I’ve not been very good at keeping up with the blogging. While I could give you a list of excuses…let’s not and say we did.
The work on the novel, however, continued in my online absence. I completed my sentence review (during which I read every sentence carefully in order to ensure it was its best self) despite the delays the work introduced. It speaks to my particular form of mental illness that I enjoyed that process. After finishing that effort, I returned to Act II of the novel and attempted once again to break free of the middle muddle. Unfortunately, I’m too close to the story again. Something tells me that the last effort of cutting, combining and re-writing did most of the job and now I’m just chewing my cud.
That said, the pacing of Act III still draws in the reader in a way that neither of the first two acts do. That’s probably normal and I’m just paranoid.
So the big news is that I submitted the novel to an agent today. It’s out there now. In public. For better or for worse. I’ve graduated to serious aspiring author from everyday aspiring author status.
The submission guidelines were for a full manuscript in Word format, double spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt type, in addition to the query email. My query seems moderately compelling after a couple weeks of writing and re-writing. It sounds unusual enough that I’d want to take a closer look, at least. Odds are that this agent, who represents an author I love, will reject my submission but I’m wallowing in positivity at the moment. Who knows: maybe I’ll be that unusual story of the first query submission resulting in a signing. And then I’ll win the lottery, solve the problem of cold fusion, discover the fountain of youth and finally get that money tree in my backyard to bloom.
Wish me luck!