In Which I Talk About Some Things and Not Others

We'll start with what I'm NOT going to talk about. I'm not going to talk about the fact that after a month of querying, I'm starting to get a little neurotic (because I've done really well not being neurotic all this time, so hey, a girl can only last so long, right?). I'm also NOT going to talk about the fact that my laptop screen has started coming apart from the keyboard part and I'm going to have to buy a new one even though everything else is perfectly functional (It's a Dell, btw. My new one will most definitely not be).

What I AM going to talk about is characters and how much I love mine. Non-writers and readers would probably think it's nuts to become very fond of a fictional character. But since pretty much all of you are writers or at least readers, I know you feel me on this one. Anyone who follows a series has experienced that connection with a certain character, and you get to debate which ones are your faves. Like the fantastic Edward vs. Jacob fights, or the Harry Potter fan fiction where people have Hermione end up with Harry instead of Ron.

But when you're the writer, and you create these characters, it's even more awesome and that connection is so much stronger. Over the course of 300 or more pages, you get to know these creations really well. Lately I've been realizing I really miss Eva, Seth, Ambrose, Elspeth and the rest of my cast from Countless. I placed that book on the back burner to work on Martinis with the Devil, and it's been more than a year since I've touched it. Later this year I plan on rewriting the whole thing in first person, and I can't wait to get back into it. And now, as I'm querying Martinis with the Devil, I think about how awesome my MC Zyan is. And the whole point of querying is to find that agent that falls in love with your characters and your book as much as you do. So, here's hoping I can stay sane until I find that person.

What's one of your favorite characters that you've written? Anyone else looking for an agent love match right now?

Are You Good at the Juggling Act?

I've sure got a lot of different writing projects going on right now. It's fun, but I've been juggling for a while, and I'm ready to put down a couple balls. Here's what I'm up to right now:

• Querying Countless, my first urban fantasy novel 
• Working on the first draft of my middle grade fantasy novel (75% complete)
• Working on the first draft of my second urban fantasy novel (15% complete)

I'm doing lots of research on the remaining agents on my query list, so I can write sparkly personalized query letters and hopefully get some bites. Two agents still have my full right now, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that. I have a list of 15 or so agents I'm going to query soon, and then I'm taking a break on that for a while. I have a goal to finish my middle grade fantasy on August 20th. I know that's a totally random date, but it's just because I'm off work that week, so I'll have lots of time to be able to wrap it up.

Then! I'm going to shift all my attention to my second urban fantasy. The voice for that one is so clear, it's been practically burning a whole through my brain for months now.

So, what about you guys? Do you find yourself working on multiple projects? Do you like it or not? What're you working on now?

Silence So Loud

I haven't gotten any rejections since May 17th. I guess that's not really that long ago. Nine days. But who's counting, right?

It's not like I want to get rejections. But when you hear nothing, you just get a little paranoid. For instance, remember how my email got hacked? And I sent all of my email contacts emails saying to please disregard any previous emails with strange links? Well, of course there were no strange links in any queries I sent. But what if the agents misunderstood? What if they blocked my email? What if all the agents have blacklisted me because someone sent spam emails from my email address????

I don't really think this has happened. Well, the first one I kind of wonder about, if they just deleted my query because they thought in my second email I was saying it was the spam email. The rest of it I know is not logical. But that's just how paranoia works. It creeps in. It's usually not logical.

I am staying busy writing on both my MG book and my new adult book. And truly, I'm not obsessively checking my email or having constant meltdowns. I’m pretty chill about querying, since I've been at it awhile. But the last couple days the silence has been eating at me just a little...I don’t want to hear bad news, but hearing nothing at all is sometimes worse.

So, who else is walking through the frightful realm of QueryLand? What amusing paranoid thoughts are you having?

Neurotic Behavior Coming to a Writer Near You

So, writer friends, I am back in the query saddle.

That sentence deserves to stand alone, doesn't it? Do you hear the dramatic music playing in the background? Like the Inception music. Deep and dangerous, and you just know something scary is going to happen.

I've sent out six queries in the last four days. I already got one rejection (gotta love those supersonic ones). At first when I send them, I feel this excited little ball of hope rise up inside me. What if this is the one? What if an agent writes me back and says, "I really like this. Send me more!"

