Luray Caverns

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend a week with friends in Bristow, Virginia. We had hoped for warmer weather than in the frigid north, but unfortunately, we brought the Siberian air mass with us. Enough snow to close down the federal government, including the Smithsonian and National Aquarium in Baltimore for a day.

 

But before the cold air struck, we had the chance to tour nearby Luray Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley. It was my second time touring the caverns, but the place never ceases to amaze me. So other-worldly. I am always looking for inspiration, and I find that real settings are often that inspiration. We took a guided tour, spending about an hour underground among fantastical rock and mineral formations. I like to listen carefully to the history of a place, and sometimes even a piece of history is a seed for a story. Once I have a place for a story, characters start forming, plot starts developing.

 

Among all those orange, gold and white stalactites that look like remants of a long-forgotten desert, I think there must be fodder for a story setting.

Picking an Agent

The agent search continues. I’ve read some articles by published authors on how to find an agent. One writer said that although she felt she wasn’t supposed to, she queried several agents at the same time. I’m following her lead. In the past three days I’ve queried five agents.

It's time consuming and a bit nerve racking. You need to send the query letter, but each agent also wants a different amount of the story -- some 10 pages, some the first chapter, some are as vague as "the first few chapters." Some want it double spaced, some apparently don't care. Some agents request that you include your email address in the query -- which is baffling -- wouldn't they just need to reply to your original email? Anyway, I keep plugging,  knowing this is my one and only shot with this agent, hoping that the segment they request is enough to pique their interest.

I’ve rewritten my query letter. I like this one much better than my first. I think I nailed the summary of Relic more accurately, and I’ve included more information about myself. I really want an agent who believes in the story as much as I do. I love Samantha Whitaker, the way she grows and changes, and the way she starts to believe in someone other than herself. I love that Sam takes a stand for someone who has no voice and helps her find her place in the world. I’m hoping to find an agent who has the patience to see the manuscript through to the end and becomes as proud of Samantha as I am.

My First Agent Attempt

Now that Relic is complete, I need to find an agent. I contemplated self-publishing, but someone – sorry, can’t remember who – advised me that because Relic was a young adult book, I could be leaving out middle school libraries as one of my top clients. Since I adore my middle school library and the librarian who runs it, I couldn’t let that happen. The search for an agent began.

I googled “young adult literary agent.” I love Google, and I love Writer’s Digest. Put them together and I found exactly what I needed. I read several agent descriptions and found one I thought was perfect. Without naming names, she had the same last name as one of my favorite protagonists, she liked many of the same books I enjoyed including some more obscure titles, she was looking for a genre that fit my book, and she looked pleasant – like someone I wouldn’t mind having for a friend. And since I anticipate this process to be long and complicated, I would need a friend to see me through. I felt a connection. She didn’t want multiple submissions, and so I sent a query and sampling of Relic, “as per her submission guidelines.”

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No response. Rejection assumed.

Oh, well. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

The Dream

I started writing Relic years ago. So many years ago, the first parts of the manuscript were written on a Brother word processor. So many years ago, that without going back to look, I don’t know which parts I wrote first, what my process was. I stalled myself, sometimes almost purposefully, it seemed.

But I wanted to finish my novel. I wanted to try to publish. Why would I undermine myself?

About a year ago, I set a personal goal to finish my book. It was about that time that I watched Tangled with my oldest daughter. A scene caught my conscience. Rapunzel and Eugene are waiting for the lights, and Rapunzel says, “I’ve been looking out of a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it’s not everything I dreamed it would be?” Eugene assures her it will be.

But Rapunzel retorts, “And what if it is? What do I do then?”

Eugene counters with advice that struck my soul. “Well, that’s the good part I guess. You get to find a new dream.”

I have allowed myself to achieve my first dream. Relic is completed. For years I’ve been looking out that metaphorical window wondering what it would feel like, and now, the accomplishment I feel is tremendous. I have taken this dream farther than I ever thought I would. Not only is it finished, but it has been through the round of Beta readers and an editor. I’ve gotten by with a little help from my friends.

And now I allow myself a new dream: to publish Relic. And the start of my next manuscript.