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.

There and Back

Listening to: Dispatch, "Two Coins"

Oh. My. Gah--

Yes, that's right. I'm back. Again. I know I have these periods of disappearance, when life gets crazy or I get a bit burnt out on the blogging thing. And you know I do, too. So if you've been patient and awaited my glorious return, thank you. And if you appreciate the sarcasm in that last sentence, DOUBLE thank you.

I'm in a weird mood. Sorry.

Anyhow, my life has been weird and crazy and exhausting and weird and crazy all over again over the past few months. I have no particular news, except that I finished the massive revisions on Grim Light, and I'm getting ready to query. I'm making my usual query spreadsheet, and I somehow managed to write my short synopsis (one page, baby!) in one sitting. Without fiddling with either font of margins, too.

Who's a pro? I'm a pro, kids. Either that, or I've done this crap one too many times. Leaning toward option B.

Now I'm working on the longer synopsis. I think I'll do one page for every 10k words, which will come out to about seven pages. Does that sound right? Someone tell me if that sounds right.

And I think--I think--I've come up with a decent query letter. I'm going to tweak it a bit, and then I'll put it up here for ya'll to poke and prod at, if you wish. Or you can just bask in its glory. You know, whatever.

Maybe I'll do that for Teaser Tuesday, actually.

My problem with queries tends to be that I rewrite them a million times over the course of querying. Tia can attest to that, as she was instrumental in a long, long series of revisions last year. I'm hoping to avoid that this time. If it works, great. If it doesn't, then on to the next book. Whatever.

So I'll be ready to query in the next few weeks. Sooner, hopefully. And I've decided, as part of my new "if it works, great" attitude, that I'm just going to shoot them out ten at a time, every Sunday night. I'll have my querying order all worked out in advance, and I'll just move to the next 10 on the list every Sunday, regardless of responses (or lack thereof). I'm just going to do this and get it over with, because I'm freaking ready. It's been far too long since I started this novel, and I'm tired of it sitting around.

So that's what's going on with me, writing-wise. And you?

Thoughts While Querying

Now, Dear Readers, I will take you inside a writer's head while she performs the age old snail mail querying ritual. For those of you who have been there before, this may sound familiar. For those of you who haven't--yes, I need medication. I know.

And so it begins.

This paper feels thin and cheap. I should buy better paper.

Where's the black pen? Why is it that I can only find colored pens when I need a black one to match the ink on the paper? Why does this matter so much?

Damn, I can't fold a letter to save my life.

Wait, did I put the right name in the greeting?

I should triple check that all my contact info is right.*

Damn, I can't fold an SASE to save my life.

I put the correct name in the greeting, right?

~Touches SASE fondly~ Please, no offense meant, but I hope I never see you again.

I put the address labels in the right spots on the outer envelope and the SASE, right?

%&$*, I folded it wrong and it won't fit into the envelope. ~Prints out another copy.~

Where'd that black pen go?

Damn it, cat, get off my query letter!

I should check everything one more time before I seal the envelope.

I should check everything one more time before I seal the envelope.

I should check everything one more time before I seal the envelope.

Oh for God's sake, just seal it and get to the mailbox, already.


And there you have it. A little journey into the querying writer's mind. You're welcome, by the way.


*This particular compulsion is based on the very first query letter I sent out, which had my home phone number wrong. This is something that most second-graders can get right, but I, evidently, cannot. Yes, world, I AM an idiot.

And we're off...

Listening to: Bayside, "Masterpiece"

...to the races. That's right, I sent my queries out a week earlier than I said I would. Ha! Tricked you.

Well, I sent two e-queries off into the unknown. The other three are going snail mail, and I was snowed in yesterday.

I have that familiar nervous feeling, but not as bad as usual. Yes, I'm eying the little gmail icon on my taskbar, but I forget about it for longer periods than I used to. And yes, I thought perhaps it was a bad sign when my very first query was returned undeliverable. It seemed to go through on the second try, though.

I will not be superstitious, though.* I absolutely refuse.

And now, off to the post office, then to work on other projects so I can get my mind off that stupid mail icon.


*Do you have any idea how hard it is to type "superstitious" with crossed fingers?

From out of the darkness

I have returned. Sorry for my long absence, unless you enjoyed it, in which case...well, I don't blame you.

