I am beside myself with excitement. My novel, Coming from Nowhere, is now available in paperback. You can get it here: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Nowhere-Pembroke-Sinclair/dp/1616582774/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258652100&sr=8-3

As usual, I would love to know what ANYONE thinks. Enjoy!
To continue my tangent from last week:

Also in this article on Agent Query that I read, they mentioned that one of the reasons agents don't respond to email queries is because they don't want to invite dialogue. This I completely understand. If Agent A sends Author B a rejection, and Author B thinks Agent A should reconsider, what is stopping them from hitting Reply? If it's a letter, it's more difficult, though not impossible. Why do authors do this? It's drives me crazy! Take the "No," shrug your shoulders, and send it somewhere else. After all, it's not a personal attack on you, it's a business decision. Quit wasting the agent's time with your piddly B.S. If they wanted it, they would have told you that! You arguing with them isn't going to make them want to read it; it's going to make them black-ball you.

On the other hand, I don't think this should stop agents from sending some kind of response to let the author know they received the query. So one silly author sends you a reply and demands that you look at his fabulous work, so delete that one. If he keeps sending you stuff, block him as a sender. It can be that easy.
OK, so I'm having a cranky day, so I'm going to go off on a tangent. A few weeks ago, I was reading an article on Agent Query, and it was giving authors advice on not requerying or sending another email to ask if the agent received the first one. Basically, it was saying that agents are doing authors a favor by letting them send email queries and that these queries are a step above spam. If an agent decides not to respond to these emails, then the author just needs to accept that and move on. I have a couple of issues with this approach: 1) as the world continues to go paperless and technology becomes more convenient, it is not going to be a favor for agents to do this, it's going to become the norm and 2) it may only take a second to delete the email (which most do if they are not interested), but it would only take two more to hit Reply and say "No, thank you" (or if they're real short on time, just "No"). Not only would it give authors piece of mind, but it would cut down on those unwanted extra emails asking if they received it.

I know agents are busy, and I know they need to focus on their clients, but authors need to know that their work hasn't been lost to the void. If nothing else, have the assistant who is stuffing rejections into envelopes take some time out of their day to type a quick "No." It can be that easy.
I went to see Paranormal Activity this weekend. It wasn't bad, but there was nothing in it that made me jump. I could see how it would freak some people out, but I don't scare very easily. Every time I watch a movie like that, something bizarre happens. For example, when I watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose, for two nights, my phone would go off randomly at 3:00 in the morning (if you've seen the film, you'll understand the significance). When I got home from this movie, the door that leads from my house to the garage was open. Naturally, the first thing that popped into my mind was that I had been robbed, but everything turned out all right. Then, the next night, I went to check the computer, and everything on my screen was upside-down: the desktop, the web pages, everything. Do I think it was supernatural? No. I'm pretty sure I didn't close my garage door all the way, and I'm positive my computer has a virus. But it got me thinking: does weird stuff like this happen to me all the time but I don't notice it until I watch a movie about demons?
As those of you who read this blog know, I recently finished a zombie novel that I have been shopping around to agents. Well, some of you might not have known that the novel originally started out as a short story. A dear friend of mine, Dave Byron, originally had the story published in one of his issues, which was only available in print. Now, he has reprinted the story on his website, and it can be accessed here: http://www.freewebs.com/deadman59/pembrokes.htm. The title of the short story and the novel is "Life After the Undead." Things have changed slightly since I wrote the novel, but this is where the idea originated. I would love to know what you think.
While we are on the topic of the SyFy channel, does anyone know why they changed their name? I mean, doesn't "SciFi" portray the types of shows they produce? They do fantasy, also, but "SciFi" is kind of all inclusive. I don't know, "SyFy" kind of cheapens it for me.
One of my favorite shows on TV right now is Destination Truth on Syfy. If you don't know what it is, this group travels around the world looking for mythical creatures and ghosts. As you can imagine, they rarely ever find anything, but the host, Josh Gates, is absolutely hilarious. I watch it just for him; he cracks me up. A lot of the times, they travel to remote areas that have real dangers. Forget the mythical creature that might rip their face off, they go to rain forests where panthers and tigers live and to the wilds of Alaska where wolves and bears outnumber people. If you ask me, they should be more afraid of the real creatures, but they don't really seem to mind. So, my random thought of the day is: Do you think the Destination Truth team carries guns? On the one hand, you can argue that they need to so that they can shoot an animal if it attacks, but on the other, what if they have someone with an itchy trigger finger? They are wandering around in the dark, and if someone gets scared, a team member could get shot. I don't know, the argument could go either way.
Pembroke Sinclair's books on Goodreads
Life After the Undead Life After the Undead
reviews: 55
ratings: 100 (avg rating 3.64)

The Appeal of Evil The Appeal of Evil (The Road to Salvation, #1)
reviews: 38
ratings: 63 (avg rating 3.54)

Wucaii Wucaii
reviews: 32
ratings: 35 (avg rating 4.11)

Death to the Undead Death to the Undead (Sequel to Life After the Undead)
reviews: 20
ratings: 39 (avg rating 4.23)

Dealing with Devils Dealing with Devils (The Road to Salvation, #2)
reviews: 22
ratings: 32 (avg rating 4.00)