A Status on Writing

So, I'm still working on the back door pilot blog post. It's about 2/3 of the way complete at the moment. So it should be up sometime next week. But I wanted to drop by and share the latest on the writing and querying extravaganza.

On the writing front I started a new novel (Young Adult historical) last week. I'm about 10,000 words in so far (hoping to be at about 11,800 by the end of the day). It's an interesting story about the son of a slave owner who escapes with a young slave boy and their journey to freedom in the North but also their journey to finding happiness in each other. At least for a little while. This is not going to ultimately be a happy story for the main characters. But being an interracial couple in 1850s America wasn't likely to be very happy to begin with.

This leads me to the query front. As you know, beginning in November, I sent out 23 queries. I've gotten 14 rejections and I closed out the remaining 9 because I didn't hear anything and took that as to mean "no response means no". I know it seems premature that I'm stopping the query process with Pharaoh, but my heart just isn't in it right now. I believe, in order to be successful, you have to be really committed to the project and I just don't feel that is the case right now.

I plan to finish the current YA novel by mid-February, revise in March and hopefully find some good betas for it. I think I wiill likely try to query this project over the summer and see what happens.

A short update and things to come

Hi everyone. I just wanted to stop by the blog during finals to give a quick query report and what's coming up next on the blog. I've just got my Evidence exam left until I'm officially 1/2 done with law school. Kind of can't believe it. It feels good to be closing in though.

I have sent out 23 queries so far and received 12 rejections. Yes, for those of you doing the math, that's a 50% rejection rate. I'm not overly pleased myself. But I've got 11 queries still out there floating around and I'm going to let them do their thing until January. I'll pick up the process anew then.

I'm also gearing up, once finals are done, to do a blog post about the success of back door pilots. So look for that in the near future.

News to Share

Hey everyone. Sorry I've disappeared again. Things have been very crazy the last couple of weeks. School has taken over my life as it tends to do when the semester is nearing a close.

I've also been working on this year's NaNo novel, titled THE DEITY TALISMANS, a sequel to PHARAOH'S LINK. I'm nearly halfway done with the first draft of the manuscript. I've been enjoying my NaNo '10 experience. Boston writers are just awesome. I'm looking forward especially do the 24-hour writing event next weekend. Roving writing will rock.

But on a more serious note, I've some important news to share. On November 3, my agent and I parted ways amicably. Things just weren't going the way I'd hoped and in the interest of my career, I chose to end our contract. EUTERPE'S SONG went out to many top publishers and I hope one day I can try again with the manuscript. But right now, I need to move forward with a different project.

So, starting to today I am back to sending out queries for PHARAOH'S LINK. I've sent out six queries so far and will keep you updated on the stats as I get responses.

Novel excitment and other writing bits

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I received my first request for the full manuscript of Euterpe's Song yesterday. I'll be mailing out the hard copy this afternoon and hopefully I will hear some good things in a few weeks.

As for the rest of the query stats; I've sent 23 query letters, recieved 10 rejections and I have 2 oustanding partials.

On a somewhat related note, I'm beginning research for a new young adult novel set in the 1970s. I'll be doing some fun browsing the Massachusetts General Law on adoptions.