Can we pretend that it hasn’t been almost a year since I updated this blog? That in my last post, I didn’t promise not to take longer than five months to update? Much has happened, I just haven’t written about it. But I have been writing. Let me catch you up on what’s what regarding my novel. After several rounds of submitting my novel to agents, over the course of about nine months, I have . . . [drumroll] . . . not found an agent. BUT, I did get three or four partial requests and two full requests (all from agents I would have loved to work with). And the agents who read the full manuscript basically told me the same thing: it’s good, but too bleak, or they felt too emotionally wrung out by the end. So I started to think about what I could do about this. And while I was thinking, I happened to surf over to the website of AK Small, author of the beautiful YA book, Bright Burning Stars (upon which the Amazon Prime movie Birds of Paradise is based), because I was thinking about including BBS as a comp title in my query letter. WELL, I learned there that the author does manuscript consultations, so I got in touch. AK Small very kindly responded and agreed to read my novel. She sent me a letter detailing her thoughts, marked the manuscript, and talked to me via Zoom for an hour. She was so kind and encouraging and thoughtful and detailed in her notes and our discussion. Her feedback very much aligned with the feedback I got from agents. Her strongest suggestion was to infuse lightness into the story, and we talked about ways to do that. After digesting these new ideas, I got back in touch with the brilliant editor Matthew Limpede of Limpede Ink, with whom I worked after completing my first draft. After working with him for three more months on this revision, this is what I have to say:

My new draft is complete, and I feel SOFRIGGINGOOD about it. I mean, I felt good about the last one, too, but if I’m being honest, I had a few nagging concerns that I was ignoring (the bleakness, the death of a particular character). I have to admit that I was thinking: Well, the agent will see how good the story is, and will help me fix these problems after they’ve offered me representation. Ha, how young and silly I was. As soon as I began revising, I knew I was making the right changes. As I progressed farther into the story, I started to feel more deeply about these characters and more certain about what I wanted for them; I believe this came from a significant change I made in the relationship between two of the main characters that allowed me to know them both so much better. But, as with any revision, it was stressful and there were times I wasn’t sure I was going to make it out the other side. On a related note, let’s talk about my dreams.

As I revised over the past three months, I had a recurring dream two to three times a week. It was about packing up and moving into a new house with my family. I was always terribly stressed in my dream, because there was so much to do. I would discover areas of the house I didn’t know existed, which were packed to the rafters with things I needed to sort through. Moving day was always looming and I never thought I’d get everything packed in time. Well, the day after my last meeting with Matthew, after which he’d read my revised final chapter and epilogue, which, we agreed, were done, aside from a few minor changes, I had a dream that moving day finally arrived and I got everything packed and moved in time—with the exception of one medium-sized box full of (get this…) pillows! Yep, my brain was like, “You did it! Well, except for these minor, lightweight edits, which you can handle without breaking a sweat. The brain is a fascinating organ.

I’ll soon resume the submission process. I’ve got a couple friends who are reading it now. I’m rethinking my comp titles, which have grown stronger as I’ve come to better understand the story. I’ve updated the synopsis of my book.

So: YAY!

Also, here’s a recent pic of my dogs, in case that’s what you’re here for:

I'M BACK, BABY