Among the Stones update

Quite literally since I started to write my novel, I've been reading about the terrible horror that is sending queries to literary agents. Everything I discovered about the process of finding agents, writing queries and synopses, and going through re-edits if necessary made it seem stultifying. Even after I finished my fifth - or was it my tenth? - series of edits, I was so overwhelmed with the query process that I delayed it for weeks.

Now, I can honestly say that, while the process sucks, it's nowhere near as bad as I expected. In fact, I think it's easier in some ways to send my manuscript to a stranger than it is to send it to a friend or family member.

At current count, I've sent out five query letters, and I've received one response, which was a rejection. Granted, that first rejection email (which was, admittedly, very nice; the agent said my query was strong, but the project wasn't for him) definitely brought on some tear-buds.

I fully expect there will be many more rejections to come. Since the outset of this project, I've known that finding an agent who would support such a bizarre melange of admittedly dark themes - war, rape, love, family drama, and the entity that is D.C., just to name a few - was going to be insanely difficult. I'm still crossing my fingers, and I hope to find an agent who is just as crazy as I am, and who sees a spark of potential in my manuscript. For the last year and a half, I have been researching and writing to distill my ideas into the manuscript for Among the Stones, and into the draft for the second portion of the duology, which is yet to be named. I am going to chase the dream of hooking an agent for at least as long as I've spent writing the books before I give it up in favor of self-publishing. In the end, I just can't imagine a better feeling than seeing my name on the bottom of a book published through one of those houses that published the authors I've spent a lifetime idolizing.