Since I was five years old, I have known what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be a teacher, a mother (after marrying my prince charming) and an author!
I have achieved most of that list! I became a teacher in 2012, not when I graduated from CSU Fullerton with my teaching credential, but when I had my own classroom in Cedaredge, CO with the most amazing twenty students! Then in April of 2013, I accomplished my second dream by having the most adorable baby boy, Ben! (Of course, after marrying my one true love prince charming, Jon!) And in May of 2015, my life is going to change for the better again...
...with Baby #2!!! I am SO blessed!
Although those wonderful changes have distracted me from my next dream, I have never given up. I have spent many late nights staring at my computer, sometimes typing, sometimes diverted by Facebook or solitaire...but slowly completing the manuscript for my novel Speak.
I finally completed it in July...only to realize that was just Draft #1. Three drafts later (and a couple more still to go), I have been sending out my query letter and the first chapters of my book to literary agents in hope that one would be intrigued in the story and represent me to publishers. I went into this process knowing it would be a long a difficult journey, and I wish this blog post is about good news, but it isn't. Not yet anyway. I have queried a dozen literary agents and received some disappointing responses.
Here is a sample: "Thank you so much for your query. Unfortunately, however, this project doesn’t sound right for me. I encourage you to continue to submit elsewhere, and I wish you every success in your writing career. Thanks again for thinking of me."
And another: "Thanks so much for sending me your query. I’m going to pass on this one because I found
it didn’t spark my interest."
Well, okay then.
But this is the journey, and I am writing to document it! Someday, I will look back on this post and (hopefully) laugh! Until then, I will renew the revision process, going through draft after draft, and continue writing the sequel and other books. Because I am not writing to get recognition or money (ha!), I am writing to share a story of characters I have connected with and hopefully others can relate to. And I am still going to send out query letters.
In my most recent letter I send out, I decided to include why I wrote my book and what makes it different. Check it out:
"Young adult/middle grade fantasy fiction novels are always
about a young character discovering their own strength while facing nearly
impossible odds. My novel, Speak, follows that idea, but the similarity
ends there.
I became so frustrated with numerous movies and a plethora
of books where the parents of a character are dead, missing or useless that I decided
to break that pattern. Over the course of several years and through multiple
drafts, the novel Speak was developed. Although the story follows the
main character, Edith Bell, a typical young girl trying to understand the
world, her adventures lead her to discover her parent’s history. Not only does
she travel foreign lands with her father and walk in the footsteps of her
mother, but she also uncovers secrets of their past and learns that they have
their own adventure.
Although Edith’s story starts slow, the comfortable
circumstances of her life juxtapose the chaos and changes that soon follow. Her
close knit family is separated when her father, a king’s advisor, is taken
hostage, her mother must assist in creating a truce while her brothers are recruited
to fight in the imminent conflict. Edith is left alone at home to take care of
the house and animals. But her restless spirit generates a daring scheme: she
decides to rescue her father herself.
This begins her first adventure, with many more following,
as she travels a foreign country, discovers family secrets, learns the power of
love and realizes she may be capable of more than she ever thought possible."
If you picked up this book in a store and read that on the back, what would you think? Would you want to read it? Feel free to comment below!
