Day #8782 - Have Hope

Well readers, now that some of that excitement I had mentioned in my last post has come and gone, I now feel free to tell you exactly what it was because I no longer have to fear jinxing anything.

I haven't been sending out new query letters for a while now. My story didn't get an overwhelming response by any means in my posts during WriteOnCon and while I have sent many many many queries, I've been stuck in the land of form rejections. Every. Single. Time. Despite multiple drafts of that letter and trying different approaches, maybe the big problem is that my pitch is bad because no one was interested.

Until 12 days ago.

Twelve days ago I finally got what I referred to as a "not a rejection letter" when I called my mother to tell her about. An agent who I had queried nearly two months before finally replied with a request for a full! There was much happy dancing at this news. Finally, someone was at least willing to give my story, my baby, this manuscript I have loved with every ounce of myself for two years, a second look. I didn't get my hopes up, but it still felt great.

Now yesterday, I got the ending that is most common in this business and on this rocky road: another form rejection, though very politely written, from this agent saying this just wasn't for her. And that's okay. Am I bummed? Of course. Especially when I also got two other form rejections from other agents I'd sent initial queries to a few months ago at the same time.

But as the great Meg Cabot has said, "You're not a hundred dollar bill. Not everyone is going to like you."

Still, my 12 days of having a chance were great, and at least I had that. It's 12 more days than I had before, and maybe it'll happen again. In the meantime, I've taken a break from sending more queries for a variety of reasons, and I still write every single day. Maybe some day this particular dream of mine will come true, but if not, there are still many other ways I'm blessed and there's always room for hope.

So that's where my writing journey currently stands. I'd still love for you guys to check out my first ever short story, Exposed, which is published over on Figment.com and is/was my entry for the Defy the Dark contest.

Until next time....