I know it will happen one day. And I also know it's unreasonable to really want this first book to get published (I've written a lot of others, but this is the first finished one). But come on, let's get real. Of course I want to get an agent for this first book, and of course I want it to be published! I'm willing for that not to happen, but I'd really love it if it did.

So of course the crazy is settling into my brain. The waiting. The heart-lurching that occurs every time I see I have a new email. The dreams. Yep, even in my sleep I'm dreaming about agents. I dreamed one agent said he liked my book, and he said it was because my main gift was my "colorful" writing. In the dream this made total sense to me, but when I woke up, I was like "huh?" What the frig does that mean? It sounds the same as when someone says something is "interesting".

The whole thing's a total thrill ride. So if I seem weirder than usual, you'll know why! How about you? Whatcha up to? Anybody on the query roller coaster with me?

Recipe for a heart-racing, knot-in-stomach, loss-of-breath good time

1) Decide to do a major rewrite of your novel.

2) Begin said rewrite and get really psyched about it. Your novel rocks so hard now that you are doing this rewrite.

3) Proceed merrily along for over a month, editing your happy little heart out. Man this is fun.

4) Do several different types of outlines to make sure you’ve covered all bases, there are no glaring gaps in your story. Do some character profiles while you’re at it.

5) Abruptly discover that you are done with all editing and it’s time to start querying again.

6) Feel the butterflies attack your stomach. It kind of feels like they are nibbling away at your insides.

7) Open up your last query letter, which you wrote randomly a couple weeks ago while in your oh-so-happy artistic editing stage. Still happy with it.

8) Fire it off with great gusto to a new agent that is looking for books just like yours.

9) Ten seconds after hitting send, discover a glaring redundancy in use of phrase.

10) Begin to doubt the entire query letter, which moments ago you loved.

11) Stare at the query letter for half an hour, then avoid anything productive for the rest of the evening.

12) Wake up the next morning. Realize you’ve got to get back on the horse. You’ve edited your brains out. You’ve now entered a place where you are simply stalling to avoid rejection.

13) Obsess over your query letter for just a few more minutes. Feel a glimmer of hope. Mostly, know that you must have faith in yourself and your writing.

14) Ignore the butterflies, and fire off some more queries.

*Editor's note: I wrote this about ten days ago when I started my latest round of queries. Coincidentally, the query that made me write this (with the horrific glaring redundancy) is the one that the agent ended up requesting some of my pages. Now, whether she will like my pages is still a story to be told.  But this is just another bit of evidence that agents are humans after all and will forgive some of your errors.  Unless you are in The Matrix, in which case agents are not human and they will kill you.

Heehee, couldn't let that one slip by ;-)

Staycation!!

I have the whole week off from my day job!  Haven't taken a full week since December, so I'm really stoked - not going anywhere, just staying home.  Today I did some shopping and bought Paranormalcy.  It was really good, and I finished all 335 pages.  Contented sigh.  I love a day lost in a book.

Yesterday I sent off some more queries... I'm at a total of 25 sent so far.  I've gotten 15 rejections and am awaiting response on the other 10.  According to Janet Reid, the Query Shark, if you don't get any bites with 25 submittals, you're doing something wrong.  This is fairly disconcerting to me, of course.  On the one hand, I respect the hell out of JR, but on the other hand I hear so many stories of people querying far more agents than that.  What do you guys think?  At what number do you concede it's time to regroup and try a new strategy?

Oh, and here's the nibble for the week:

As the man came closer, each footstep was like a clap of thunder. She could hear his breathing now, slow and steady, the opposite of hers. He was practically upon her now. Five feet. Two. One.

With a whoosh of air she felt the man glide past her and saw out of the corner of her eye a flash of moon pale skin not hidden by the dark cloak. She wondered if her face held a look of horror or of determination as she battled for self control. Something flew between them, like two lightning storms converging together in the same sky.

Query Crazy

So, this weekend I fired off four new queries, and did some rather exhausting research on Writer's Market to come up with a list of another fifteen agents to begin querying next. Oh, the fun. I've already gotten one rejection... but, the good thing about that is it doesn't feel quite so devastating as the first few. I can handle it calmly without feeling really personally put out.

So, today I promised to do nothing pertaining to my book other than write this post. I took my time doing normal stuff like make dinner, read the mail, help my son with his book report. Now I'm about to take a bubble bath and read Alice in Wonderland (which I picked up the other day; never read the whole book), maybe drink some wine, and then paint my toenails. Good night!