmental disabilities, my adult sons and their families and my private
mistress relationship with my best friend of 15 years. This is the first
book covering August 2003 to August 2004. The work has continued in blog
form throughout to present and would be successive books. The writing isn't as much me telling the story of my life, it is me thinking through day to day transitions.
Referrer: Internet search
FormSource: WLWA
FormDate: 3/2/2009

I’m so excited. The next part is to make the next cut … basically I have to send them now a copy of the book and I have to email them the responses to 3 sets of questions.

Would you please answer these 3 questions in the body of the SAME email? (Just copy and paste the questions). And don't stress or take too long, simple answers are fine.

Q1) Think like a publisher/buyer? Pitch me/them. Who would buy this book? Why would they buy it? If you give seminars or talks, mention it here.

Q2) How long have you been writing, and what are your goals as a writer?

Q3) Do you consider your writing 'ready-to-go', or do you think it needs some polishing? If you have been through a formal editing process, please describe it in detail, ie. Name/company of editor(s) etc.

Ok, like this is sounding pretty cool already isn’t it? We figure it is a good sign that they say right up front that they do not charge money for their services up front and instead they only get paid if we publish – and in that situation, they would earn 10% of whatever we made. They said they get to a publisher about 20+ new books a year. They said they aren’t big or small – somewhere in between and they have about 20 employees stretched from coast to coast.

They talked more about their processes and answered a bunch of FAQ. They say they are willing to develop an author if they can answer three questions. Basically,

1. Will the subject matter sell? Is it commercially viable?

2. Is the writing good enough, or would it be good enough with some degree of assistance?

3. Did you as the evaluator like the work and would you believe in it if you were selling it?

They say if we pass this then they’ll figure out if we are a prima donna and difficult to work with or whether we can be flexible. I’m hoping that we can be flexible enough. We’ll have to see. They say the response back after we submit the first three sets of questions will take between 7-10 days. They are not a vanity or self-publisher in any way, nor do they sell to publishers like that.

They give a couple of examples of author’s they’ve worked for in the past … these people seem more scholarly than not. They said their job is to get a hold of a publisher by having a stock of authors that will fit the bill for what the publishers are looking for.

Last they pretty much clear the ground in saying they don’t want to babysit a bunch of nervous-nillies. Well, that might be more of my term for it, but it’s close.

They set some boundaries saying basically that they are very busy people and so you have to work with them on that issue of wanting personal reassurances. So, I guess you gotta hang tough … and one more thing … they don’t want hard copies they want something electronic which is cool for us … we can send the manuscript through an e-mail easily enough.

We figure that we’ll work on it tomorrow morning. There are parts of me that want to do it right away, but then we’d be pushing things because of the time constraints. And, today is going to be a busy day at work, because the training is going to continue and you all know how zapped we get by the end of the day. I figure if you are reading this now we GOT ACCEPTED!! Well, hopefully. Maybe we got accepted, but it was by someone else much farther down the line.

I’m really not sure if we could be accepted, but it is a great feeling knowing that you made an agencies first cut. They ARE asking that we send the material.

You can imagine then that this probably had a good talking through with Dr. Marvin last night and then again with Rich after we’d gone to bed. I really love to talk to Dr. Marvin though I admit that the pillow talk isn’t too bad itself and it DID lead to other natural consequences to which we say WooHOO!!!

I let Dr. Marvin read a printout of the email and he seems to think it’s pretty real too. At first we had a tough time because we didn’t know how to talk about it.

But, then he started asking questions and we were ok again. Part of the conversation was spent while sitting on the front of his couch and there were other parts which included leaning to the left holding our brow with our left hand. We know this to be the signature point of Kate being out. So, we know it’s gotten to the “Big Guys” of our system.

After a couple other parts were out it went to someone who was definitely more mushy and tired sounding not to mention younger. I think we were slap-happy. I think she talked about being punch-drunk. There was some play in there in that we knew that as always Dr. Marvin was paying close attention to us and being conscious of that makes us a little giddy. We talked about looking at him and smiling and the warmth that drew, but also intensity so that we couldn’t take that stance for long. We also seemed to know that that part was what we were really going to remember first.

I think Dr. Marvin does a hell of a lot for us, but it’s this feeling of love and acceptance – umm PROFESSIONAL love and acceptance we love the most. Yup, yup we’re almost up to the 10th anniversary year with him, and we’re still making sure he sits on the other side of the table. He’s making sure of that too so it is not too hard, but just the same … wanted to throw that little note of caution in. He’s a good doctor in that sense in knowing that we’d have to have a very serious boundary – especially after BJ.

Underneath it all … just because we talk about mushy things doesn’t mean we want a mush relationship with anyone except our lover bunny. HMPF!

