The story of the cellular biologist

As I was writing the book a week and a half ago, someone suggested I move up a mention of the raw milk story earlier in the book so that it would appear in the first 60 pages. Since raw milk and raw milk cheese is kind of hot right now, I figured that would be a good idea.

So I decided to make Carl's roommate a raw milk cheese enthusiast. But I wondered, would a biologist who actually studies milk (of the bovine variety) dare to drink raw milk or eat raw milk cheese that had only been aged 30 days, against FDA regulations?

I needed a biologist familiar with raw milk to help. I asked my wife if she knew any biologists. My brother-in-Law Tim is a Biology major, but I needed someone more focused on cellular biology. Polly said, "Yes, I know a biologist. I don't know if she'll remember me."

A quick Google search and she found the woman's name. We called her. She answered. When I described the question of whether this guy would actually risk consuming raw milk and that sort of thing, she said, "This is right up my alley."
Turns out she knew plenty of scientists who drink raw milk and eat raw milk cheese. Turned out to be a great resource. Chalk it up to guided serendipity. I told her I'd send a copy of my manuscript as soon as its done.

Continued tweaking on the Book Description

I have renamed my book. It is now called Raw. I also tinkered with the description some more to fix some parallel structure problems and add a reference back to Carl at the end to make it feel more coherent.

My book, Raw, is a comedic novel about Carl Krauthammer, a 38-year-old who drops everything to do with his life and moves to Manhattan, Kansas. His move uncovers the town's deepest secrets, including an underground dairy dealing in illicit raw milk cheese, a militant wing of La Leche League that performs light domestic terrorism, and a formerly-respected author who thinks Carl can help him restore his missing mojo. It's a complete novel of approximately 73,000 words.

I am also considering adding this line:

I know what you're thinking. Set in Manhattan, Kansas? Raw milk cheese? Militant lactivists? How many times must we endure this old story? But I urge you to please take a look.

Is it too flip?

I was supposed to be done with my book today, based on my anal-retentive schedule I made a couple of months ago. Instead, it looks like it will be completed by the end of the week. As my friend Whitney Terrell said a long time ago, "The changes you will make at this point will not change an agent's decision to take on your book." They'll either like it or not.

My plan is to send out query letters along with the first 60 pages. Seems logical. It's not like they will throw out the query letter just because I enclosed some of the work.

So my plan is to get the query letter and the sample out beginning Monday. I have had feedback from 6 or 7 people who have said they will pass it on to their agents. That's great news. A friend of a friend may be the way to get this thing published.

Next I will tell you the story of how I found a biologist to help me work raw milk into my book earlier than previously planned.

According to a new study, 86% of Americans are satisfied with their jobs. In fact the average job satisfaction rate has not dropped below 82% since the study started in 1972. So how does a story's headline to an article describing the study read? "American Workforce Surprisingly Satisfied."

Nothing about the results are actually that surprising. Perhaps it's the headline-writer who isn't satisfied. No wonder. Think about how thankless the job must be? You do your work right and no one notices. Do they give out a Pulitzer for excellence in headline crafting? I think not.

And when you do it wrong, everyone notices. Here's an example: "Clinton, Edwards butt heads."

I'll bet the world's headline-writers fall in the 4% who are extremely dissatisfied with their jobs. Maybe even worse than coal miners or honey wagon drivers.

Progress Report: With all of the first day of school events this week, I was still able to get some writing time in. I am crossing the 100 page mark on draft 3. Right on schedule for the mid September completion date.

At this point I have four people with agent contacts who have expressed an interest in passing my stuff on. This is great news. I won't have to go in completely cold, at least to these agents.

I'm working up my query letter.
I will post portions of it as I get it finalized so you can see how I'm approaching the selling of the book. It's kind of a tough sell, because while it takes place in a college town, I would not really call it an academic novel like Straight Man, Moo, or Wonder Boys. For one thing it is completely from the student's perspective, rather than the professors' point of view. It shares a setting with Moo, but without the midwestern mocking.

I am confident that if I can get the right agent just to read the thing then I have a good chance. It's possible some will dismiss it out of hand because the academic novel is viewed as trite. That would suck.

Enough navel-gazing for today. Sweaty lint. Eww.