A Year In Conclusion

At the beginning of every year, there's often a song that sort of speaks to me, which I pick as my "anthem" for the year. My theme song. 2010, I believe it was Change by Taylor Swift. 2011 it was Seasons of Love from Rent.

I picked 2012's theme song early on. Long Live by Taylor Swift. It seemed natural to me. It was the song that described exactly what I wanted my year to be: "Long live all the mountains we moved, I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you..." Obviously I wanted to spend the year fighting dragons. Metaphorical dragons, at the very least.

By the time March hit, I'd been listening to this song a lot. A lot, a lot. I'd also been querying a lot, and I'd had some promising requests and other not-so-promising rejections. HEAPS of rejections, but the requests stuck out a bit more. I was starting to get a little hopeful, and a little crazy at the same time.

The day I received, out of nowhere, a phone call from an agent who offered revision suggestions on my manuscript was the day I made an insane pact with myself: I couldn't listen to my theme song anymore until I signed with an agent.

HA, I said.

WHY WOULD I DECIDE TO DO THAT, I said.

After all, absolutely nothing pointed to the fact that I would actually sign with an agent anytime in the next week month decade. Sure, an agent had taken the time to dial my number. Sure, he'd had nice things to say about the opening of the novel, but that didn't mean anything was actually going to happen. That didn't mean he - or anyone - would like the revision.

But I'm a strange person sometimes, and I apparently like to make weird pacts with myself, so I made one that day. And after I'd made it, I couldn't bring myself to go back on it. I couldn't get three notes into Long Live without frantically switching to the next song.

Thanks to All That Is Good and Holy in the Universe, I didn't have to go without listening to the song for too long. Two months, to be exact.

I can't tell you how pleased I was the day I signed with Alison Fargis of Stonesong and allowed myself to blast Long Live in my car with the windows down. "The night you danced like you knew our lives would never be the same."

Well, the story doesn't exactly end there, because you should know by know that I'm a VERY odd person, dear readers. And I love making ridiculous pacts with myself. Sooo now we come to the next major stage of my year....

Submission Hell.

Except it wasn't hell. At least, not in the sense you're thinking of: fire and brimstone and all that jazz. Not even, really, in the metaphorical sense: a writer ripping his/her hair out for months on end.

Extraction went out to editors on October 9th, two days after my twentieth birthday. The week earlier, a brand-new story idea had struck my brain, and I was in the early days of jotting words down on paper. So, it was easy for me to let Extraction slide to the back of my mind for a bit. For a couple days, at least. See, I actually kept a sporadic journal during this time, so I can show you exactly how my thought process went:

October 10, 2012 12:17am
I don’t know how I’m going to get through this. (Okay, well, I was actually really nervous at first)

October 12, 2012 12:08am
I thought it had been longer than a day [October 13 update: oh wait, it was]…anyway. Didn’t worry too much about subs today. [name redacted] (translation: his girlfriend) was slightly more of an issue. The Result: Five minutes ago, I decided to name one of my characters [name redacted] I.E., [name redacted]’s girlfriend from the Desolate.

HA, okay. *forces self to stop laughing*

My posts thereafter went back and forth between comments like:

October 25, 2012 6:57am
THEY HATE IT DON’T THEY. NO ONE IS GOING TO BUY IT. LIKE EVER.

And:

November 19, 2012 10:47pm
Whatever happens, happens.

There were actually some other posts in there that were sort of depressing. Because of non-writing related things.

BUT ANYWAY, the good this year ended up outweighing the bad. My journal posts finally culminated in the glorious:

November 21, 2012 7:26pm
I am going to be a published author.

And I wept tears of joy.

But back to the whole Long Live thing. See, somewhere during these 43 days of submission, I once again made the crazy pact with myself: no more theme song until I signed with a publisher (actually, there was one other option, but I'll let y'all guess what that was. *snort*)

Once again, I was like WHY AM I DOING THIS and WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT and NOW I'M JUST GOING TO BE REALLY SAD BECAUSE I WON'T BE ABLE TO HEAR THE SONG EVER AGAIN, but I guess maybe it's a good thing I'm weird, because I went ahead with it, and that made it the coolest thing ever when I found out I had a publishing offer and let myself hear the song as a reward.