Ok, you all settle down … let’s not get fidgety, hmm?

I know … I know …

SO anyway, we were saying about last night. One of the ways Dr. Marvin helped us was to talk with us about the three sets of questions. I know that I’m not going to be able to relay them due to memory problems, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to not try. Let’s then look at them again. Hmm?

I don’t think we’d come to any real conclusive stuff about our reader. Off the top of our head, I’d make sure it wasn’t the kind of person who loves Harelequin romances. It’s just not that kind of book. I think we go through most of the first year or so without directly mentioning we even HAVE a lover. I’m not sure if that started with the switch to Blogger or even after that. I’m thinking we started with talking about Rich as Forest Path, and then he eventually became a friend and somewhat boss that helped us out and occasionally too us to dinner, and then I think after he came to live with us and we’d gone private, we’d finally put a name to him which was more real and honest. Just we couldn’t name him before due to his marriage.

Hmm, we’re straying from the point here. The point was thinking as a publisher or buyer what kind of pitch would I make for someone to buy this book?

I think we’d be shooting for a small audience of medical and psychiatric students, in that this isn’t the televised multiple that everyone thinks about … It’s more like a normal person which I think is closer to the truth as to multiples.

I think we’d have to pitch the part of our memory losses and being able to better communicate to each other within the system through the writing. I know that in its simplest form, that different parts contribute and as one body of literature it represents best the sum and substance of the parts. I think somewhere in the pitch we’d also have to say that the book was a work in progress. We haven’t gotten to any certain conclusions because we haven’t yet gotten to the end of our life. If you want to get to those mushy parts spoken almost out loud then you got to pay attention between the lines. I think as a first book out we’d still want the reader to know that we are in the process of having this 15 year relationship with Rich so this would become part of the process and pitch. I’d want the reader to know that a good part of our existence is trying to stay focused at work as a means of having a life. Sometimes it seems to overwhelm, but at other times it carries us respectfully through community service. Yes, it also pays the bills.

I think we’d want to pitch them right away on the fact that Dr. Marvin is around and that he’s been taking care of us long before the writing started so that we already had a good therapeutic relationship. They should know right away that we have been seeing him once or twice a month for almost the same 10 years we’ve been writing.

They should also know that we were diagnosed almost 20 years ago and so we’ve had to pretty much learn to deal with it.

Getting back to the question of who should buy the book. I’d like to think of it as being an audience who were more intellectual and open. No not everyone has to be a young doctor, though I really think we could help those poor people out, but I’d want to have an audience who wouldn’t be disappointed with the THRILLS of multiplicity like the united states of Tara – though still thinking that’s a pretty cool name for their system.

The reader would have to understand that this is a life in the trenches. Hmm, I have to then wonder what it would be they would want to get out of the book, or books.

I think I’m still in the mode that I want people to learn from us. Not how to be better people or anything, because I don’t think of us as being better, but I would like for them to have a clearer idea on an alternative way of thinking or processing life that can be adaptable. And, in truth part of our beauty is that given the situation we’ve been able to make something quite exceptional though obviously ordinary out of ourselves. That’s in reality pretty darn cool.

I’d like for them to know too that this isn’t a story of horror and disgust as far as getting into a bunch of old details. We have a certain few memories or what seem like parts of our past … and we’d want to express them as we have over the years, but those aren’t the important parts of our story other than in trying to figure out how they still make an impression on our life.

We keep avoiding the real question of why would people buy the book. I would like to think we were just this interesting though we have fears of how we get into our obsessions and in that respect we think we are going to lose people without enough patience to get through it with us. It’s not like anything exceptional is going to happen, other than maybe an insight here or there or an event like surgery or CARF inspection. See those aren’t blown up in life major events, though they have meanings to us as in points of interest that seem to motivate and pull us further ahead.

I think too there’s parts about having some of the weight and medical disabilities, but I’d try to go more toward the trying to support others role more than being supported by others. Well, except some number one situation that might encourage us to get back to the gym regularly. HA!

So is there any general conclusion yet in answering the first question? Hmm, basically we’d want an educated audience without the preoccupation of needing to hear another televised super-exceeding version of multiplicity. We’d also like people from the community of those considered disabled such as with depression and obsessive-compulsiveness and those who take care of them in the medical or psychology helping fields. We’d want them to know we are going to be very honest with them through good and band and they’d have to know that we weren’t the typical heroine. We are trying to lead a decent life especially given our unique situation of viewpoint of life but that we have our faults one of which is our relationship of having a married boyfriend. They’d have to understand our priorities of communicating first within ourselves and then secondarily to the people we love and then eventually out to a wider audience.

