HIT THE BRAKES!!! Do we need a rewrite?

Ugh. I think the answer may be...yes.
Of course I want the book to be the best it can be, and I think I'm pretty darn close...but I am feeling a nagging to rewrite the first chapter.
"Why?" you ask.
"Because," I say, "for some reason the first chapter doesn't feel like it jives with the rest of the book. While the information is critical to the story, something about the presentation seems off.

So - now I get to start brainstorming on how I want to rewrite that darn first chapter. Part of me thinks this is a great idea & I should be excited to polish this book up so it's pretty and beautiful making it impossible for an agent or a publisher to reject. The other part of me has a sneaking suspicion that the first chapter is fine - that I'm just freaked out to call it "done" and am going to find ways to prolong the refining process.

Time will tell...

RULES SCHMULES...It pays to break them!

Before I started soliciting agencies, I had no idea there were so many RULES to follow in this publishing game. Specific fonts. Specific spacing. Contact us/Don't contact us. Snail Mail ONLY. Where's your SASE? We will send the environmental police to your house and burn you at the stake (like a metal stake, not steak like sirloin, that would require a visit from PETA) if you dare print something on paper - EMAIL ONLY!

Everybody has different rules - it's a wonder anyone gets published.

I have learned, however, that there is one rule that's pretty firm across the board. If an agent rejects you, it's okay to send a courteous response ,but do not bug them. They've made their decision and bothering them will only agitate them and get you black listed. (Black listed? I thought that only happened in bad made for TV movies!)

Uh oh! What's a girl to do who's made a resolution to be more audacious?! ....
She responds to a rejection and says, "Would you be willing to offer any feedback on my query letter?"

Low and behold, the agent responds and gives her HUGE, WONDERFUL, INFORMATIVE feedback! Hallelujah!!! After a brief modification to the query, incorporating the agent's comments, I now have a query that, I hope, will be much more captivating , and assure prospective agents that my book is worth examining a bit closer.

So, thank you, Melissa Jeglinski from the Knight Agency, for breaking the cardinal rule and responding to my email. (She didn't respond when I asked if I could resubmit - that might have been pushing the audacity factor up a few too many notches).


So, my point for this post:
BREAK A RULE EVERY NOW AND THEN - SOME PEOPLE FIND IT ENDEARING!

For the sake of comparison

For nearly two months I've been working on a very detailed proposal for an agency in New York.
Along with a copy of my passport, mortgage paperwork and the rights to name my next child, they want a comparison of my book vs. other books on the market. (HA! Jokes on them. My husband got "snipped" two years ago. Guess there won't be a little one running around named, Levine Greenberg Crandell)

So, along with the help of my super-sleuthing friend and future P.R. manager, Laura, I've been scouring the web, library and book stores for books similar to mine that I can essentially say SUCK, in comparison. The obvious irony of that statement is that all the books are:

1. Published
2. Made a lot of money
3. Published

Until yesterday, I had three solid comparisons.
1. Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen
2. Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
3. Twilight, Stephenie Meyer

(Yes! I did go there with Twilight. It was a great book, I loved it - but there were certain things (people: BELLA!) who drove me nuts. Why not compare your stuff to the best that's out there? I think it holds its own so I did it.)

Back to my story: So, I was stumped for one more book. I tried about 4 more that all sounded good based on their synopsis. One, I won't name names but it was made into a movie with the kid from Juno in it, I actually had to put down. Yep. Read the first 50 pages and couldn't go any further. One was darling, but not a good comparison, and there were two more that again, were pretty good reads, but not a good fit.

So, I rolled into the library and found a book that I'd written down as a potential. My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, by Sydney Salter. Wow!! I fell in love with this book. Not only was it a great, funny, truthful representation of life as a seventeen year-0ld, but it didn't try to be more adult than it needed to be, and it also wasn't lemonade stands and hand-holding at the roller rink. It is the PERFECT last book to compare to mine.

Now, I just need to do the comparison and BEG my amazing, supportive, beautiful English friend, Laura, to read the book and offer me her feedback. (Laura reads the blog...you think I'm being too subtle?)

So, to round out this surprisingly, lengthy post I just want to say... WAHOO!! I am stoked I found the last book! I hope Saving Peggy Flemming will be used by someone else to be compared with some day. So long as it's not for the "LOOK AT THE CRAP THEY'LL PUBLISH" comparison.

Have a blessed, happy and safe evening tonight!! 2010 promises to be very exciting!!

INAUGURAL POST...and it's not even January

In an effort to document things in my life, because it is that exciting, I've started this blog. I can't tell you how often I'm going to blog, I'm busy and...well, nothing interesting may happen in my life. (who wants to read about my thoughts on the latest Bachelor? It's going to be Jake...I can hardly wait for the impending train wreck!) What I can promise you is that my blog will be truthful, honest and genuine...just like me. No fluff, no primping. If you're still interested - keep reading. If not, check out http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/ . They have some of the most entertaining television reviews I've ever seen.

(For those of you still tuned to my show, please continue)

Mostly, I will blog about being an author. And yes, I am calling myself an author because I have completed my first novel and am now weeding through the b.s., and excessive adjectives, that are my second novel; hoping to polish it into something beautiful, or at the very least, entertaining.

Currently, I'm looking for representation (and patience). I've learned that finding an agent, as a no-named author, is a lot like having toddlers. While you are desperate for them to put their poopies in the potty, you cannot make them do it. That's not to say that literary agents are like poop, though I'm sure some would beg to differ, but you cannot will something to happen. When the time is right, and your child is sick of running around in stinky diapers, they will poop in the toilet.

So, until my toddler (agent) tells me she'd like to be a big girl and get a sticker on her hand (sign me) I will pray, and wait, and ... write.