The Stages of Waiting

I sent my work-in-progress, THE DEXELON TWINCIDENT, out to my first round of readers two weeks ago. I received comments from one of the readers on Friday, and I’ve been anxiously waiting for feedback from the other (don’t rush, if you’re reading this!). It’s made me muse on the different kinds of waiting we have…

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Should You Re-Query Agents with Your Revised Manuscript?

If you came to this post hoping for an absolute answer to this question, you’ll be disappointed. I’ve been on a querying blitz this past week, sending the YA version of DUET out into the world. Because I already queried a number of agents with the MG version, this question of re-querying has come up…

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Always Learning, Always Improving

I’ve heard it said you have to write a million words before you’re ready for publication–or something like that. Now that I’m working on my third manuscript (ok, fourth if you count the totally amateur shelved one I don’t like to claim), I really get it. I’ve learned so many things through the writing-critiquing-querying-submitting process…

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Does It Make Sense?

I’m going to admit something that will make a lot of you cringe in horror: I didn’t have anyone read my first novel before I queried agents. Well, maybe my husband. I don’t remember for sure. The thing is, I had this idea that it wouldn’t be mine anymore if other people gave me their…

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So Apparently I Write YA …

Or at least I’ve written one YA. I hesitated whether to put this out there since a few agents still have DUET, but I’ll go ahead and say the revision I did was to make it YA. I had no idea if I could pull it off. For one thing, I had to add at…

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If: A Word That Gives Hope

So, last month I did a post about when it’s time to revise. Then, two weeks ago, I talked about timing and how that plays into querying strategy. I had this whole plan for finishing out my querying for DUET, not because I want to give up on it but because I’ve been working on…

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How Timing Plays Into Querying Strategy

Querying is such a game of strategy. And timing is a major factor in so many ways. Here are a few I’ve been thinking about lately. Catching the agent at the right time. Although I don’t have the link handy, I once read an interview with an agent who listed 10 reasons she might reject…

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Practice Makes Perfect–Or At Least Closer to Perfect

It’s been more than a month since my cupcake celebration for finishing my latest first draft. It took great self-control to let the draft sit for that long, but I filled the time with critiques for other writers, a major contest, and a revision to DUET. But finally, this week it was time to start…

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When Is It Time to Revise?

There’s a time to query. There’s a time to wait. There’s a time to … revise? I started querying DUET WITH THE DEVIL’S VIOLIN in April, entered a little contest called The Writers Voice in May, queried a bit more for the first two weeks in June, then decided to wait. You see, I had…

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The First Draft Blues

I hate writing first drafts. I see other writers out there talking about how much they hate revising and think, “How could you hate revising? It’s so much fun!” Not kidding. I love to revise. It doesn’t matter if it’s my work or someone else’s. An unpolished piece of writing is like a big puzzle….

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