Thanks to my friends at a clever blog called Speak Its Name, I came across this post called Query Saturday at DearAuthor.com.
Should I submit mine? ***bites finger nails***
I think I will!
***holds breath*** Copy. Paste. Click. Send.
Take me back to Tennessee February 10, 2008
I had written a post on Friday night called “Mama, I’m Coming Home” but apparently forgot to publish it until I noticed today it was still listed as a draft, so forgive the date on it. I left early Saturday morning to drive to my family home in Tennessee just for the weekend which is where I am now as I type this post.
Good ole Dyersburg Tennessee (where I grew up) never disappoints if I ever need inspiration for my writing. In just the two days that I’ve been here, I’ve probably taken 100 photos of which I will share some of them with you next week when I get back to St. Louis and can upload them.
But here’s what my weekend has consisted of so far…
1. A nice long peaceful drive down here with some good music and some good plans thought out for my writing projects.
2. Some very interesting signs posted in my sister’s neighbor’s yard inquiring about the death of their dog. Oh! You know I had to take a picture. Wait till you see this one…
3. A trip to Reelfoot lake with my Mom, her husband, and their Sunday school class to eat catfish. I had not been to the lake in over 5 years, so I had to take lots of photos here as the sun was setting.
And that’s it so far. Today, I’ll visit with my dad and get back on the road this afternoon to head home to St. Louie. See ya real soon!
REJECTION! February 10, 2008
In the past 2 days, I’ve emailed my query letter to 10 of the agents on my list of 22 who only wanted a query at this time, no sample chapters. I got back 2 rejection emails so far. Ahhhh, the life of a writer: 90% rejection, eh? So I am sure there will be more to come. But that’s okay….take a deep breath, keep positive, and move forward!
I think rejection email isn’t as bad. Back in the day of snail mail (which some agents still want), it would have been much worse. You are already eagerly anticipating mail as it is, but to rip into an envelope only to find a rejection letter would have to be quite painful. God bless the delete button!
So, last night I sent my query letter to a friend of mine who is a published writer and asked him for help by taking a look at it, and I asked him to be brutally honest. Fingers crossed that what I get back isn’t too marked up with red. But knowin him, it will be.
I should really be writing about my weekend getaway right now, instead of this, but as you can imagine all this stuff about querying is still heavy on my mind. When I arrived in Tennessee yesterday, I called J to tell him I had made it here okay. He asked if I had emailed someone called something something publications because they had called while he was out but they didn’t leave a message. I didn’t recognize the name, so I hope they call back. But just my luck, it will be a magazine subscription company or something like that, and not one of the agents I emailed.
And so the saga of seeking representation continues…
Mama, I’m coming home… February 10, 2008
I leave tomorrow morning for a quick weekend trip home. It’s a 3 hour drive back to Tennessee from where I live now in St. Louis. I hate driving, but it’s a nice long steady drive down Highway 55 that’s usually filled with some good music and lots of thinking.
Here’s what I need to think about…
*I’m still slowly polishing For The Most Part (2nd edit), and hope to have a 3rd and final edit done before April, unless an agent or publisher has made me an offer by then. Oh yeah, that gives me something else to think about.
*There’s 22 agent profiles lying on my desk that I need to start emailing.
*A year ago, I had been working on two other projects. One is a historical fiction novel about a piano maker during the Civil War (see the progress meter on the right). The other is a HUGE project I started about the end of AIDS. I’d really like to get back to one of them and have it finished before the end of the year.
So, that’s about it. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but it will definitely help to pass 3 hours alone on the road.
