A lot of exciting things have been happening in my writing life in 2018. For one thing, I actually got a bite from an agent! I have been querying Heritage Lost for about 2 1/2 years, off and on. After taking a break, I’d picked up querying at the beginning of this year, and unlike past querying cycles, I wasn’t getting form letters … I was receiving silence. I’d rather have the form letters than the silent rejections.
Then, while I was on a business trip to California in April, I woke up — one of those situations where the brain is just awake. Unable to slip back to sleep, I did what any person does in the 21st century: I went to browse my cellphone, and I saw the email. My innards instantly cringed upon seeing a response to one of my queries from February as I just expected a form letter rejection. I opened it, and I could not believe my eyes. It was a FULL manuscript request. I won’t lie after reading those words, I was jumping up and down in that hotel room, quiet screaming. I did not go back to sleep afterward, even though it was pretty early in California.
I’m still waiting to hear back from the agent on that manuscript, but it is my understanding that they have a fairly large backlog, so I can patiently wait. But in the meantime, I continue to focus on other projects.
New Short Story On The Way
Back in 2014, I had participated in a micro-fiction contest that Tipsy Lit (which appears to be no more) had held. The contests (weekly or monthly, I can’t recall) limited submissions to 500 words, and each one of these contests had a specific theme, which made it a lot of fun. The theme for this particular week/month was “Choices, Choices,” and my piece — Long Way Down — put three unattended children, trapped in a war zone, into a rather precarious situation. The piece stuck with me, and over the years, I have been expanding it to its current state.
Having no word limit, I enjoyed being able to dive more into Yuu’s character: a preteen who has lost her family and has been surviving on her own for so long that she struggles on whether to help a pair of siblings trapped in similar circumstances or not.
The cover for the short story is complete. It was my first endeavor in Illustrator, and after some struggles, I am proud of the end product. All that remains now is to implement line edits from my editor and then formatting. I plan to release Long Way Down Friday, July 6, on Kindle. More information will be coming.
The Augur’s Rose Series
Work continues to go swimmingly on The Augur’s Rose Series. I intend to have No. 2 of this ongoing serial done by July and then on Kindle sometime in August.
The Rabbit Hole of Historical Fiction
Additionally, I’m revisiting my very first genre, historical fiction! This means I have fallen down the deep, deep rabbit hole of research. It is really coming together and I have six pages already written in addition to some future scenes — decided to write them while they were strong in my mind. I hope to participate in July’s Camp NaNoWriMo to get more done on it.
I won’t share too much about this project right now, though I will probably give a few more details after July, including my research efforts. For now, however, I will share a story aesthetic board below:
Blood & Ink 