How Much Honesty Can You Take?

Yesterday agent Mandy Hubbard tweeted: Sometimes, wish I could tell an author: You have talent. But this feels like the book before the 1 you get published. #NobodyWantstoHearThat Well, of course you don’t want to hear that, but maybe you should. Now, if I were just dipping my toes in the querying waters for the…

Read more »

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…

Read more »

Yes, No, Wait

I’ve often had discussions with my friends about how when you pray for something, God has three possible answers–yes, no, or wait. If it’s “yes,” obviously I celebrate! And if it’s “no,” at least I can figure out how to move on. But that “wait” answer … I hate that one, especially since I can’t…

Read more »

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…

Read more »

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…

Read more »

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…

Read more »

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…

Read more »

The Questions We Ask While We Wait

Yesterday Susan Adrian wrote a great post on what to do while you’re waiting, with tips like work, read and observe, as well as what NOT to do. After I retweeted it, a fellow writer emailed me to check in on my agent search. It’s nice to have other writers who are in the same…

Read more »