Offerings
Currently reading:
The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August
Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Stories of Horror, edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück
Books finished this week: 1
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: Purchased at Split Rock Books on my last Cold Spring trip.
Why this book: All I needed to know was “Dracula in space.”
Thoughts: I am fully a sucker for a Dracula riff. And a Dracula riff that features other classic monsters and fun, spooky Easter eggs, narrated primarily by a spaceship who’s just trying to do right by her passengers and her medical AI? Unbeatable.
Library updates:
This was a bit of A Week™. I’m fine, everything’s fine. It just felt like a lot was going on——personally, nationwide, globally, the usual——and it hit me a little harder this week for some reason than it might have in other weeks. Therapy on Thursday evening helped quite a bit, helping me reframe and focus on the current moment, rather than letting my anxiety unspool a series of awful what-ifs, as it tends to do. (Take your meds and go to your therapy appointments, kids.) I built up a lot of good friend (and Mom) time over the last week, which definitely helped, too.
Querying also remains an agonizing waiting game, so far punctuated only by the occasional decline. Before I started sending my query emails and submitting my QueryManager forms, it was easy to tell myself that, for most writers, it takes months, if not years, to get a request, let alone an eventual offer of representation. But, as with all things in life, understanding something academically and living through it yourself are two very different things.
I sent my first queries on August 8, which means it hasn’t even been two months——a.k.a., it’s still incredibly early in the process. Plus, I have both a good number of agents I’m waiting to hear back from and a slew of folks to still reach out to. The waiting is hard, but I think what’s been harder so far is that split second before I open a new email from an agent, when it’s still Schrödinger's response. It could be a request for a partial or full manuscript; it could be an offer to have a chat.
Eight times so far, it has been a decline. Sometimes a form letter, someone a little more personalized, but a rejection nonetheless. And that can feel especially heavy when the world is full of cruelty and uncertainty, and you’re also just not having the best week to begin with. I got the eighth decline this past Thursday, which . . . didn’t feel great. But I’m doing my best to keep my eyes on the horizon: all the emails that might come, all the messages I still have to send, all the words I still want to write, all the books to be read, all the people to do wonderful things with, like drink margaritas or explore bookstores. My brain is wired to find the bad, but I’ve spent a lot of time working to make it stay grounded, and honest, and hopeful, whenever possible.
Anyhow, for those curious, here’s the current query count, which I’ll update you on periodically going forward:
Queries sent: 27 | Rejections: 8 | Requests: 0And to end on an upbeat note, I had my first official acceptance of an offer at work! The contract is in the works, but if all goes according to plan, this will be my first Alcove acquisition. I look forward to sharing more about the book as soon as I can!
Closing thoughts:
To quote the first single off the forthcoming album of the incomparable Florence Welch, “EVERYBODY SCREAM.”
