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It’s always a good idea to begin your research as early as you can, because A LOT is still not enough. When you round up your data, make sure you check out every website, twitter, or other networking site an agency might have.

To jump-start your research, here are all the resources I’ve compiled over the process of my own querying journeys (also, these sites are free, and a few of them have donation pages or additional services if you do find them helpful):

Agent Query – is a great website with a database of agents. AQ also has additional resources like how to submit to a literary agent and how to write a query.

Query Tracker – is updated quickly, especially when agents close to submissions for periods of time. QT has individual message boards for each agent page so writers who are querying can see approximate and recent response times that other writers are getting. Additionally, agent pages also have graphs and lists of clients and other useful things.

Absolute Write – is a forum for writers that has a whole branch for members to discuss agents, response times, goings-on, so on and so forth. Other helpful threads include workshopping chapters and queries – which, if you’re fairly new to querying, is highly recommended.

Literary Rambles – is a blog run by Casey McCormick and Natalie Aguirre, and they post really sweet, in-depth profiles and blurbs from interviews of literary agents in the YA (young adult), MG (middle grade), PB (picture books) and CB (chapter book) realms.

Writer Beware – is sponsored by the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) with support from the MWA (Mystery Writers of America). They update with publishing scams and schemes and traps with advice on how to spot and avoid them. They also have a blog and a facebook page.

What to do when you’ve finished your manuscript – is advice I put together to help writers to prepare their manuscripts and submission needs. Many writers begin querying before they’re ready.

I need food, even if all you can spare is $2 to help me get ramen. After today’s seizure I was forced to spend money on an Uber that I was going to use to buy a few groceries to get me through the weekend.

Any donation up to $10 will get you 1000 words edited, even if all you donate is $1.Just send your receipt w/ what you want edited to [email protected]. (And if you don’t want editing I’ll draw you a cute animal.)

Julia and Kylie tackle the problems of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, and make a definitive call on whether author George R.R. Martin should be run out of town.

Episode Breakdown:

0:00 – Intro & general problems

11:35 – Portrayals of race & racism

32:40 – Worldbuilding (general)

36:00 – Women in Westeros & Dead Ladies Club

50:00 – Sexism & sexual violence

1:17:00 – Sex & queer rep

1:32:10 – One final ask & conclusion

Robert Jordan taught me how to describe a cup of water.

It seems a simple task. We all know what water looks like, feels like in our mouth. Water is ubiquitous. Describing a cup of water feels a little like doing a still life painting. As a child I used to wonder: Why do people spend so much time painting bowls of fruit, when they could be painting dragons? Why learn to describe a cup of water, when the story is about cool magic and (well) dragons?

It’s a thing I had trouble with as a teenage writer—I’d try to rush through the “boring” parts to get to the interesting parts, instead of learning how to make the boring parts into the interesting parts. And a cup of water is vital to this. Robert Jordan showed me that a cup of water can be a cultural dividing line–the difference between someone who grew up between two rivers, and someone who’d never seen a river before a few weeks ago.

A cup of water can be an offhand show of wealth, in the shape of an ornamented cup. It can be a mark of traveling hard, with nothing better to drink. It can be a symbol of better times, when you had something clean and pure. A cup of water isn’t just a cup of water, it’s a means of expressing character. Because stories aren’t about cups of water, or even magic and dragons. They’re about the people painted, illuminated, and changed by magic and dragons.

I’d like to tell you a story of a woman, kidnapped and enslaved at a young age. Hollywood would be tempted to tell the tale of her becoming a jaded, hardened badass who fights back against such a system, freeing herself and perhaps exacting revenge on her captors. There is an empowerment in that, sure (even if it’s not inherently healing), but in speculative fiction there’s much to be gained from experiencing the lives of women outside of this Stock Type too. Amazingly, the story I’m describing did exactly that.

Okay, maybe that’s dramatic, because we all know the teleporting raven was the true killer here. But with Game of Thrones’s seventh season in our rearview mirror, we can finally look at what’s laughably called the “plot” as a whole. What story showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss (D&D) wanted to tell this year.

Right though? I mean the twincest has been endorsed since the end of Season 4, really. The entire season 5 arc was Larry realizing he should step up and be a good dad because:

Which was like, the purposeful conclusion of Carol’s sad “what has your caution brought you?” point. 

Then Season 6 we had Larry screaming into Edmure’s face about how he’d do anything for Cheryl and it won him Riverrun! 

So yeah, as the Onion said:

Another season, another action-packed final episode. Sorry, did I say action-packed? I meant fanservice-packed.

