You ever heard ants chewing your house down from inside the walls? It’s this faint, constant crunching sound…like Lilliputians eating tiny bites of toast.

If you want to hear it, click this link.*

That’s what was going on inside my brain this weekend.

While this wonderful chewing was happening, I wrote a short story, something I do maybe once a year, maybe only once every two years. I’ve got three to my name — “short story by EJ” — one of them over at RedBubble where I mistakenly posted it for a contest BEFORE they changed the stipulations to read that they wanted flash. I suppose I should go over there and remove it, but…later.

Meanwhile, back to the ants chewing inside my brain.

I wrote the other day (2008/03/28/) about a woman who received an offer for representation IF she changed her MG (middle grade) novel as requested by the literary agent. Among other things, the agent wanted more sex and a fling with homosexuality included in the escapades of the story’s eleven-year-old main protagonist. When the woman complied with “the other things” the agent wanted, but refused to add sex and homosexual activities, the agent refused representation.

That’s the killer for me: THE AGENT REFUSED REPRESENTATION.

Now, never mind my sentiments about whether or not middle grade books need sex and homosexuality in them. That’s for parents, publishers, and authors to decide — yes, authors, too. If that’s what they all want, go right ahead. I certainly won’t buy the book as a present for a child, voting with what counts these days – a purchase. And, if you don’t like the idea, then, for heaven’s sake, don’t buy the book, don’t produce the book, and don’t write it into the book. But the publisher, the parent, and the author all can choose what to do for themselves.

Personally, I’m very glad Suzy_Q stuck by her guns and said, “No,” to that change request. But here’s the killer for me. Though Suzy_Q’s work was good enough to interest the agent IF she inserted the sexual content, why wasn’t the author and her work good enough to sign for representation? Wasn’t the story good enough? If it wasn’t, why would the agent be interested in the first place? Why would a Random House editor be interested in the first place? I mean, what? The only reason they wanted the book was FOR the opportunity to add sexual and homosexual content? This makes no sense to me.

And the ants chew.

So…the story was good enough ONLY if it had sexual content — eleven-year-olds exploring sexuality for other eleven-year-olds to read about? What happened to plot? Story? A riveting read?

Shouldn’t a book stand on the merit of the story with or without sexual content? I know I write my books both ways — the version with more explicitness and the tamed down version. (My finals are usually all the tamed down version.)

And then this question rises: Are literary agents signing the book or the author? Looks to me like it is the book, not the author. Looks to me like the long-term agent-author relationship might be the thing being screwed here. I ponder. The ants are chewing away.

Anybody got any thoughts out there? Anyone have any solid ideas, maybe even answers? I’d sure like to get this chewing to stop.



* Ant sounds are recorded by Adriano Zanni, located at: www.punck.net of http://www.punck.net/soundscapes/ants/index.htm

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