Help me choose an opening

I got a rejection that got me thinking today. The rejection said the concept for my book is good, but the writing in the first few pages didn't blow her away. I realized that the prologue was the first thing I wrote for the book, and that was nearly three years ago now. I've done some tinkering with it, but never really gave it a full rewrite. So, I came up with a whole new prologue to my book. The IDEA is the same - the plot is the same, but I changed the perspective and the way I gave the exposition that is essential for the rest of the book. The new version is half the length which I DEFINITELY think is good.

I've had a feeling for a while now that the prologue might be what's holding me back, and I'm wondering if my new attempt might work better.

Anyway, I don't want to say any more to skew results. I'm a bit leery of posting the prologues, so if you are willing to help me and read the two versions, leave a note in the comments (if I have your email already, great), or if not please email me at jason.flum@gmail.com and I'll send you the two versions.

Thank you in advance....

Men men men men

In response to Megan's blogpost found here:
http://meganrebekahblogs.blogspot.com/2010/04/where-are-men.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MeganRebekahBlogs+%28Megan+Rebekah+Blogs%29

(Megan, I'll take it down if you want me to, though of course kind of the point is hardly anyone sees this anyway)

I really think the reason men don't blog is very simple: it's a lot of work. Mind you, I said we're lazy, but it's not really just LAZY. The fact is, there's only so much time in the day, and what's available for writing is even more limited. I have 8 followers so far - one's my wife, one's her friend, and one's my sister.

The only reason I really keep this up to any degree is that one day I do hope to be a professional writer, and Caitie tells me having a web presence is important. Maybe one day people will find this blog and look back at it and think, "Wow, he was an idiot back then, did you see that crazy Lost theory about the numbers?"

Or maybe not.

But the point is, there's so much WRITING I want to do, and time IS limited.

So, back to the book....

Wherever you are....

If you can, vote "yes" for your school budget. If you value education at all, vote yes for your school budget. If you care for your neighbors, your children, your town, your own wallet - whatever the reason may be - vote "YES" for your school budget. But damnit, go out and vote!

planning and waiting

It's been a while since I've written. To be honest, last week was very busy for me with writing. I've been working on what I suppose is my second novel, and it's going fairly well. I got about 20 pages done last week, and am really getting towards the meat of the story. I seem to keep proving to myself that outlining just wouldn't work for me at all -- I come up with most of my best ideas on the fly (it's how I like teaching, too) and outlining really limits my creativity. I don't think I'd have come up with half the ideas I did had I pre-planned them. That said, I DO have a general idea going in, and I am always working towards an end goal (though that end does tend to alter as the story does if need be).

I'm still waiting to hear back from the agent who has my full. It could be any day now, given the timeline I was given. I'm on pins and needles, I'll admit. All I can do is keep hoping...