Things I'm Excited About
A roundup of good news, writing wins, and summer plans
I’m back. I spent the last month in Germany, visiting my husband’s family and eating all the potatoes. Now that I’m home and resettled, I’ve been feeling really excited. I’m excited that I’m excited. I thought I would share some of the excitement with you.
Seven Things I’m Currently Excited About
A Critique Partner Got Multiple Offers of Representation
In February, I was a Beta Reader for my Critique Partner’s book. I’d read part of an earlier draft, but I wanted to read the whole story. After giving her my feedback, she started querying. I recently checked in with her and learned that she had multiple offers of representation from agents and signed with one. Now she’s getting her manuscript ready to go on submission, which is pitching the book to editors and hoping one of them will buy it. I can’t wait for her book to be out in the world. I’m so excited for her. Dreams do come true.
A YA Portal Fantasy Was Recently Sold
What this means: an editor recently bought an author’s YA portal fantasy novel. Why this matters: I’m writing a YA portal fantasy novel. If editors are buying books like this, that means that the market has an appetite for a book like mine. A major part of selling a book is divine timing. If the market isn’t interested in the type of book I wrote, it can be really hard to sell it and get it traditionally published. I’m going to be keeping an eye out for Charlaine Harris’ book!
Upcoming Book Pitch Opportunities
I’m attending a few writing conferences in June, where I will be pitching my book to a few agents. One of them will be in person! I’m kinda terrified, but learning how to sell my book is a very important skill.
Author Guests on the Podcast
On the Let’s Get Cozy Book Club podcast, this summer, we have three amazing authors lined up to be on the podcast. I’m so excited to read and discuss their books, then have them on the podcast!
It’s Almost Summer
Saturday was sultry and sunny. My husband and I went to read at the beach. It was very windy, so we didn’t last long. During those thirty minutes, I burnt the backs of my legs. While I don’t love that, I am very excited to spend a ton of time at the beach this summer, enjoying our last year in Sheboygan.
Good Time to Finish My Manuscript
It’s writing competition season. (I don’t know if that’s actually true, but it feels that way because a lot of deadlines have been in April or May.) I have applied to four writing competitions and will be applying to one more. It is a perfect time to almost be finished with my manuscript.
Got My Synopsis down to One Page
Every agent wants something different. Some want a three-page synopsis, while others want one or two pages. I needed to get mine down to one, and it has been hovering around 1.5 pages for a while. I was ecstatic to cross the one-page mark. I felt unstoppable, which was awesome, because earlier this week I learned I hadn’t won one of the writing competitions I’d applied to. However, I learned a lot from the experience. For example:
I was surprised to find myself having a hard time waiting to hear the results. I was constantly checking email, social media, and websites for updates. And I was on vacation, so I was pretty busy and fairly distracted. I’m going to need much better boundaries when I’m querying. I love the idea of using a separate email account that I check only when I’m in a good state of mind.
I reflected on my first pages and came up with a way to improve them. I fear that my Female Main Character’s (FMC) voice isn’t strong enough, which basically means that she doesn’t stand out enough from every other FMC. When the words started flowing to me, I was very excited.
Whether I win or not doesn’t mean my book is good. It doesn’t mean that my book will or will not get an agent or published either. It might boost my confidence, and it’s something cool to add to my query.
Conclusion
I’ve really been enjoying May! I’m being called to grow and expand and feel really good about it. I’m excited to see what will come from it all and what surprises this summer has in store.
What is something you’re excited about? Feel free to share!
Book Talk
As mentioned before, I love books set in Egypt and eagerly anticipated Saara El-Arifi’s retelling of Cleopatra. The story spans Cleopatra’s life, from her childhood as a Pharaoh to her love affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony, and her loss of Egypt to Octavian. I enjoyed discovering new facts about her, such as her fluency in nine languages and her education in healing remedies. I also appreciated learning how her myth spread and considering who wrote her history, and how accurate it really might be.
Sending you lots of May flowers,
Liza