Baby steps…

by | Writing

So I passed the first chapter test with the editor, and she wants me to send the full! It is nice when someone else likes what you’ve written. Much nicer by far than the more-typical “doesn’t do anything for me” or “doesn’t quite fit what I represent” , which I’ve seen a lot this year.

That’s okay. Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes. After looking over the second book in the series, I know I’ve got a lot of rewriting to do (yeah, been lazy on that one) but it’s all there. I just need to align it with the changes I made in the first book and expand, expand, expand. Easily done, and in a world I’m truly in love with, so there’s that. Not a hardship, at all!

Then there’s Kellan’s story, which I haven’t even started on – and I think that one should come before Mephisto’s story, in the grand scheme of things. Of course, I’ve got the short story that kicks the whole thing off, but that too could use major rewrites. Or even, maybe, a full novel…we’ll see.

There I go, dreaming again…as long as I’m dreaming, I may as well dream with my fingers on the keyboard, yes?

It’s not all rejection, all the time.

by | Writing

I am no longer over the moon when I get a request from an agent or an editor, as I’ve been rejected a lot this year and the bloom is off that particular rose. However, it does put a tiny spring into my step for the rest of the day.

One of the professional organizations I belong to had a blog pitch session with an editor of a highly regarded publishing company. While I didn’t totally wow said editor, I did manage to impress enough that I was asked for a partial. Rather than rush to send the partial last night, I did some thinking, rewrote the query letter, sent it to a friend who has not read the book, and finally got the okay on the query. So this morning (after another read-through of that all-important first chapter) the partial will be sent. Officially off my plate and out of my memory. On to the next project.

So for a hard slog of a year, it’s not all rejection, all the time. Which is enough to put a smile on my face.