June 2023 - A Busy Start to the Year!

Hi all,

It's been a while, huh? Maybe you noticed there was no spring newsletter; maybe you didn't. Either way, nice to see you again! I hope your 2023 has been going well; it's strange to think we're halfway through already.

I began this year with one resolution: do less. As somebody with a habit of biting off more than I can chew, facing down the anxiety of finishing a PhD without a definite picture of what comes next, I thought it would be good to practice enjoying life in the moment a little more - not worrying so much about chasing new opportunities.

Have I actually done less? Er... Yes, and no. I've done a better job of avoiding "doing things just because I feel like I should be doing them, not because they're actually important/enjoyable/etc." I've become a little better at recognizing when I need to put everything down and rest. But have I done less overall?

Well.

Three weeks ago, I handed in my PhD thesis. If you follow me on social media, you may have seen my very tired celebratory posts. It feels good to have it done, but it mostly feels weird. I had a few days of feeling relief, then a week of complete physical and mental exhaustion, then a week of mostly-mental exhaustion, which has lifted enough for me to do some writing again and try to get on top of the built-up housework. I don't feel like I'm back to 100% capacity yet, but I'm hovering between 80-90% depending on the day, which is good enough.

Because the other exciting news is that, the same day I submitted my PhD thesis, I signed with an agent.

(For the non-writers among you, a brief and oversimplified primer: authors cannot send their novels directly to publishers, nine times out of ten. In order to get your book considered by a large publishing house, you usually need to work with a literary agent: someone with experience in the business side of publishing, who networks with editors, handles contract negotiations, et cetera, et cetera. If you're interested in working with an agent, you send them a query: a short submissions package, which generally includes a brief pitch of your book, a little information about yourself, and a sample of the beginning of your book. If the agent likes your query, they might ask to see your completed manuscript. If they like the whole book enough, they might schedule a call to discuss working together.)

Like many things in publishing, querying timelines vary wildly from person to person. I got lucky. I started querying in March and was fully prepared to keep querying for a year or more. But all it takes is one yes from the right person, and I knew after speaking with Laura that any other agent would have to achieve some superhuman feats to match her level. Her enthusiasm and experience are incredible, and I'm unbelievably excited to work with her!

While I was pretty tired of working on the book after the last nitty-gritty PhD edits ("argh, I need to fit this into the wordcount! Can I cut out 'said' here? Can I say this with two words instead of one?"), Laura's feedback on my manuscript reignited my excitement for another round of revisions. (I'm continually grateful to be a writer who prefers editing to writing first drafts.) This week, I started going back over the book and making a bird's-eye view outline of it, focusing on ways to add tension to quieter scenes and draw out more of the protagonist's internal conflict. I'm having a lot of fun diving back into the big-picture storytelling again! Once we're both happy with the revised manuscript, the next step will be to start sending the book to editors to see if publishers might be interested in acquiring it (eek!).

---