The Trendsetter

…And the replies trickled in… …rejection, rejection and more rejection. The anti-gray men’s hair TV commercial with the nasty buzzer kept playing over and over in my mind - REJECTED!

Then the next few emails asked for a partial. What? Are they serious? Yipeee!!!

Well, until I get a request for a full, I’m not so over it. And the waiting game goes on…

So that is pretty much what is happening in the land of writing. I’m used to hearing the word “rejected” considering my day job that deals with customers. In my early years in my handmade bag business, I came face to face with customers who see my beautiful handbags, touched them; slung them over their shoulders only to say right to my face, “This is easy. I can make this myself.” Next, “Eww, it’s not, that good,” and flung it back at me. My face turned red like a cooked shrimp. I wished I could be invisible and be like that other TV commercial that says, “Want to get away?…”
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Last year (only a couple of weeks ago) I blogged about my effort of writing the best query letter I possibly could. And I did. I was so proud of it and after rewriting and tinkering with it from every angle; I finally set about my plan to send it to literary agents.

Only I didn’t.

I had those nagging feelings that something is still not quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I reread my query for what seemed about a million times until my eyes got crossed. The query was long, about two pages and the more I read it the more I hated it.

Then, I did the unthinkable. Continue reading »

So writer, what is your new year’s resolution? I’m sure if you plan to start writing the novel you have been hiding for so long, then this is the perfect time to go for it. Or if some of you still haven’t finished writing the one from last year, then get on with it and hurry.

Me? Well, I need to start the process of writing another novel this month. I’m sure the story is strong enough to reach the end. I hate it when I reach the middle then suddenly get stuck, run out of gas and don’t know what to do. I usually outline each chapter, but when I start to write them, suddenly the scenes I reserve for the next chapter get written and this leaves the next chapter empty. Before I know it, I am out of scenes.

If you have not written a novel, this may sound crazy, but who says the writing process is easy? Otherwise each of us could write a novel every month!

So here is my resolution for 2009:

1. Get a literary agent;
2. Work on the next novel;
3. Get published.

It isn’t much, is it? I can do #2 for sure since I know what to expect based on what I’ve learned from writing and completing my previous manuscript. As for #1 and #3, wish me luck!

Go and let’s start work on our resolution.

Here I am, sitting in front of the monitor, pissing at the blinking cursor in front of me. I did try to write my query letter. But all I get are complicated sentences that even the DH’s eyes started to glaze over while reading it.

Yeah, you know how it felt don’t you? I am talking to those who already published their debut or 100th novel out there. You’ve been there and done that. There is no mystery that writing the query letter taxes the business side of the writer—like me who now have to turn off the creative mind, turn it inside out and think like a business person—all to have a chance at marketing my novel through my query letter.
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I have just completed nanoing and have returned to my manuscript to continue revising. I noticed I have started to tinker around with it. So, I guess I’d better stop tinkering and move on to the next stage in my effort to establish myself as a writer, again, for the second time.

Seriously, I was kind of squinting at first when I stepped-out from my writing burrow into the open world. A writer is a loner when writing, but has to be social when they shop their manuscript around for an agent.

So this is what I’m doing right now. I did a lot of reading on my favorite novels to find out who the authors used for their agents. In fact, I had been doing my research during the summer, reading and building my short list of agents.

Now, I’m ready to shop.

So, if you haven’t finished your revision yet, finish it. And for those who are ready to look for an agent for representation, here are the steps I performed to assemble a list of agents I’m interested to send my query letter:
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