I've been dealing with some stress, and some vague melancholy and restlessness, and tinkering endlessly with the novel. I just haven't felt like blogging...haven't felt like I had much to say.

Bu I realized a few days ago that I must send this novel out soon. Query letter is ready, synopsis is ready, and I've almost finished going through my CPs comments and making any necessary changes. If I continue the tinkering, I'll be tinkering forever. At this point I'm rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic (in the "doing something useless" fashion, not the "this ship is sinking" way).

What's odd is that I've never been like this with a novel. The last two, I went through two edits and a few CPs comments, then felt like there was nothing I could do. With this one...well, the perfectionist in me is really making her thoughts known. She's a loud one, the perfectionist. Strident, bossy, shrill.

But the other night I shut her up. "I'm going to do this, and this, and this--and then I'm sending it out. And you can just shut up about it." She had a lot to say about that, but I shut down her protestations. Changing the word order in this sentence and double-checking my comma placement aren't going to make a huge difference, and are really just more ways to procrastinate.

So! A week from this Monday, barring any other commitments (might need to be helping clean out my mom's house before the sale), the first batch of queries goes out.

There. I said it, and now I'm committed.

Of course, once I send those queries out, I'll probably be fit to be committed in another way. But we'll worry about that rubber room when we get to it.

Gathering Info

Listening to: Lagwagon, "Violins"

I'm still searching for appropriate agents to submit to, as well as gathering information for the ones I choose. This process has never taken so long, but I've grown much pickier about which agents will go in the Magical Spreadsheet of Joy, and I also collect more information. I got a subscription to Publishers Marketplace, so in addition to all the other information I collect, I search for young adult deals in the past year by my agents of choice, then record the types of deals. Also, I note if they have authors I know (not personally, but have heard of). So the information I collect is as follows:

In the spreadsheet:

• Agent name
• Agency name
• AAR membership status*
  
• Sales verified by P&E (denoted by a $ next to their name)
• Recommended by P&E (this is different from verified sales, if you're not familiar with P&E's ratings)
• Represents Young Adult books
• Represents Fantasy books
• A list of authors the agent represents that I've read/heard of
• Deals listed in PM, coded by type (Nice, Very Nice, Good, etc.; also, I list the number of multi-book deals and deals for which no rating is given)
• Miscellaneous notes (Do they represent a book like mine? Does their personality, as conveyed by their website and/or internet interviews, seem like it might clash horribly with mine?)
  

Once I start actually querying, I'll also record when I sent the query, which materials were sent (number of pages, synopsis, etc.), when I received a response, and what the response was.

Then I have a separate document in which I list the following information for each agent:

• Contact information
• Website address, if applicable
  
• Submission guidelines as posted in AgentQuery
• Submission guidelines as posted on website, if information is different or more specific than AgentQuery's**

You can see how this might take a while.

To some, this may seem extreme or obsessive. To me, it seems smart. If I'm going to ask someone to represent my book, and me, I want to know as much about their professional life as I can. Considering that I'm gathering this information from only three or four websites (AgentQuery, P&E, AAR, and the agent's own site), I don't think I'm going too far. I promise, I won't ferret out their home addresses and stalk them to find out what they like to eat, what time they go to bed, and whether they wear men's or women's underwear.

If I'm going to target the right agent, I need to know what they already represent, what they've sold, etc. To me, it seems like common sense, and having that information close at hand and organized in a sensible way makes the ground under my feet seem more stable when I finally query them.

Those writers out there who have gone through the query process before should know the value of solid ground under your feet. So often, each time we make a trip to the mailbox, send an email or check our inboxes (and spam filters) obsessively, the earth seems shaky at best. To know, when I send out those queries and begin the long, long, long wait for a reply, that I've done my best to query the right people in the right way....

Well, you can't put a price on that.


*I used to count on AgentQuery for this information, but now I do a search on the AAR's website no matter what. AgentQuery is an invaluable resource, but I ran into a few discrepancies with agents' AAR status. Just a note.

**If I find that AgentQuery's information and the agent's own specifications on his/her website differ widely--and this doesn't happen very often--then naturally, I go with the info from the agent's website.

From the "WTF?" Files

I just remembered--I had a dream last night that my dream agent called me up and offered representation...on the condition that I both lengthen my novel, and remove exactly 1300 instances of the word "the."

