Tuesday, July 14

Announcement

Listening to: Journey, "Don't Stop Believin'". Oh, hush up and let me have my sentimental fun, will ya? =)

I have no idea how to really start this blog post, so I'm just gonna dive in headfirst.

I have an agent.

As of this morning, I've officially accepted representation from Marlene Stringer of the Stringer Literary Agency. She offered representation based on my novel Grim Light, which many of you kids have watched me write. And I say now, thanks for sticking around through the craziness. And the craziness of querying, and all the craziness in between.

Wait, what am I saying? All that craziness had to be pretty entertaining.

Anyhow...holy tangent, Batman.

So.

The story.

I started querying Grim Light a little over two weeks ago. Yes, I know all the other writers out there want to hit me right now. Please don't hit me! Remember that I've queried three other novels, so it's not like this really happened right out of the gate.

Marlene emailed me last Wednesday to ask for a partial. I sent it and tried to think of other things. I was not successful, but I tried.

Then on Thursday, she asked for the rest.

I was a bit distracted on Friday. I think it took me 45 minutes to load the dishwasher. I would find myself standing in the living room with a dirty cup in one hand and a fork in the other, wondering how I'd gotten there.*

Then I stopped waiting and checking my mail and my phone, because it was the weekend and I figured the chances of getting any news were slim.

Silly writer, eh?

She emailed me on Saturday night, and I got it first thing Sunday morning. She loved Grim Light and wanted to speak on Monday to see if we suited each other.

We're gonna fast forward through the big smiles and the undignified dancing, k? You can all imagine it pretty well, I'm sure.

So I was up bright and early on Monday, waiting for The Call. I knew it wasn't coming until around 9, but I didn't want to be all groggy when it came. I'm somewhat incoherent for the first half hour of the day, and "incoherent" is hardly a good first impression for a writer to make.

We spoke for a little over an hour, and it was awesome. I knew very quickly that she was the perfect agent for me, but she wanted me to take a day or two to digest everything and contact some of her clients for their opinions.

So I did. Nothing but awesome, across the board. And the clients themselves seem pretty darn cool too, all very welcoming and interested in me and my writing. I feel like I've joined a very warm and talented family.

And then there was maybe a little celebrating. Just a little. And because I am lucky and I have such wonderful people in my life, I got TWO flower deliveries within a few hours of The Call.


The left ones are from my friends Amy and John, and the right ones are from The Husband.

So, after a day of calling people and celebrating and trying to make myself believe it, I called my agent--that's right, I said it--and officially accepted representation. We're both very excited about this, and I think it's gonna be a great working relationship.

I know I have a long road ahead. But it's been a long road getting here, so I'm gonna take a moment to thank everyone. So many of you have been so supportive and helpful, you've followed all the highs and lows and encouraged me and read my work, and it's helped more than you know.

So thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.

And now, because I know you're all wondering, "But what does the cat think of this?", I give you the Cat of Cats, The Bard himself, Shakespeare, looking very excited and proud:


Don't let his stern looks fool you. He really is very happy for me. No, really. He only tried to bite me once yesterday. That's totally cat-speak for "YAAAAY!"

*This is a slight exaggeration. Slight.

17 comments:

  1. Yay! Awesome news! Living the dream!

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  2. Thanks! And "living the dream" is quite correct, considering I've spent the past few days waiting for the alarm clock to go off, as it has all the OTHER times I've dreamt of this. =)

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  3. Yay! And congrats! And other words of happy well-wishment!

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  4. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  5. Congratulations! Awesome news. :)

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  6. May I touch you?

    *touch*

    Oooh...

    Congrats!

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  7. Thanks Anissa! Yeah, it's been an awesome news week around here.

    Stephanie: *Holds out arm* It's not magical, but it's a HAPPY arm. Thanks so much! =)

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  8. Woo hoo. Woo hoo wooo hoo woo hoo!
    Grim light is fabulous, creative, fun and even serious with a shadow hanging over it. I can see it being a series popular with YA and adults!
    I know I loved it
    I'm so happy for you! You DO deserve this, and for all your future fans sake, I hope to see it in print soon, like in no more than a year ( is that even possible? )
    woo hoo.

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  9. Thanks so much, Lisa! You know that under "supportive" in the dictionary, there's a picture of you, right? And it's no less than awesome. =)

    A year is pretty impossible, unless a few miracles happen. But I have faith that we'll get there whenever the time is right.

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  10. Huge congratulations, and best of luck on that sale!!

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  11. I announced it at Fantasy Debut.

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  12. Wow, I want to touch too! *touch* Okay, stuff that, how about *big hug* instead, even though you don't know me? :) Super huge congrats, and best wishes!

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  13. OMG. Congratulations! That's awesome news.

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  14. A. Grey: I'll take the big hug, lol! Thanks so much!

    B.E.: There's been a lot of OMG going on around here. Thanks! =)

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  15. Awesome! I see big things coming for you!

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If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then possibly what you are doing isn't very vital. If you don't feel like you are writing somewhat over your head, why do it? If you don't have some doubt of your authority to tell this story, then you are not trying to tell enough. --John Irving