Sometimes It’s Roses
Currently reading:
The Merriest Misters by Timothy Janovsky
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
Out There Screaming, edited by Jordan Peele
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
In my holiday romance era ✨
Books finished this week: 1
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: Purchased during the grand opening of Love and Legends!
Why this book: The premise——dueling mystery writers solving a locked-room mystery in the gorgeous, secluded mansion of the world’s greatest mystery writer——sounded absolutely perfect. This one has been living on my TBR for over a year.
Thoughts: Honestly, this was probably more like 2.5 stars for me, but rating it only two stars felt too far. Super fun premise, but the pace was very slow, the main character (despite having been through a lot leading up the events of the book, granted) was incredibly annoying, the relationship felt like insta-love after a lot of confusing/unfounded “hatred” at the start, and both the narration and dialogue many times felt like the characters and/or the author thought they were being clever, but really just came across as annoying. I can see the appeal, but this definitely wasn’t as fun and charming as the flap copy had led me to believe it would be.
Library updates:
One hundred and twelve days after I queried my dream agent, and almost exactly one year after I finished the first full draft of Amp, they responded to request my full manuscript.
This happened Wednesday night, as I was waiting for a train home. I had given up hope on this person, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a QueryTracker response in my inbox. And then my heart immediately sank, because I assumed that meant it was time to let this particular dream go and move on. Holding my phone in one hand and an iced Dunkin cookie butter latte in the other, I opened the email to find a submission request instead.
I stared at that email most of the train ride home. My hands were a little shaky and I feel like I was probably smiling like a creep whenever I forgot to school my face. I felt...weird. Excited, mostly, but probably also in a bit of a state of stunned disbelief. I managed to get home before crying——with excitement, with relief, with hope, with the chaos of this big moment.
I know this isn’t an offer of representation. I know this doesn’t mean my querying journey is over. But even if nothing comes of it, someone I admire decided to give me a shot, and I’m deeply grateful.
(And I’ll tell you all who the agent is if they want to sign me.)
Anyway! That was the biggest news this week in my little world. Otherwise, it’s been a lot of quiet nights at home and some nice moments with friends and coworkers. I’m very much looking forward to the holidays, and I hope you all have something nice planned for yourself and/or with your loved ones!
Closing thoughts:
Don’t give up just yet. Sometimes, it takes weeks. Sometimes months. Sometimes years. Sometimes 112 days.
Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 187
(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 390)
Popped over to a new (to me) bookstore in Brooklyn before my writing workshop on Monday. Nice to meet you, Unnameable Books!
I also got this book of poetry sent to me by Tin House two or three weeks ago and completely forgot to add it to the missive——correcting that now!
And after starting to read a submission at work that was comped to Possession, I looked up the book and decided I wanted to read it, so I ordered a copy from ThriftBooks. Sad I got the movie tie-in version, though.
And finally, between festive events yesterday (Saturday), Britt (hi, Britt!) and I stopped in at the Strand on the Upper West Side.