It was a beautiful moment. *sniffle*

All in all, I had a ridiculous year. I went through so many crazy emotions. Everything from terror (the spiders in my bedroom) to cautious hope (getting the email that said "can we set up a time to chat?") to heartbreak (crying in the shower) to pure and utter happiness (meeting my agent in NYC). There are so many more emotions and moments to come.

I've never been more grateful. I've never been more scared. I've never been more excited.

Dear readers, I want you to remember: every moment, every second of every day and every month and every year is ours. So don't waste it. Squeeze every drop of life out of this moment, and the next one, and the next after that, and make something beautiful out of it.

Remember this: We are infinite.

Long live all the magic we made, and bring on all the pretenders...

                                               One day, we will be remembered.

The Obnoxiously Long Story of How I Got An Offer

June 2, 2006. The day I sent my first query letter.

It was for an alternate history novel that took place in the Civil War era. That's all you'll ever hear about it.

Now, I was thirteen when I queried my first novel. I received a couple requests for it, which (not surprisingly) resulted in passes. But I also received encouragement from agents who knew my age and believed in a couple years my writing might be strong enough to sell. I will always be grateful for their words. Writing is what I've always loved to do, ever since I could write. The number of unfinished--and a couple finished--short stories in the journals in my closet is too high to count.

So, I set my first novel aside. I started some others and eventually settled on a fantasy for young adults. I have no idea how many revisions it went through over the couple years I worked on it. But in June of 2011 (yes, a long time later), I started querying.

From June to October, I sent out queries and landed a grand total of two requests. Beta readers had loved it--even the agents who read it admired the writing. So what was up with that?

Well, this is what I think:

A. It was a high fantasy, which few agents rep.
B. Angels and demons were involved--in a different way than in paranormal books, but their appearance in the query was probably a turn-off.

Whatever the reason, by October I decided to stop querying and set the book aside. I had simply spent too much time on it.

And a new idea was calling.

A moon.

A poisonous, giant moon looming in the sky. That's how Extraction began.

The idea came to me from a single line in a manuscript written by a dear friend of mine, the lovely Riley Redgate (who blogs over at In The Jungle). She mentioned a moon in the sky, and for some odd (but awesome) reason, I pictured it way bigger than it was actually supposed to be. And then wondered what the world would be like if the moon were poisonous.

In the summer of 2011, I wrote the first chapter for a book that involved this giant, poisonous moon. For a while, I set it aside, but in October, I was ready to dive in again. See, it was the week of my birthday (on October 7th). The idea had been developing in my head long enough that I knew I had something special, and I was determined to spit it out.

I set a goal for myself: I had until December 1st to write the first draft. I finished about seven days early.

People always say it's a good idea to step away from a manuscript before revising it, but I ignored them. I flew straight into revisions, found myself some beta readers, and had a query out January 9th.

Thereafter, I started getting rejections.

Oh my, I thought. The query had been polished and given the stamp of approval by many writer friends. What was going on?

I won a full request through a pitch contest online, so I had a feeling it was the query, not the premise or manuscript that was getting me rejections. I revised the query again. I tried a couple different versions. Still, nothing.

One day, I came across a query by a published author that inspired me to try something brand-new. I whipped up a new query and sent it out on February 13.

Reward: Partial Requests! Full Requests!

Sure, I was still getting rejections, but the requests were enough to get me excited. Finally, agents were reading my manuscript!

February 23, I got a call from an agent who had requested my full. No, this was not "the call." It was a wonderful agent who took the time to let me know he had started reading and stopped after a certain point. He explained why. He told me what was wrong with my novel and offered suggestions to fix it. And I am so glad he did. I owe a lot to him.

