Just finished a Booker nominated novel (from a previous year) and felt thoroughly underwhelmed. Did I miss something?
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It's been too long, Litopia..! That's what happens when an engrossing new job (school Librarian) intersects with a writing deadline.
Hello everyone, lovely to be back <waves>
Hello Litopians and Happy New Year!
Sorry I haven't been around lately. Had another knock-back when my MS was rejected, but have now resolved to run it past an editor one more time. I've also found an interesting looking indie publisher which is asking for exactly the kind of MG series I'm writing. AND my new copy of W&A Yearbook has arrived, which is always cheering. Onward and onward
Woah.... that was intense. Just finished the latest re-draft. It feels more right than ever (but who am I to judge? I thought the previous drafts were right too..!)
Anyway, nice to be back *waves*
<quick wave>
I've been frantically re-drafting, following the TLC MS appraisal I got back a few weeks back. Hence my quietness in Litopia.
I know authors aren't supposed to submit their work until it's ready, but I keep thinking it IS ready, sending out a few submissions...then realising it wasn't ready after all... re-drafting, being pleased with the results and thinking it's ready again and...you get the picture.
MS is back, after coming under the eagle-beady eye of another lit. editor.
Work to do then, but feeling very promising.
First request for my full MS...yay!
I realise it may yet come to nought, but SOMEBODY IN PUBLISHING WANTS TO READ TO THE END.
*chuffed*
Have started a MG short story about the wholesale destruction of homework.
As a teacher and mother of two school-age kids, this is very therapeutic.
Head too full of the new term, writing reduced to bite-sized chunks advertising extra-curricular activities to have much time for fiction.
BUT I have re-submitted my main WIP for appraisal in the hope it might help me out the cul-de-sac I feel I'm in.
Have been slicing words, sentences, sometimes whole paragraphs from my MS and have managed to reduce the overall word count by 8 percent, or just over a thousand words. Good news.
Bad news: it's still a little on the long side.
Another rejection, then. But the KINDEST one yet. And personalised, too, which is unusual. This time the agent read my submission straight away (it was a faster respnse time than when I previously queried the same agency), which suggests my pitch, at least, hit the spot.
(Skylark was the agency concerned, if anyone's interested. Children's authors specialists.)
Bristol (UK) still bewitches me....
But there seem to be so many lost souls here now.
Meanwhile, just had a submission burst. Here goes nothing... (probably)...
My brain has been festivalised...it's full of glitter, beats and smiles.
Judges for this year's Branford Boase literary prize say they want to see more magical adventures for children (and fewer domestic dramas).
The CLPE bemoans the fact that only 1% of children's books published in 2017 featured a BAME character.
OY, LIT. AGENTS! BOTH BOXES TICKED HERE, PLUS HUMOUR, EXCITEMENT AND A BRAIN-NOODLING TIME PARADOX.
I mean, for crying out loud.
*cries out loud*
Feverishly, obsessively re-writing Ch.1, Book 1.
Will I ever be satisfied with it, I wonder?
So, I experimentally queried a US agent and got the most impressively fast rejection of my writing career to date. It didn't beat the current Litopia record of 37 minutes, but it was within five hours. And it was on a Sunday.
I'm actually quite concerned about this agent's work/life balance...
Have turned rejection into action. Query letter (which was fine, but nothing special, I suspect) has been revamped and first three chapters tweaked (again).
Here goes.
Hello Rejection, my old friend....
Book Three is now plotted. I haven't got the main "wow" moment in, but that tends to come with the writing.
Unusually, I've started at Chapter One. Which has reminded me why I don't usually do that.
I'm fascinated by the Playmobil diorama subculture. Yet another wonder discovered while researching my next writerly adventure.
Imagination is a SUPER POWER... -
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