Where I Am

I completed my initial manuscript of Sweet Divinity early in 2014.  It began as my project in a Creative Writing class I was teaching in 2013, and I aimed to complete it before my second child arrived in 2014.  Thank goodness it worked, because there is no way anyone could find the time to work on a manuscript with a newborn baby in the house.  Besides the obvious time constraints, the lack of a functioning brain would no doubt prevent anything literary from taking shape!

I spent the summer lying down, as my baby was humongo and even walking across the room was a challenge for my lungs.  But while I was lying down, I polished my manuscript and began work on researching routes for publication.  Back in my early twenties, in the early 2000s (Ah! What a time!), I had sent out query letters to several agencies regarding a young adult manuscript I had titled Bittersweet Sixteen, and a couple years later for another manuscript, Slings and Arrows.  I hadn't gotten a single bite.  So I took an almost ten year hiatus from submitting to really figure some things out:

1. What genre of writing did I wish to write?
2. What genre of writing should I actully write?
3. Did I really believe, with all of myself, in the mannuscripts I had submitted in the past?
4. Was I really in a place in my life to take on marketing and promoting my work?
5. Did I really believe in myself as a writer?

In the meantime, I was working on a literary fiction manuscript with a workng title of The Case.  I don't mind telling you that I am still working on this manuscript.  It has been workshopped three times, totally rewritten once, and it haunts me every day.  I love this piece.  Love it.  And I'm keeping it close until it reveals its entire self to me.  So we wait.

After I finished the initial manuscript of The Case (now working titled Miranda), I began Sweet Divinity.  It sprung from a story one of my closest friends told me about her childhood, and as I wrote her story, Amanda Jane's began.  Amanda Jane is the protagonist, and she's a lot like me.  In fact, as I sat to write, the words were flowing so quickly, so easily, because so much of Amanda Jane's story was my own.

So in August 2014, I sent out a slew of query letters to agents across the United States, and then I had my baby.

I received one request for a full manuscript, and I was thrilled.  For about a month.  I was then heartbroken (the whole "new baby" thing may have played a role in the totally literary breakdown that followed) when an agent who represented authors I enjoy told me that she loved the manuscript, but did not know how to market it.

So I put my manuscript aside until May 2016 when I contracted pneumonia.
I know what you're thinking, "Who gets pneumonia in the summer?"  I do, of course!
My friends told me that it was very literary to contract pneumonia.  I agreed and added that I was thrilled that it wasn't tuberculosis, which would be the epitome of literary but also quite tragic.

While I was once again spending my summer lounging around the house (not as much fun when the baby is now toddling around, randomly pressing buttons on your computer to add to your work), I decided that perhaps I should give ol' Sweet Divinity another try.  Because I truly believe in this manuscript.  I truly believe in Amanda Jane.

But this time would be different.  I had a plan.

First, I read the manuscript again and made several changes and many tweaks.  Each time I did so, the work got stronger and I realized that as much as I loved the story, it hadn't been complete.
Next, I went back to my query letter, which sounded weak and absolutely inauthentic.  I scratched it and, remembering the previous comment on marketing, dedicated a paragraph to why this work fills a void in the market and what I am prepared to do to help it sell.
Finally, I researched agents who are interested in my genre and who had represented clients like me.  I also looked for new agents who might be building a list and so would perhaps be looking for someone new to the scene.

I sent my letters, and I was thrilled when I received a number of requests for the full manuscript.

So here I am.  Waiting.  So much of this early stage is waiting.  But I don't mind.  I've come so far with this manuscript, and I believe in it so thoroughly.

It's absolutely worth waiting for.

MPK


PS: What I'm reading this week:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Private Lives of the Tudors by Tracy Borman
Scat by Carl Hiaasen