They definitely aren't going down any easier. Just another Jagged Little Pill. The agent was very pleasant and thoughtful in her email, which is so very appreciated. Worlds better than the generic 'pass' reply, if we're lucky enough to get one of those. But I'd still take that over Eternal Silence which is both deafening and maddening. Did they even receive me query/sample chapter/full submission upon request? Or did it end up in junk mail, never to seen again? Was it so awful they can't quite muster up a polite decline? Just a number of the questions dancing in my head during the waiting game.
And although I am disheartened to receive another 'Thanks but no thanks,' I am pleased to have the agent refer to Tumble Into Me as a High-Concept premise. A small glimmer of good which I will try to cling to. It can always get better. Right? Well, if the statistics alone don't make a writer want to sit in a corner, rocking back and forth while mumbling incoherently, I don't know what will.
But, tomorrow is another day. And all we can ever hope is to continue to improve ourselves and better our abilities. That's what I'll continue to do. Write. Edit. Delete. Learn. Write. Edit. Delete. Learn. And so it goes.
For right now though, and over the next two months or so, I'm going to spend some time editing and completing two other stories that have been on the back burner. Maybe entice the muse with some new fresh story ideas, breathe life onto new pages, into new characters.
In the nearer future, hopefully over the upcoming weekend, I'll need to decide if it's financially the best idea to attend National Romance Writer's Association Writer's Conference in San Diego this July. I *had* hoped I would have some good news by now (rookie mistake, clearly), which would warrant the expensive but important trip, especially for networking etc. As it is, I haven't 'leveled up' yet, and with the Canadian Dollar being so atrocious, adding more than 40% to the cost, it's making me reconsider RWAs as well as a Crew Reunion cruise in October. Perhaps, this year will be about staying close to home, reading, writing, regrouping, and save the bigger trips like RWA for another year; hopefully when I have some good news to share around. Or, you know, when I win the lottery.
That's it for me these days. How's your 2016 starting out?