Sunday, January 27, 2008

Time To Toast!



Everything is moving so fast I hardly know what I am toasting anymore. Late, late Thursday night I finished my first novel. Well, as finished as a writing can be, which is to say, I stopped rewriting and said, "That's it. I'm done." Because honestly I could keep rewriting for the next 50 years, but at some point I am just replacing one set of words with another that may or may not be any better. For better or worse, I am done.

Friday, I began putting together the query letters I have been working on in between writing the novel, and sent out my first three. Time to celebrate. I put champagne on ice, called all the people who have been rooting for me to tell them. And then, before I could drink it, two of those agents wrote back asking for partials.

I want to celebrate, but suddenly the fear sets in. So I can write a query. Yay for me. But a query only gets my feet in the door. The question still hangs in the air, can I write? Sometimes I read it and I think, this isn't half-bad. I've read much worse. And other times I think, this seems so tired and old.

I am throwing it out there. I will wait and see what happens. I have a few other agents I want to send it to, but at the end of that, if nothing comes, I don't know if I'll look for more, or just move on to something else. At the beginning of this journey my object was to write a book. I'd always said I would, I could, but I hadn't. I didn't want to be on my death-bed and wonder, could I have? So I did.

The rest: the queries and all that come after that: they are all just icing on the cake.

So for tonight, until the rejections begin flooding in, I am celebrating. I'm just not buying those stilettos yet.

2 comments:

  1. First of all...

    YOU DID IT!!

    You reached your goal! You wrote it, you rewrote it and you sent it out. That alone calls for a glass of champagne.

    Second...

    Oh my gosh! Two requests for partials!! That's awesome! This is your first completed book? Impressive. I'm still waiting for a request. I've only sent out 23 queries on this project, and I suspect that query needs to be rewritten more than nine times. It's funny that you're worried your query may be better than your book...I think if you are precise enough to write a good query, your book will equal that.

    C'mon over when you get a chance. I wrote a long exploration on fear . But maybe you shouldn't read it? Oh I just don't know anymore!!!!

    But enjoy your toast- you deserve.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll try to get there in the next day or two. I am so, so behind because of focusing on this alone. Thanks so much for coming by my blog and celebrating with me. It's your turn next!

    ReplyDelete