We have given a few talks on multiplicity or abuse, but they were back in the days of working on our degree. We spoke several times to a woman’s group and televised news broadcast promoting rights of women. In our normal life we don’t discuss often the point of being a multiple though those at work know this. We do give weekly presentations orientated to adults with developmental disabilities through groups, staff training and facility tours for volunteers.

As to the second question … as much as we can do before taking a shower, we’d have to say that we’ve been writing for 24 years when we took our first lessons with Dr. Lordon. We’d written 18,000 questions in 1986 and then have been a journalist primarily with our doctors and lover. We’ve taken a serious stance in writing for the last six years by producing on a most often daily bases “Ayn’s Multiple World.”

The alternative title would the “Journal of Quite Frankly Ann.” We’ve also accomplished half of a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Capella University.

Our writing goals will have to wait for a moment … better not get behind … still a lot of training to do today.

Ok, shower is done and we’ve got about a half hour left. Rich’s been woken and snuggled though we have to admit he’d already gotten to the side of the bed all on his own.

Ok, now as to the goals. The most prominent goal is to communicate to the system of our own multiplicity, to those we love as a form of a legacy, and then to a broader public who might learn more of the order/disorder of multiplicity. I established a mission statement the first month or so of writing the journals. It states:

"I will respect myself by being honest with my thoughts and feelings. I will love myself, my God, my family, my friends, and people I meet along my path. I will honor my freedom and independence and cherish my right to make choices. I will strive to be capable. I will be responsible for happiness, and I will share whatever wisdom I learn in offering help to others."

The expression of our writing is to live out these ideals. I would like people to be more tolerant in their understanding of people who are different from themselves and who have alternate views on life. I write to capture elements of ourselves and to remember the value of our life. I would recommend journaling to those both entirely multiple or singleton.

As to the last set of questions – do I consider my writing ready-to-go or does it need some polishing. We have not gone through a professional editor, but we consider the work almost ready to go. I would accept suggestions on how to better the work though it represents in its present form almost verbatim the thoughts we had as we wrote in a journalist fashion. There has been one editing effort to go through the work looking through standard errors in spelling and in sentence structure. This has been done to the best ability of Microsoft Word spell and grammar check. We have the written material to cover nearly 6 years of writing.

The latter writing is longer per entry where the former writing was narrowed to 2000 characters. After this ban was lifted we wrote as to our available time requirements. The first year has gone through the Word corrections, the following years have been written, but need this form of Word editing to be ready for publishing. Also the later years include many pictures, which are missing from the earlier work.

Ok, this is our first attempt to answer the questions. We are going to need polishing the responses tomorrow – Saturday. I’m so excited for this. I would love to have something published you all know that. Hmm, there’s one other thing I should mention as to what are my writing goals. I would like to become successful enough to make my living through the writing and I would like to have earned enough to purchase our dream home. This is a relatively important goal over this past half year. I would like to think that if I could dedicate myself just to writing that
I would be doing things of interest that I don’t have time to be doing now – especially reading. I would like to think that my life would become just that much more interesting given more choice as to how we are going to spend our time. This is not to say that all this time through working at the center has not been valuable. I would continue if allowed to keep my foot in the door there. It’s just that I have other goals I’d like to accomplish as well.

I think the one goal that has always stood out in my mind was the goal to be reading the great books. But, then again we have as well a reading list left over from Capella which would allow us to become more educated in Educational Psychology.

Hmm, that would be a goal too. It would be nice to obtain a masters degree yet and then optimally one day a doctorate. In this respect, I would like to be successful enough that I could go back and do this and give it the time that it requires.

Hmm, have we gone way overboard in our thoughts here? Just that we are so excited by the thought of having made at least one cut. Whether this one makes it through it or not, we’ve made some progress. We still haven’t read through the books that we got on working our way through writing agencies, but that be an idea to get back into as well. I’d really, really like to make a success of our life and I feel so excited just thinking we’ve made a tiny bit of progress.

As much as our goals have always been to learn about ourselves first, I can’t help but to think we could make a difference too to some outside world. We’d like to progress ourselves, but we’d also like to contribute to all those out there. We’ve got a couple of very real things going for us. We have a sound family and love relationship, we have a decent job, we’ve handled the obstacles of being a multiple, with depression, anxiety, and obsessiveness, and we’ve got long range goals.

We just want to have what we consider a successful life. Ok … with that in mind … it’s about time to get back to the basics. We’ve got a lot going on yet today.

There will be more training, meetings, and sign practice. I can hardly wait now to get back into the day just to get through to tomorrow when I can progress this writing effort toward learning if I can succeed to the next goal of being accepted by a publishing agent. I’ve got great hopes … that be the thing to do, right?

There is so much more to life ... I consider to be who and where I am to be exceptionally cool.

posted by Ann Marie @ 3/06/2009 06:48:00 AM Comments: 0