Writing Heaven

I often wonder if I'm actually a writer.  I know that's nutty when I've written a book, and have written stories since at least the 7th Grade.  Still, I perpetually worry that after all of this practice and effort I'm not actually good enough to be a writer.  Today, for the first time in my life, I think I finally know I'm a writer. 

Today I went to a local writing an event and a fairly well known author whom I respect, and whose work I enjoyed, read a single page of my work and basically told me that all that's stopping me from being published is connecting with the right agent.  She gave me feedback on the page (good, solid feedback) and then said something like, "But you're doing so much right with this, I can't imagine you wouldn't get several requests for partials just based on this."  [Partials are when an agent likes your work and asks for part of your manuscript]  She also said that the fact that even one agent got to the point of requesting my manuscript for Rell meant that "You're probably already doing everything right."   She suggested that I go to writer's conferences in order to meet with agents face to face, but then reassured me that the query letter process would eventually work for me but warned it might take a long time. Now I've read this kind of stuff in a magazine article before,  but to hear someone say it after having just read a piece of my work was encouraging in whole new way.

To top it all off, when our group ended, she stopped to give me the name of a specific agent she knows. She told me that I could send my latest book to him (when I'm finished) and that I could tell him that she suggested I send it his way.  Networking gold!

Anyway a true entry about this event would be six pages long, but this, I admit, was the highlight for me:)

Query Letter Hell

Inspired in part by talking with my best writer buddy (my cousin Jennie) and a wish to actually have a writing career someday I sent out another small batch of query letters for Rell.  Every time I start to think about the process of getting published and the whole nature of the publishing industry it makes me a little crazy.  

 I love to read and I love writing and I think there is honest to goodness magic and miracles in words, but I'm always struck by how the grind of the publishing process and it's "beating your head against a brick wall" feeling is in direct contrast to the magic.  I read one agent's blog today that says he gets about 10,000 query letters a year and only picks "a small handful" to represent.  I think there are lottery tickets with better odds, and that is a truly depressing thought.

Luckily, I'm going to a local writing even this weekend called "Writing for Charity."  A bunch of authors donate their time and you get to talk about writing and have the first page of a manuscript critiqued.  They donate all the proceeds to a local charity.  I went a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, so hopefully it will make me feel a little less gloomy about the whole thing.  

Persuasion

So last week, as an audiobook, I listened to Elizabeth Aston's Writing Jane Austen, it's a novel that's far more about writing than it is about Jane Austen and I really enjoyed it, especially in light of my new found freedom from writer's block.

However, the book did make me think about Jane Austen and the fact that I like the movies they make from her books (most of them anyway) but other than a forced and unpleasant junior high school experience of reading Pride and Prejudice I hadn't really given her books a try. 

So on Saturday, as part of a very fun date, Tracy and I went to Barnes and Noble and a copy of Jane Austen's Persuasion was on the bargain shelf.  I had heard it was her most serious novel and it was fairly short.  So I bought it and though I enjoyed it I'm still of the opinion that reading Jane Austen is a lot of work.  Oh, the characters are well drawn and the story is great, when you finally get to it, but I admit I'm probably going to stick with the movies from now on.

So Good to Be Home!!

I've been home from DC for a week and I must say I'm thoroughly enjoying it!  Not much excitement in our neck of the woods this week, thank goodness.  I am up to Chapter Seven of a new book I'm working on, which is kind of fun, my writer's block is definitely over finally, which is a relief.  Especially with my dissertation looming.