There’s clearly no way we could have had this grand meeting between the three monarchs battling it out for control of Westeros without at least five minutes on the importance of cocks, followed by five minutes of people walking places slowly and several conversations about when characters spent time together in previous seasons, followed by several more minutes of waiting for other characters to arrive. And then we just had to include dwarf jokes that even the characters thought were sub-par, more sizzlingly sexy interaction between Jon and Dany, and a few minutes of pondering about a more metaphorical state of being fucked.

I’m here to close out the latest Game of Thrones season by talking about the dense, complicated politics the show is known for…which unfortunately just weren’t worth the screentime compared to the above.

The entirety of the steaming Jonerys romance, enjoy.

Because the show’s never grappled with what it means that Tyrion worked for his family to the best of his ability, even knowing the full extent of their corruption and cruelty. The closest we get is in “The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” in a discussion between Tyrion and Shae contemplating them leaving Westeros. In a single sentence (”What would I do [in the Free Cities], juggle?”) Tyrion spells out quite clearly that without Lannister wealth and title, he’s seriously lacking for options and utterly defined by his disability.

It’s been far more common for the show to use Tyrion’s tenure as Joffrey’s Hand to show how Tyrion limited the damage - which undoubtedly he did, but equally, without his able assistance, Joffrey would not have remained king anywhere near so long. Tyrion knew all along that Joffrey was illegitimate, and stayed silent (out of love for Jaime, Myrcella, and Tommen, I would think), knowing the consequences of his silence. And after the Red Wedding, knowing what his father had done and how, he remained in his father’s employ and brought all his skills to being Master of Coin. The show left it at “Tyrion had nothing to do with it, he’s the good Lannister,” rather than dealing with it as knowledge after the fact and Tyrion as a knowing beneficiary of some ugly crimes.

The moment has finally arrived. Dany’s landed on Dragonstone. She’s got her ships. She’s got her soldiers. She’s got her new besties. Team Girl Power is ready to roll out and conquer Westeros. It’s time…

…for a man to tell them how.

Guys…this board was supposed to last us the entire season. Two episodes. TWO episodes.

Well there’s a few options that I see within the realm of possibility:

Every professional critic is a seal-clapping idiot incapable of noticing this (sort of sits in contention with their past bodies of work about other shows, particularly the level of scrutiny a show like Breaking Bad got where people were counting gallons/minute

We’re so committed to negativity over a few issues that pissed us off that we’re seeing issues that don’t really exist, or are overstating the problems in writing (but…but Floor Map)

There’s money to be made in positive reviews, and money to be lost in negative ones, and the critical industry is incredibly cynical

HBO has a strangle-hold on critics somehow

Shock-watching television is a fad that everyone is still taken by to the point where it obfuscates all other issues

Critics are scared of saying something negative when everyone else is positive, because it suggests that they’re wrong on some level

Too many critics have made their brand around loving the show, and are afraid of losing their reader-base (kind of #3 but more personally motivated)

Arya knowing about Talisa, her marriage to Robb, her pregnancy (pretty sure literally no one knew this but Robb), and the manner of her death

Edd knowing Bran having visions about Hardhome makes him a Stark and therefore he should be allowed into Castle Black

Cheryl knowing that Tyrion was made Hand of the Queen & details about her troop movements

The maesters knowing to lock up books about Dragonstone in the Restricted Area for dramatic satisfaction

Sam knowing which books to arbitrarily steal from the Restricted Area

The Arya and Cheryl ones are the most egregious, and I thought about including Thoros and Beric knowing that the Hound would be able to see shit in the flames ~in perfect detail~ but maybe Thoros made that happen? In perfect detail? 

I assumed that Edd let him in out of Jon’s philosophy of “no extra bodies for the wight army.” The problem there is that Bran’s response is a complete non sequitur. “Prove who you are.” “White walkers are coming!” “Um, okay, but my first question’s still up in the air…”

Cersei suddenly having an intelligence network was total BS, you are right. I had a dream last night where I made up a spy organization, complete with contrived acronym, that Cersei invents from scratch. I’m pretty sure it was inspired by me watching way too much Archer recently.

I can see Sam knowing what kind of book to look for, but overall it’s weak writing; the book people are after in aSoIaF is one that teaches you how to kill dragons, not where you find dragonglass, which maesters would consider just a cool kind of rock. Sam should’ve found it in a geology book outside of the restricted area and the Really Big Secrets should be locked up. There’s so much potential with the idea, don’t blow the load in the first episode!