WIP (Work in Progress)

I got the inspirational kick I needed to start blogging from QueryTracker.net. If you sign in and click on commenter names, it takes you to a profile of that person. I always get excited if there is a blog link. You can learn a lot about the competition that way (conniving grin). Kidding. Actually, I need all the help I can get since I'm relatively new to the fiction writing world. I owe many blogs and the people behind them a big thank you for guiding me in the right direction. So, THANK YOU, fellow bloggers and website keepers, for your generously imparted wisdom.

I got the inspirational kick I needed to start writing YA fiction when I visited my in-laws last summer. My husband and I took over his sister's room and I made the mistake of starting TWILIGHT, which I found on her bookshelf. I didn't see much of my in-laws that visit. I was intrigued by Stephenie Meyer's success story and, like many-a-sucker, thought to myself as I flipped the final page, "heck, I can do that…"

It's ok, I can laugh at myself now. After all, how rewarding would life be if we knew everything from the starting block? It's the journey that counts, right? That's what I keep telling myself—it's the long, dusty, winding, bumpy, carsick-invoking, dead-end laden, backtracking-filled journey that counts. Maybe someday it'll count for something other than mileage.

So, numerous grand ideas and false starts (i.e. eight months) later, I finished my manuscript. And the query letter. (Special thanks to Query Shark…though not too special—they declined featuring my query, *sniff,* though I probably would have been sniffling anyways had they featured it…harsh harsh harsh). I have one full manuscript with an agent right now (my first), and many more rejections ('bout 30) in the ol' inbox. I'm hoping for some helpful comments at best if I ever get the manuscript back.

Which leaves me at a crossroads—a dusty one—of what to focus on next. Write the sequel? Start something new? Gamble with spicy revisions? Rework the query letter? So many options, and no guidepost. Guess I'll just wait it out for the manuscript and hope it comes back with some hints. If that doesn't help, there are always more blogs to peruse for ideas…