The Daily Rejection

I found writing a query letter INSANELY stressful. Trying to get across the entire feel and message of a book in a short paragraph is daunting!

No response from agent, still. I'm trying not to get discouraged. I know she's bogged down with queries from the conference.
How is this for weird: I don't know if any of you recall me saying I thought I was getting signs from my mom; hearing her song all the time and everywhere. Well, last night I had a dream, and I don't remember ANYTHING about it except that at one point, I looked over at my computer and saw I had a message from my mom. In the dream I said "My mom is trying to get a hold of me" but before I could get to it to see what it said, I woke up.
Even in the after life that woman is messing with me!! I never have dreams about her or maybe it wouldn't be so weird, but what the heck?? Maybe I really AM losing my mind.

Gah! HH, WHEN is that agent getting back to you? Doesn't she know that we are ALL waiting?

What are the stats like of getting rejections on Fridays? 'Cause... yeah... the e-mail is now here. I'm just staring at it. I am not mentally prepared for rejection right now! AH!

So, I'm officially a turd, haha. She offered representation!!! I can hardly type!!

WOOO!! Congrats!!

Yay, HoldinHolden!!! Congrats!

That's fabulous. Group hug for our latest success

Now, can we count this as a May offer? Then June would still be up for grabs.

I've substantially changed the inept query I used for QK and tightened up my first five pages so there is a nice line at the end of page 5. (Don't you want to read more, dear agent?)

I fear my attempt at humor in my query ended up in the part where I talk about myself. Oh well, better than nothing.

I'm thinking it is close enough to happy hour now to pour myself a glass of wine and reread what I created today. And to toast HH first, of course. Cheers!

YAY!!!!!! Congrats, HH!

Thanks y'all! I am still in a state of total disbelief. September would have made a year of querying this manuscript. Love love love this agent and so thrilled she chose me!

cheers to everyone!

I say we totally count this for May!

HoldinHolden said:

So, I'm officially a turd, haha. She offered representation!!! I can hardly type!!

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Yay Holdin!!!!!!

Woohoo!! Congratulations, HH! That's wonderful news!

WAHHHH super congratulations Holden!!!! How exciting!!! Excessive use of exclamation points!!! That's awesome.

HoldinHolden said:

So, I'm officially a turd, haha. She offered representation!!! I can hardly type!!

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You deserve ten dancing bananas!

I give up. AW won't let me put in ten dancing bananas. Le sigh.

Yay, Holden!!!! I love it when all somebody's waiting and wondering pays off.

*delurks*

Grats, Holdin!

*relurks*

Just to reflect: quite a few regulars in this thread have gotten representation, and I think it shows that this thread and AW in general are not only invaluable as emotional support but as a source of information and feedback that actually helps us achieve what we're out to achieve. With the support, it's so much easier to persist and, finally, snag that agent.

Congratulations, Holden! SO happy for you! You deserve to CELEBRATE!

angeliz2k said:

Just to reflect: quite a few regulars in this thread have gotten representation, and I think it shows that this thread and AW in general are not only invaluable as emotional support but as a source of information and feedback that actually helps us achieve what we're out to achieve. With the support, it's so much easier to persist and, finally, snag that agent.

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Liz, I've been thinking the exact same thing. The successes are not a coincidence. I've learned a ton in the year I've been a member, and I'm excited to keep going. Sometimes we feel we're going backward with all the revising and rejections, but we're not. We're gaining ground as long as we keep paying attention and strengthening our weaknesses.

RaggedEdge said:

Liz, I've been thinking the exact same thing. The successes are not a coincidence. I've learned a ton in the year I've been a member, and I'm excited to keep going. Sometimes we feel we're going backward with all the revising and rejections, but we're not. We're gaining ground as long as we keep paying attention and strengthening our weaknesses.

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I tried to quote both of you, but I haven't quite mastered this thing yet, haha! I completely agree. I had a bad first experience with AW, but I just don't think I was in the right place. As much moral support as friends give, they don't really know what it's like going through this process, and I think without the words, advice, and knowledge of the people here- I'm not sure I would have made it through this process; not without losing my mind, at least!

Oh- and thank you everyone!

Oh, poo. Only one thing is harder in writing than being funny on demand -- being clever on demand. I just thought of another plot hole in WIP, and my mind is a blank.

A number of you have read drafts. So how is it that Persie can just start walking on the pedestrian trail out of the underworld? Okay, she's invisible. But I think there needs to be some sort of security feature there she can cleverly elude or overcome. Slipping past guards won't work, because there are no guards in that location earlier in the book. (I suppose I could come up with a reason guards are now posted. But this approach seems a bit blah unless I can punch it up with something ingenious and/or funny.)

Maybe posting here will clear my mental block. Any number of times I've said I can't figure out how to do something... then I can.

Oops. Maybe I've jinxed that. Unless mentioning a jinx will undo the jinx. Oh, wait. Now what...

I need to think about something else. I know -- the specials for Sunday brunch tomorrow at my favorite restaurant. One is carrot cake pancakes. Hmm, carrot cake... pancakes.

Congrats HH!

Hathor, why CAN'T she just start taking the pedestrian path out of the Underworld? Don't you mention something to the effect that it's rarely used and not well-known? So why guard it?

On a completely different note: I didn't get an answer from the agent who sent me a second round of comments on my R and R but never said whether she actually was inviting me to revise again. So I've gone ahead and written up a response to her points. Without getting too much into it, I think I have a slightly different idea about the themes than she does. I'll send her my response in hopes that she does want me to revise again along the lines I set out.

And on ANOTHER note: I took my 90%-assembled bike out of the box last night and sat there for like three hours trying to figure out how to put the damn thing together. No directions. It turns out I don't have the right tools anyway. But the REALLY cruddy thing: it's too big! I thought I'd ordered one that would fit me, but it looks like I didn't research it well enough. Sigh. So I don't know what to do. It's out of the box and out of its packing, so I don't think I can return it, but I can't really ride it, either. I think I'll take it to the bike shop, ask them to assemble it, and see if they'll buy it off me...