The Next Circle of Hell, Vol. 2

Sending good good luck and acquisition vibes to Niiicola and Earthling!! Hope good news comes your way soon!

Nothing on my end. New WIP is coming together a little more each day, so that's exciting to me. I'm hitting that point where the characters are really coming alive in my head, which is a huge relief. Once that happens, I know I can write it. Also fighting a summer cold/allergies this week, so I'm doing a little longhand scribbling, taking a little Benadryl, and sleeping a lot.

Hi all! I had my MFA graduation ceremony today and oh my god, I'm so sad. Like it was bittersweet. I'm really going to be miss being part of this community as a student.

No news on my end. Just watching on MS 2

Congrats PBV!

More life stuff this week, but should get some SERIOUS writing time this weekend. So excited to make more progress on this new project.

Also, just saw this on Janet Reid and loved it : http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2017/05/being-out-in-publlic-while-on-submission.html

Jeneral - Sleeping is good! Recharge those batteries.

Well done pinkbow!

I pulled out an old short story and had a crazy idea to submit it. Crazy because the short story market seems even fiercer than novels (assuming you're submitting to good publications...) and I don't think I need more waiting-for-rejection in my life.

But I have no desire to get back to novelling yet, so I feel I should be doing SOMETHING to further my writing career. Besides posting on Twitter 50 times a day...

Pinkbow, congrats on the MFA graduation! Good job. That's a lot of work.
Niicola, that mom is simply ignorant, not stupid, she just doesn't know. She'll never be a writer so she'll never get it. I'm glad you were just amused by her and not hurt or mad.

Due to a shuffling at my agency, I now have a new agent there and am having a Monday talk with her about a sub list for my new mss. Very excited about this one, and am hoping we go out next week.

polishmuse said:

Also, just saw this on Janet Reid and loved it : http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2017/05/being-out-in-publlic-while-on-submission.html

Click to expand...

This is sound advice, and also why my agent very wisely refuses to tell me who's looking at an MS until we get an offer. If I don't know, I can't accidentally make an arse of myself in front of them

Agreed. This was a great read, and something I'll keep in mind when I go to the RWA national conference in July. Because I have this feeling I'll still be waiting....

Niiicola: Fingers crossed! Hope good news is on the way soon.

Jeneral: I know exactly what you mean about characters coming alive. Definitely a good sign. Keep it up! I'm also suffering through this allergy season as well. For me, a 12-hour Claritin in the morning and two Benadryl before bedtime seem to work best, but it's still rough going.

PBV: Congrats on the MFA graduation! I'm actually going apartment-hunting in a couple weeks to scope out places to live--I'm starting my MFA in August.

polish: Good luck with the new project! Here's to a productive weekend.

Earthling: Good luck! I have a few stories of my own on sub right now. Getting a lot of personalized/tiered rejections, but not a single acceptance in the last year, which is... frustrating.

CCC: Sounds exciting! Good luck!

Got the new MS off to my agent this morning. He replied saying that my cover letter "intrigued" him, and that he would try and get to it next week. Very nervous about how he'll receive it, but also excited.

No news on MS1, unfortunately. In a couple of months from now, it'll have officially been on sub for a year. Sigh.

Congrats, Pink!

Congrats, Pink!

Back after 2 weeks in amazing Japan, and am already having Japan-withdrawals. But I came back refreshed and ready to go. My agent loved the edits on the MS and is getting ready for Round 2 of subs, so here we go again...

Putputt said:

Congrats, Pink!

Back after 2 weeks in amazing Japan, and am already having Japan-withdrawals. But I came back refreshed and ready to go. My agent loved the edits on the MS and is getting ready for Round 2 of subs, so here we go again...

Click to expand...

Good luck, Putputt! Your story sounded awesome, so hoping it goes well.

Good luck, Putputt!

Best of luck, Puttputt!

In other news, got a QUERY rejection today (from a query sent in November! )

Publishing's weird like that - I got a request for a full from an agent I'd written off as "no response" a month after the agent I subsequently signed with had actually sold the book!

Got a new R today! It's still exciting.

Editor said I have a strong voice and that the writing is engaging but that the plot is too gritty for her.

What does that mean to you? I'm guessing because it is a young adult novel and there are some elements of violence/strong language/adult content that she means it's a bit too rough around the edges for her.

If so, I don't feel all that bad about the R. Onward and upward!

Spikeman, I love your attitude! I mean, I'm sorry about the R, but I agree, they are kind of exciting. I'm still so new to this that anything other than an empty inbox is exciting.

Speaking of which.... still empty inbox for me. "Only" going into my third month on sub though, so I'm trying really, really hard to be patient and not bug my agent with "why doesn't anyone like me????" emails. My writing got derailed last weekend by allergies, so I spent the better part of the weekend snoozing in a Benadryl coma. The cats were happy, at least. But I'm picking away at the WIP again.

Haven't gotten any of those after-the-fact query responses yet, but I did get a query rejection during my agent-nudge period on a query that was 11 months old, two rewrites and a title change ago!

polishmuse - Oh my goodness, I've had that happen before. Like after I got a book offer, too!

spikemann - Ooh a complimentary R! Those suck but they're validating as hell. It sounds like your book is awesome, just not her style. No worries there.

Jeneral - I feel you. *hugs* It's hard no matter if you're getting passes or crickets. Hang in there!

Well, today is my birthday!!

But I also got some sad news. My editor is leaving Diversion Books, and so they're going to assign me another one in the coming weeks. I'm really sad because I loved her ideas for the project and looked forward to working with her, but she called me and we had a nice conversation and she apologized for not being there for my book release. Still thankful for her in advocating for the book from the beginning.

I also asked her if she'd read my second book, which is on sub now. She said she's only read the first few pages, but she "loves it" so far and another editor is currently looking at it. Ahh.

Hope this week brings better news for everyone!

Spikeman - That's a good R to get. Here's to hoping you get no more Rs, though!

Jeneral - Ack, allergies! I'm typing this while sneezing like crazy, so I feel your pain. T_T *rubs incredibly itchy eyes* Hope you get an update from your agent soon.

Happy birthday, Pinkbow! Sorry to hear about your editor leaving. I hope the new editor is just as awesome.

I'm torn between editing an MS which I'm not confident is good enough to be worked on or moving on to a completely new project. How do you guys decide? Also, my agent sent me the list of editors for Round 2. It's a small round this time, only 5 editors. Ah well...

pinkbowvintage - Happy Birthday! Hope you have a lovely day. Shame about your editor moving on

Spikeman - I think that's more or less what the editor is saying there. It's a bit too adult/dark for her tastes in YA.

Putputt - How do you decide on that is a tricky one. I normally put a manuscript aside for a month or so and then go back to it, change the font, and read through with a very critical eye. Then it all comes down to how much fixing it might need.

Hah, I haven't had any of those long-delayed replies to queries, for my part I just never heard back from some of them.

Happy Birthday, Pink

Putputt--I have no good method for choosing. It's whatever I feel like doing more at the moment.

Hey, happy birthday Pinkbow!

Happy birthday PBV! Sorry about your editor sitch! Hopefully the next editor will be just as big an advocate for your project.

Cheering for you all! I'm aiming for a productive words day. I need to get off of social media to do that...

Pinkbow--Happy Birthday!!!!

PuttPutt--I think you usually know yes? If you are having doubts, it might be pretty telling. I would read through it after some time off, see how strongly you feel about it, and then decide. Even if you do move on to another project, it will still be lurking just in case you need to revisit it down the line.