So...This Was A Draft...

There is nothing like an injury to put life into perspective.  Ok, it is only a minor injury, nothing to worry over.  I won't get into the gory details or bore you with hypothetical accounts of how it could have been so much worse.  The point is that I have so many things that I want in my life, and I'm not doing anything about it.  I go to work, I come home.  I have my family and volunteer projects, but I am not doing anything for myself.
So, after a few months (or several) of being more crushed than I would admit about my first rejection, I set myself up for a couple more.  I received a very nice reply yesterday about how agenting is subjective and though my ms wasn't right for her, she wished me luck and sent me back out into the world.  I will find the right agent, I just can't give up.

I think about author Mike Mullin (ASHFALL and ASHEN WINTER) who tells of being rejected by all of the agents he queried before finding his publisher.  ASHFALL has since garnered much critical acclaim and awards, which you can read about here.  Perhaps middle grade is harder than YA, unless you are JK Rowling, but even she had to endure rejection in the beginning.  I can, and will find the right people to help make this book happen.

Back to researching agents.

Why not just query publishers?  I have thought about it.  I feel like going the agent route is right for me.  I want someone who has knowledge and connections in the world of publishing.  It is a big, scary world, the world of publishing.  I want a navigator.

In the meantime, I will continue to write/edit/rewrite something completely different.  I have to get back into a regular schedule.  Blogging helps keep me focused, even though I do it only sporadically.

So, A Funny Thing Happened

No, really.  It was a very funny thing.....or not so much.  Once I had a blog that I loved.  I sometimes used this blog to make contact with others.  It was fun.  I miss my blog.  I still write blog posts in my head as I fall asleep sometimes.  *sigh*

So guess what?  I'm back!  (hopefully in a regular way)  Oh blog, how I have missed you.  I perused a couple of past posts.  Not bad.  So how is it that it has been ALMOST TWO YEARS since I have posted?!?!  I'll tell you.  Tis a sad tale.  If you look at the last post you will note that I had sent a query to the literary agent whom I had all but cyber stalked, you know, to make sure I was querying the right one.  Well, as you can imagine, I was rejected, and looking back the book wasn't ready.  It really wasn't.  Really.  Just because my sister and cousin loved it didn't mean it was ready.

So, I did some editing, some re-writing, and then I queried a few more agents at a time....and was rejected.  I just checked my list, and it has only been 8 rejections in total.  What have I been whining about? Time to dust off and get back on that horse!  I still love this book, and think it is worthy, but I have other stories in me that *need* to get out.  I shall get back into a writing routine and set aside time for more revisions and more querying and all of that.  I even have a list of people I'm planning to send to next, so look out literary world, I'm jumping back in.