My first novel is ready to query!

I just had to share my happiness. Last year at this time I was halfway through the rough draft - my first ever - and was puzzling over a big plot twist. It was making me rather grumpy and I remember driving through the snow on New Year's Day thinking, 'well, if nothing else, this time next year, I'll have a finished manuscript.' After a year of writing, finding critique partners, and multiple revisions, that prediction has come true. I thought I was done in August and sent a couple test queries and entered a contest, but then I had second thoughts about its readiness. I've since cut 12,000 words and completely overhauled my query.

So here I am nearing New Year's again. I could keep revising forever, I'm sure, but I'm making it my goal to stop messing with it and start querying in January. After all, I have new projects I can't wait to give my full attention to.

Thanks so much for the kind thoughts, everyone!

I just brought down my word count to 90K after removing another big chunk that really only served as a seed for what would be a sequel. It's funny what you get attached to and are slow to see as extraneous, but I'm slowly getting much better at that!