{"id":704,"date":"2011-11-25T12:24:23","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T19:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=704"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:27:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T20:27:12","slug":"finding-mr-or-ms-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/finding-mr-or-ms-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Mr. (or Ms.) Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_705\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-705\" class=\"lazyload size-full wp-image-705\" title=\"michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_(1)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_1.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"542\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27700%27%20height%3D%27542%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20700%20542%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27700%27%20height%3D%27542%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_1-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_1.jpg 700w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">michael_willmon_prehistoric_bar_scene_1853_32_(1)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Finding an agent is like looking for Mr. Right in a singles bar \u2013 you are constantly buying new shoes with high heels that kill your feet but make your legs look luscious (fuck-me shoes, we used to call them) and you spend hours and hours practicing your pitch line, trying to sound confidently sexy but a little off-hand, never desperate, and getting your hopes up, up, up only to be told yet again and not in so many words that well, you\u2019re kind of cute but there\u2019s no chemistry here (meaning, you\u2019re too old, too fat, too dated and most importantly you can\u2019t make me enough money because frankly my dear, we\u2019re all gold diggers.)<\/p>\n<p>I once had an agent but we broke up, amicably, like mature adults (unlike my first ex-husband who held a gun to my head when I tried to leave him, but that is another story altogether.)\u00a0 I am considering joining \u201cE-Lit Luv\u201d an on-line dating site to find another pimp, I mean agent.\u00a0 You see, this whole thing feels kind of greasy and sordid but here I am, blushing and batting my eyelashes, looking rather too obvious in my fuck-me heels, trying once again to find Ms. or Mr. Right.<\/p>\n<p>Seriously,\u00a0 I have just signed onto\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/agentqueryconnect.com\/index.php?app=portal\">Agent Query Connect.<\/a> a real on-line dating site for authors and agents.\u00a0 Already I\u2019m hyperventilating, I\u2019ve got cotton mouth, those little white flecks of dried spit collect at the corners of my mouth.\u00a0 My armpits are drenched and I am sitting in my pajamas in the privacy of a hotel room!.\u00a0 Yet in my imagination I am back at the erstwhile Maui Writers Conference giving my pitch to Wendy Lipkind Black herself after my manuscript won the grand prize that year, way back in 1996.\u00a0 Actually that year there were too grand prizes awarded, the contest was declared a tie.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, that interview came to naught, although Wendy would have been a dream of an agent.\u00a0 She sent me a book one of her clients had written to show me what it was she was looking for.\u00a0 I believe if I had landed Wendy Lipkind she would have been my agent for the rest of<a href=\"http:\/\/lunch.publishersmarketplace.com\/2011\/05\/people_217\/\"> her life<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It took nearly 40 years to get lucky at love but when it comes to my lit-lover, the agent-of-my-dreams, I&#8217;m still looking!\u00a0 And yes, I&#8217;ve got something in the works, I am pregnant, so to speak, another kid on the way.\u00a0 Knocked-up and single &#8212; yet ever hopeful.\u00a0 All I need is the right pair of shoes!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Red.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload alignright size-full wp-image-707\" title=\"Red\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Red.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Red.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27200%27%20height%3D%27300%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20200%20300%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27200%27%20height%3D%27300%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Red-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Red.jpg 400w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finding an agent is like looking for Mr. Right in [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[28,30],"class_list":["post-704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-publishing","tag-literary-agents","tag-maui-writers-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1125,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704\/revisions\/1125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}