That evening, I started revisions. They took me a good month, as I rewrote half the manuscript.

I finished and started sending queries out again. On April 2, I received a request for revisions from another dear agent. These revisions took me about the same time, though they were of a different nature and, at least in my mind, not quite so major. Again, I was incredibly grateful for suggestions. It was clear to me by now that the manuscript I'd first queried was not anywhere near ready, but it was getting there.

Monday, May 1, the day before Insurgent's release, I deemed the manuscript ready to send out again. I resubmitted it to Dear Agent, and also to a number of others who had requested it right around that time.

me + Insurgent = happiness

The next Monday, I learned Dear Agent was passing. She had wonderful things to say, including interest in other manuscript ideas of mine, but her reason for passing (the current market) also made me realize something. Extraction was maybe not going to be the manuscript that would land me an agent.

But that was okay! I had another idea Dear Agent thought sounded intriguing, and I was eager to start writing it.

The next day, Tuesday, May 9, I was sitting in my acting class around 12:30pm PST when I noticed I had a new email. I opened it without really noticing who it was from.

I did a major double-take.

An agent--let's call her Agent 01--had finished Extraction, and not only had it made her cry, but she wanted to talk to me on the phone sometime in the next day or so. A phone call! dizhfghdgjdgl

Only, I'd had a phone call before. So, despite the fact that I audibly squealed, I didn't get my hopes up too much. I told myself it would be another call about revision suggestions.

The next day, I was actually driving when Agent 01 called. I pulled into the library parking lot as quickly as I could and answered before it went to voice mail.

Two minutes into the conversation, Agent 01 offered representation. And my world changed.

I texted my best friend right away. I drove home (I completely forgot to check the library for the book I had wanted) and let a couple others know. My parents came home, and I jumped up and down when I told them. I also sent out emails to the agents who were reading my manuscript or still had my query letter, letting them know I'd received an offer. About ten others were reading it, at the time. I gave them a week to get back to me.

The next day, I had an email from an agent who wanted to talk to me on the phone--only, it was going to be a call with her AND another agent from her agency. Intimidating, much?

I spoke to both of them the following morning. The first agent was the one I had queried, and she'd loved my manuscript, but she and the second agent (let's call her Agent 02) had decided the second had a better spot for me on her list. Agent 02 also loved my manuscript. Agent 02 offered representation.

I received two more offers before the week was up. Agents 03 and 04 were also enthusiastic. Every single one of them was professional and experienced, and all of them had small enough lists that I felt I'd receive the right amount of attention from each of them. Only one had revision ideas I wasn't quite sure about.

To put it lightly, it was a tough decision.

But in a way, it was also easy. The moment I began conversing with Agent 02, I was overwhelmed by her passion and drive. Not only did she adore Extraction, but she had her entire agency behind her. Her assistant had read it in a day. I had a built-in set of cheerleaders.

Even more than that, I felt like Agent 02 got my story more than the others, which was the most important thing. She compared parts of it to real-life events that I hadn't thought to compare it to before, but they fit. She had revision suggestions, but I agreed with them. And she wanted a sequel. I also wanted a sequel. ;)

From our first conversation, I felt Agent 02 really fought for the opportunity to represent me. I felt like she really wanted it. When it came time to decide, I went with her because she was the obvious choice for me.

Between the three manuscripts I've queried, I've sent out several hundred queries and received numerous rejections. I received twenty-six requests for my young adult sci-fi Extraction. Four offers. I accepted one of them.

I am delighted to have Alison Fargis of Stonesong as my agent. :)

I Have An Agent

So, some very cool things have happened in the past week and a half.

Namely...

I HAVE AN AGENT!!!

*throws confetti everywhere*

It's official now, because I've signed the contract. See:

My favorite pen in hand.

Look! The Doctors are happy, too!

I am pleased to announce that I am represented by the lovely Alison Fargis of Stonesong. The (obnoxiously long) story of how I got here will be up tomorrow!