Where did the summer go?  And what a summer it was ...

I didn't finish Cleveland like I'd hoped.  In fact, at the PNWA conference I attended in July, I pitched Collected just for the heck of it.  My appointments were on the last day so I spent the first two talking to people about the concept.  They responded so well that when the time came to pitch I asked the agents and editors if they wanted the concept pitch or the back-of-the-book pitch.  I only had one agent turn me down and that was because the editors she works with want romance, and Collected does not have a romantic end.  One agent stopped me as I was getting up from our 3-minute speed pitch and told me I'd done the perfect pitch!  I walked away with two requests for partials, a request for a full, and a request for the full and the series outline from a major editor.  I also walked away with a request for my latest picture book from an editor that had turned down my first children's book last year.

How has it shaken out?  The full from an agent I really wanted to work with was rejected. After 50 rejects, disappointing but not unexpected.  The agent I thought had done a courtsey request for a partial turned it down.  The other partial turned into a request for a full the day after I sent it in.  He's still got it.  I've nudged him for he's rejected everthing else he requested that's been logged on QueryTracker.  No word yet so I'm crossing my fingers.  No word yet from anyone else who has it, including the publisher who was referred Collected back in June (I'm assuming that's a pass).  And the children's book publisher/editor liked my children's book but didn't love it, so she passed.  I'm still counting it as a win since she'd hacked last year's work to pieces.

I feel like I'm inching toward needing to change my reference name on this blog.  Just like I'm inching toward finishing Cleveland.  I was writing daily on Cleveland and then wham! at the end of July I wrote myself right out of the feeling.  I did such a good job shutting my character off from feeling all the chaos swirling around her that I could no longer tap into her developing feelings for the other character - right around the corner from their falling in love!  (cue the Rightous Brothers)

I've gone back and read the parts where the story was working.  I've written the scene in my head at least a hundred times.  What finally worked was to concentrate on how she felt at those times that worked.  Why she liked hanging out with him.  It's not 100% yet.  I'm not as in love with him as I think I/she needs to be yet.  "But why do YOU need to be in love with him?" I hear you ask.  Because the characters in books/movies/TV that we fall in love end up being the ones that we care about.  And when we care about them, we want to spend time with them, recommend them to our friends.  Dave needs to be someone that the reader has fallen in love with so that they're cheering Angela on.  If I can't do that, how can they?

So I'm going to leave you, go take a shower (a place where I seem to do my best thinking), and go get back to work. Until next time ...