Fear of Success

I'm not really afraid of success. I don't think. But I do have to stop submitting to agents on the faith that they won't request materials, because now I'm afraid I've blown my chance with the only two who will ever request materials.

The good news: I am two for two in queries resulting in requested materials.

The bad news: I had to pull a synopsis out of my butt because one of the reasons I queried this agency was because they didn't require one. Lo and behold when they requested my first three chapters, they also requested a synopsis.

The other bad news: Because of the synopsis frenzy, I forgot that in Chapter Two I had place marked something with an asterisk that I had recently added because the last line is a bit of plagiarism from Glee that I put in with the intention of changing it later so as not to interrupt my flow. So it is 1)plagiarism that is 2) wildly inappropriate and 3) marked with an asterisk to ensure she won't skim past it without noticing it.

And she told me in her e-mail she had an eight to twelve week turn around time so I have around that long to dwell on my idiocy.

Sad Face

The agent who requested my full manuscript e-mailed me a few minutes ago letting me know she was passing. I knew it would happen, because I have sent off all of one query letter and it simply isn't that easy, but it's still pretty disappointing.

I think overall it's for the best. I mean, I have a lot of respect for this agent and I'd be really pleased for her to represent me but the two short stories I'm working on for anthologies right now are both fantasy stories and I'm having a lot of fun writing them. It's so much fun that I'm considering going that direction for my next novel, and she is very clear that she does not represent fantasy so it possibly wouldn't have worked out in the long term anyway.

And even though all that's true, I've still got a hole in my stomach over it. Especially because her stated reason was that she couldn't connect emotionally to the main character. She was very nice about it, but it's one of those things that isn't an easy fix, and could possibly not need fixing if it's a situation where not everyone connects to everything but there's no real way to know which it is.

Ugh.

Lets hug and jump up and down

A short story I submitted a while back is totally going to be published!

The editor had some minor notes plus he feels the ending needs to be "more satisfying" but overall he said I have the skills to be an excellent short story writer and he's really interested in working with me now and in the future.

I like the ending, but I wrote this story specifically for this call for submission so it's not like I can take my ball and go home. And it will be great for me to have something to put in the writing credits section of my novel query letters. Plus, I have a theory that artistic integrity might be for suckerz.

Yay!

OMG It's Done!

I wrote something! It's 255 pages in manuscript format! At least several people will ever read it!

It's not really done actually but I think it's as done as I can get it without some time apart and some other eyes on it.

But still...Woot!