Works in progress.

So now that I've completed a round of revisions on my repped manuscript (yeah, I love saying it) I'm working on a couple of other things.  One of them is a YA sci-fi that I've actually been working and reworking over the past year.  I always think it's kind of funny that I gravitate towards science fiction, considering I went to a math and science oriented high school and pretty much zoned out during my classes in bio, chemistry, and physics.  When I took exams, I would pick and choose my answers according to my theory of how often the answer would be "a," "b," "c," or "d."  See, I figured there had to be a pattern in there somewhere, and if I cracked the code, I'd pass.  Or something.

Ooh!  A pattern!

 

 

I don't need to tell you how well that worked out :).

And labs?  Don't get me started.  Let's just say that if you don't pay attention to what you're mixing, there are consequences.  Toxic emissions.  Third degree burns.

                                                                     Or this.

But sci-fi is fun.  I'm actually doing research now--not a ton, but just enough to make my story believable.  I hope.  My teachers would be proud.

Or not.

Shiny first post! (And my "how I got my agent" story!)

Hey, it's nice in here (sits down, gets comfortable, tries to think of what should go in a first blog post).  Maybe my "how I got my agent story," complete with gifs (by the way, I've never worked with gifs before, so if they come out wonky, don't be surprised--a computer whiz I'm definitely not :)).

I've read tons of "how I got my agent" posts over the years, and of course I've dreamed of writing my own.  Now that I'm actually doing it, I'm reminded of a line in "Alice in Wonderland" (which I'll quote here, since it gives me a chance to get my thoughts in order):

"'Mine is a long and sad tale!'" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.

"It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?'"

My tale isn't sad, but it is (fairly) long.  I started writing for publication about seven years ago, drafting a  suspense/science fiction book that thankfully will never see the light of day.  It did, however, make it into the quarterfinals of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel competition, and, thanks to a pseudo-decent Publisher's Weekly review, made me think it was time to start querying.  Twenty or so form rejects later, and I decided enough was enough.  For that book, anyway.

I ended up writing and completing three other novels, all YA, and I began to notice a querying progression.  On my first (see trunked sci-fi above), no requests.  On the second, several requests, followed by form rejections.  On the third, a pretty decent number of requests, followed by non-form rejections and a couple of revise and resubmits.  The revisions didn't pan out, but they showed me that I was getting closer.

Um, until the fourth book.  Which got no interest whatsoever (hey, it happens) :).

And then we come to number five.

This one was different.  It felt...different.  For one thing, it came a lot faster than the others.  Secondly, it generated interest fairly quickly.  Within a couple of weeks of querying, I had four requests for fulls.  One came back with a quick rejection, so that left three.  And I waited, chewing my nails and feeling kind of like this:

Okay, Shatner was supposed to move.  And you were supposed to see falling rain.  And...well, you get it.

And then, one day I'm at work.  We have firewalls there, so I can't check home e-mail from my office, but I have a contact--my kids.  So I phoned my son, and, just as I was about to hang up, he said, oh-so-casually, "By the way, there's an e-mail for you.  From an agent."

"Okay," I said.  "What does it say?" (This sounds a lot calmer than I actually sounded, because I figured if it had been the dreaded R, he would have come right out and said it).

Instead, he read the e-mail.  It was incredibly detailed and awesome, packed with great suggestions on how to revise the manuscript.  And at the end...she asked if there was a time we could chat.  Which left me feeling like this:

And this:

OMG, I got one to work!!  Anyway, he looks more scared than excited, but...well, you know.

Anyway, so I wrote back and we arranged to speak that Friday.  During the week (which lasted forever) I did my best not to get my hopes up:

Friday came.  I breathed into my paper bag and tried putting on some semblance of dignity (yeah, right--you should have seen me when she called on Skype and I couldn't get the videocam to work).    And she was wonderful.  Lovely, enthusiastic, committed, and full of wonderful revision ideas.  We talked for over an hour.  At the end, I asked the fateful question, "Is this an offer?"

And she said yes!

The rest of the week is a blur.  I sent out e-mails to all the agents who'd requested and the ones I'd queried.  I received several more requests and one more offer from another lovely, enthusiastic and wonderful agent.  I had the weekend to make my decision, and it was incredibly difficult, since they're both so awesome.  Sending out the e-mail to the other agent that Monday was one of the hardest e-mails I'd ever had to write.  But deep down I knew who I would choose.

And now...drumroll...I can announce that I'm represented by the uber-awesome Gemma Cooper of the Jenny Bent Agency!!!!

And now...we dance!