Category: Updates

Life, work, family.  But most of all,  I simply forgot about this page.

Oops.

However, the time has not been boring.  Working with an editor, I completed a full deep-dive clean-up and, for some scenes, rewrites in the novel.  To date, my beta readers’ overall feedback has been positive.

And in the “giving credit where credit is due” department, the folks in my critique groups played a big part in the story’s improvement.  So, a big shout out to them.

If you’re a writer and not in a critique group, join one – or six.

Per my previous entry, I sent queries to roughly twenty agents over a three-month period last year.  Only about half replied, all rejections.  The good news is I think I figured out the problem(s) with my queries and have been working to fix those things.  Here’s to the next twenty submissions.

Last weekend, I attended the DFW Writers Conference in Hurst.  I’ve been to other conferences, but this was my first time for this one.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, so I walked in with the idea to simply “soak it in.”  As it turned out, that was a pretty good strategy.

The registration included one agent pitch session, but I wanted to increase my odds.  After all, there were a lot of agents there — a lot.  When they opened the pitch line, I abandoned my original workshop choices for Saturday morning and joined in.  I figure I was roughly person #40 in that line and had little chance to schedule more pitches.  And they were going fast.  Most of the agents were completely booked by the time I got to the smiling face at the little table.

Using my “which agents do I want to pitch?” cheat sheet and the “SOLD OUT” white board next to the table, I was pleased when the signer-upper person found two openings, back-to-back.  So, I grabbed those timeslots.

The end results were, well, surprising.  Two of the three agents asked me to send them a submission.  The third agent, while not interested in my novel, gave me valuable advice.

The past week, I’ve written, re-written, scrapped and started over on my query letter so many times, I lost count.  Fortunately, I have a wonderful writer friend who has helped me polish my query.

I think I’m ready, which is likely a sign I’m not.  But here goes.  I’ll letcha know the results.

The ambition to write a story was birthed in 2007 while taking my then 10-year-old daughter home from her soccer practice.  The road from the soccer fields runs between a housing development on the south and dense woods on the north.  One evening, my daughter said, “Hey Dad, what if there was a big dragon living out there in that forest?”

Something told me not to say anything; just listen.  I took that advice and paid attention to the wonderful story emerging from her vivid imagination.  Every so often, she stopped to ask me a question then went right back to the story.  The drive home took about forty minutes and her mouth was moving the entire time.  I just listened and set it all to memory.

I knew it was something worth writing down.  So I did.  When we got home, I went to straight to the computer and typed it up.

Over the years, the story has grown, new characters introduced and new problems to solve.

But it all started on that road one evening in San Antonio, Texas.

 

As Glenn Frey sang, “Be part of something good, leave something good behind.”

The journey from a spark of creativity to realizing the end result can be arduous.  I know it has been for me.  The on and off, start and stop of writing my novel was a ten year process.  That was probably because I saw it as a hobby for the first nine-and-a-half of those years.

When I decided to focus on it and git-er-done, the book took over and practically wrote itself.  I’ve heard many successful authors say that, but I didn’t really understand until I experienced the magic firsthand.

So that’s my first blog post.  More to come soon.