Of course I said yes.

Crap!

*Headdesk* I just realized that, due to an omission in my record-keeping, I simultaneously queried two agents at the same agency. One I queried two months ago, via post, and haven't gotten a reply from. The second I queried just today--also via post, and the mailman probably picked the letter up half an hour ago.

Crap. Now I feel pretty damn stupid. That's the first mistake I've made since my very first query letter...which was sent with an incorrect home phone number.*

Crap.

On the plus side, this incident has made me recall another day, long ago, when I was even dumber (believe it or not, har har). And since I've already twice exposed my stupidity to the world today, may as well go for it, huh? This will complete my stupidity hat trick. And it's kind of funny.

When I was probably 12 or 13 years old, I rode along with my mom to the post office. She handed me a bunch of letters, including several bills, and asked me to A.) Buy some stamps, and B.) Send the letters.

I did exactly as she asked. I went to the counter and bought some stamps. Then I dropped the letters in the mail slot. Mission accomplished, right?

Notice anything missing from that progression? Like, maybe, putting the stamps ON the letters? Yeah. Oops.

For some reason--maybe she realized she had a moron for a daughter--my mom saw fit to ask, when we were several blocks away, if I had completed the unspoken part of the mission. That's when the light bulb went on over my head. The story, believe it or not, has a somewhat happy ending: we managed to talk the postmaster into removing the letters from the mail slot and letting us stamp and re-mail them. Not without some difficulty and a great deal of embarrassment on my part, though.

And now I use that embarrassing, humiliating experience to make myself feel slightly better. Because although I double-queried an agency, at least the phone number in the letters was correct, and at least I put stamps on the envelopes.

I think.

Anyone care to join me in showcasing their sheer idiocy for the world? Come on...it's fun!


*And it wasn't a typo, either...I actually didn't know my home phone number. In my defense, it was a new-ish number, with easily transposed digits, and...oh, why bother. I'm stupid, okay? That's the problem here. I'm stupid.

The Worst Part

Definitely, unquestionably, without a doubt, there is one part of sending e-queries that makes me shudder in horror.

It's not the speed with which I amass rejections--no, no, I actually don't mind that so much. The sooner I can mark an agent off my list, the less soul-crushing hope I have building up inside me.

It's not the ease with which those rejections can be sent, either. Sure, it's probably easier to reject an e-query than one sent via snail mail, but the benefits far outweigh that potential disadvantage. Cheaper! Easier! Less waste!

And it's not the fear that my email will reach their inbox garbled and screwy, maintaining very little of the careful formatting I slaved over. So what, I say. Can't control everything.

No, it's not any of those things. It's...dun dun dun DUN...checking my spam folder for misplaced replies. Eesh, the very thought leaves me squirming, dreading the next time I see fit to perform this little chore.

Yes, I do this several times a week. I root through the emails offering various pharmaceutical products (usually misspelled), places at which to find "horny girls" (usually misspelled), and, oddly enough, software CHEEP AND E-Z (say it with me...misspelled) . What's with that last bit, I have to ask? How has software suddenly shot to the top of the "Things We Want To Market To You Without Your Permission" list, right up there with sex and drugs?

Is this really necessary, you ask? I mean, what are the odds that something important will actually slip past my Gmail inbox, incorrectly labeled under that worst of email labels, SPAM?

Well, yeah. It's happened once before, and I was lucky to catch it. Ever since then, I remain vigilant...just...in...case. Will it happen again?

I have no idea. But I know that, day after day after day (tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...yes, the English major in me is popping up to say hi), I will realize that it's that time of day again. And with a forlorn sigh, I will make the e-trek to my inbox, where various skeevy people try to sell me various skeevy things, and where I must examine each email subject carefully before I mark it for deletion, lest I send into the Internet ether some actual, important correspondence.

And my soul will feel a little dirtier with each one.

105 Word Hook!

Listening to: Pulley, "A Bad Reputation"

Okay, so I didn't quite make it to 100 words. Pretty close, though, and the end result is a lot cleaner and simpler. I definitely have this article to thank--that example really spurred me on. Tia still beat me, though! 99 words--talk about rising to the challenge!

