Not the news I was looking for....

Some moments in life are destined to remind me of Star Wars.  "These are not the droids you're looking for."  Yesterday I received not the news I was looking for.

Agent X said Tales is still not ready.

Big Sigh.

Heading into the holidays this isn't what I wanted to hear.  Part of me wished the agent would have waited until January to share the news.  Another part is glad that I at least know and I can now spend a few extra days off in deep contemplation of what to do.  Do I keep editing the same work?  Do I get a professional to provide more feedback (maybe at a cost?)? Do I move on?

Seems to me like I have some thinking ahead.  Each of the options has it's light.  Editing the same work means I'm not giving up on it.  Getting a professional editor to provide more feedback means that I will be improving my skills.  Moving on  means I can focus more clearly on new projects.

Each of the options also has it's darkness.  Editing the same work can be tiresome and irritating and keeps me from working on new projects - some of which I believe to be much stronger.  Getting a professional editor to provide more feedback will cost me money and I may get a result that I don't agree with.  Moving on means giving up - or does it?  I could always self-publish, I suppose, and see where I go from there.

What do you think I should do?

Happy Happy Holidays

Who doesn't like that time of year where we all get time off to do nothing?  Or maybe you're the kind of person who gets time off and does everything!  That's usually how I am.  Currently, as I blogged the other week, I'm working on two projects:  Tales2 and SW.   Hopefully I get some extra words down over my all-too-short x-mas vacation (if only I hadn't taken all that time off earlier this year). 

Good news is I heard from Agent X last week.  Still no review - but an encouraging email that Agent X will get around to reading it soon, and is really looking forward to it.  So, to sum it up, it's been 2 - almost 2.5 - months, and I'm still waiting to hear back from an agent.  Rest assured, this is normal.  And it gives me time to work on other projects.

And I love my other projects.

In order to get pumped for the writing (and reworking) of Tales2, I spent time in Surrey in late November and took a couple of pics to inspire myself.  Below is one of the rainy days I spent walking around. 

What gets you pumped for your projects?  (Whether it be writing or something else - I'm curious)

Apologies

I'm pretty sure that I oon't have any regular readers - but for the thousands that do wait impatiently for my next words, I'm sorry for the long absence from my blog.  I finished Tales edits in early October and sent the updated draft to Agent X who had asked for the rewrite.  It's approaching two months now and I haven't heard anything back.  This is normal.

I tell myself this everyday.  And then I begin to dream about big contracts or turning around and self-publishing.  Whichever way it happens I will be happy.  I wrote a book, I finished it.  Now I need to work on something else.

Which is my main excuse for the long absence of blogging: too many projects.  It's not a bad thing, right?  I can work on multiple projects and spend all my time playing around in the world of the imaginary.  Which brings me to what I am currently working on:  the next book in the Tales Trilogy (I'll call it Tales 2), and an entry for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award which you can read about at the following link if you are interested.  Entries are due in January which means I have a lot of work to do over the holiday season.

http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011 

So again, I'm sorry for the absence.  I'm going to get back to my weekly postings of my experience trying to get published. 

See you next week.