Feel free to leave any constructive criticism. I think it's pretty close to done, but I'm sure I'll be tweaking it all weekend.
______

For Haley Malloy, the approaching summer should be all about boys, bikinis, and the beach. But when she and her little sister are invited to attend the Praesentia Summer Academy, where teenagers with genetically-bestowed superpowers learn how to use them, the bikinis and the beach get thrown out the window.

There will be no shortage of boys, though, as the powers are usually passed down to males. Despite her misgivings, Haley agrees to go.

She has no idea that before the summer's over, she'll fall in love, suffer her sister's betrayal, and be called upon to save the entire Academy from one of its own.

______

Something about the last sentence seems...abrupt, I guess. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Still Working On It

Listening to: Druha Trava, "Bad Moon Rising" (I prefer the older Lagwagon cover, personally)

Still working on the short pitch. Will post it here when/if I ever finish it to my satisfaction.

In the meantime, have a cat picture.

Reconsidering

Listening to: Guster, "Careful"

This post is making me seriously reconsider my query letter. If I could pare it down to something so simple, I think it would at least catch some attention.

All the comments on my query over at Absolute Write have been incredibly helpful, though, and I'll probably use a lot of them even if I reformulate the entire letter. After all, it's always good to know what aspects confuse or intrigue people who've never read the book, and it helps massively in determining what information goes in, and what doesn't--maybe even more so with a shorter pitch.

So, in the article linked above, the pitch/hook is 78 words. My goal, at least for now, will be to stay under 100 words. How long is my pitch now?

173 words. Yikes.

I'm going to focus on one character, and pare the plot down to what happens to her. Just a few eye-catching strokes of plot and character, and we'll be done. Despite the seeming impossibilitude of this, I'm relatively confident. I can do this, right?

We're about to find out.

Query Rewrite Update

Listening to: Goldfinger, "Too Many Nights"

Well, I rewrote the query, incorporating a bunch of suggestions. In fact, one of the comments in the original critique thread inspired a change in the novel itself. I realized that the "camp" the girls attend is leftover from the original concept, which changed a great deal as I wrote. In the current incarnation, the "camp" is much closer to a summer academy of sorts. I'll be changing the novel to reflect that, as I changed the query letter.

Amazing what happens when your work--or even a short summary of your work--is seen through others' eyes, huh?

On request, I'm posting a link to the newest version, up for critique at Absolute Write. Please, feel free to eviscerate me (over there, of course)! I need all the help I can get.

And while I'm being politely torn to shreds over there, I'm going to get some work done here in Real Life, despite this insane heat. If I haven't melted by tomorrow, I'll be back to update then.

Query Rewrite

Listening to: Street Dogs, "Hard Luck Kid"

After receiving several rejections on my query letter, with only one request (for a full, though), I decided to take another look at the letter itself. Now, it took me weeks to formulate, write, rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite the original query letter. I don't particularly want to re-re-re-rewrite it, but...well, you do what you have to do.

So, I posted it on a forum I frequent, and got a lot of interesting feedback. I have to say--that's one thing I love about the writing community. Writers are always so willing to help each other out, to extend a hand when needed or offer a shoulder to cry on.

Now I get to take all that feedback, use what I can, and chuck the rest. That's what I'll be doing today. After I've reworked the letter to my satisfaction--or, as close as I can get to satisfaction--I'll re-post it in the forum, and wait for more feedback. Unless, of course, it's so perfect that no feedback is necessary. Riiiiight.

In other news, it's going to be hot as the dickens today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. Also, there are some guys with tractors doing something behind my apartment, directly beneath my balcony. Oh, and it seems like today is "fly helicopters really close to apartment buildings" day. I'm predicting very frazzled nerves by the end of the day...perhaps we'll take advantage of the 99 cent margaritas at the bar down the road tonight.

Update

Listening to: Guster, "Airport Song"

Not really much to update.

Book 2: The agent wait continues. It has now been one month and two days since I sent my full, on request. I'm doing pretty well distracting myself with other things, although how well I do this depends on the day of the week and the time. E.g., mornings are good, but afternoons kinda suck.

Book 3: The revisions continue. Wrote 850 thrilling words yesterday, most of which I will probably delete on another revision.

Virginia: Spent a lot of time last week being around other human beings--a nice change of pace, that--and now I have to get used to being alone all day, all over again. In other words, a lot of people have been getting random phone calls and long, rambling voicemails from me during the day.

Fleas: I think we got rid of them all, but I've become incredibly paranoid. I peer closely at the cat every time he scratches himself (which is more frequently than he should), and I just discovered a bunch of bites on my left calf. Not sure if they were there before, and I just didn't notice them, or if they might be new. We couldn't possibly still have fleas, though--we used three foggers, vaccuumed every inch of the apartment, washed every item of clothing we own and the cat's bedding, sprayed flea stuff underneath the furniture and on the bed, and the cat's Frontline should still be in effect. I really, really hope they're gone. That was a bad day.

Not much else to report.

Back to the writing.

To the Beach!

...But not primarily for the beach's sake.

Gotta get my car looked at, and the nearest dealership is in Virginia Beach. So, we'll spend the afternoon there, while we're at it.

Keeping my fingers crossed for my car. This is its last chance, since several other mechanics have been unable to figure out what's wrong with it.

Between my beloved car, and this being Week Three of the An Awesome Agent Has My Full And I Must Remain Patient And Calm EXSTRAVAGANZA!!! (AAAHMFAIMRPACE), I've got body parts crossed that, heretofore, I didn't even know existed.

And yes, I just used "heretofore".

Fixing It

Listening to: Dispatch, "Drive"

Well, I'm on my way to fixing the problem with the book. I broke down and made an outline of how it should go, and I'm going through scene by scene to make the necessary changes. It feels pretty good to get this done, and I think the story will benefit greatly. This isn't the way I prefer to write, but it's necessary at this point. I don't have the ending outlined--just the revisions for everything I've written so far, past the point where I screwed up.

In other news, via Diana Peterfreund I found a fabulous new resource, Query Tracker. It lists clients of agents for whom the info is available, and you can also see how many other members of the site have queried them, and what their results have been (information requested, manuscript requested, rejected, etc.). It helps, of course, if you input your own data. It allows you to track your queries by date and response received. Pretty much what I do in a spreadsheet, but blended with a whole bunch of other useful data. You can also leave comments about a particular agent, and view others' comments.

As a whole, pretty darn helpful. I'm going to use it to supplement, not replace, my normal records. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

-K.

Knocking on Wood With Fingers Crossed

First five queries sent--four via e-mail, one via regular mail. This should become my Friday ritual.

Let the obsessive e-mail checking begin!

....and DONE.

Listening to: Dispatch, "The General"

Okay.

• Query Letter: Done.
• Long Synopsis: Done.
• Short Synopsis: DONE! (I thought it was done on Wed., but I was wrong...I hadn't even started it. Oops.)
  

I am officially ready to query. All that's left to do is pick my first five agents from my Super Duper Agent Ranker Spreadsheet, personalize the letters to their specifications and preferences if possible, print out whatever they want sent, print out address labels...and off to the mailbox I go!

Does anyone have any rituals or superstitions about sending out those first query letters for a project? Just dropping them off at the mailbox and walking away (okay, being dragged away after I try to shove my hand back into the mailbox to retrieve my babies) seems so...simple. I mean, I do the same thing with bills and birthday cards. And yet this is my career, and my hopes and dreams and blah blah blah.

Even worse, though, is e-queries. Don't get me wrong, I love them for many reasons (speedier! less wastier! cheaper!), but it's just clicking a mouse button. Yet so much depends on it.

Ooh! Now I'm inspired.

so much depends
upon

a gray mouse
button

glazed with flop
sweat

beside the blue coffee
cup.

Erm. My deepest apologies to William Carlos Williams.

Anyhow...so, anyone have any rituals they'd like to share?

Temptation

Almost done with the short synopsis. Well, almost done writing it. Then I have to actually pare it down to one page. Luckily, the first draft might not go longer than a page and a quarter.

But I ask you this: is it bad that I'm really, really tempted to sneak "Aliens arrive on the farm" into the middle of a paragraph? Because I really, really want to. If I were an agent (especially one who kept up with Miss Snark) I would enjoy finding that in a synopsis. It would give me a giggle.

Of course, the problem is that there are some writers out there who actually have aliens arriving on the farm out of the blue in Chapter 14. That's why we have synopses in the first place.

Stupid aliens.