The Beginning
As a writer, I have always loved the process of writing, but I have always despised the act of self-promotion. It muddies the waters, making it more about who wrote it rather than what it is about. One of the first novels I finished, at the age of 18, was a hand-written scrawl across hundreds of notebook pages, and I wrote the entire novel over one summer. By the end of the process, I decided the book wasn’t good enough. Sure, I was 18, and what was really good at that age? I was still figuring out who I was as a human (still am), and I had no idea what good writing could be. Was the novel truly bad? I’m not sure. In an act of wild defiance, I tossed it in the trash. The whole thing gone.
The book ended up being just for me, and I’m OK with that. Writing doesn’t always have to be a shared experience, but the novels I am working on now, I’m extremely proud of them. I’ve revised them meticulously, and I want to share them. As a writer who despises self-promotion, I guess I am here to roll up my metaphorical pant legs and wade into the icy waters. Since I do not have any published works to promote, I guess I will just be promoting me. This will be more like the behind the scenes. The path I am taking to try to get my work out there. The journey, or whatever.
So, what are my current projects? I finished a middle grade fantasy book tentatively titled Shepherds of the Vale. It is set in West Virginia, in a fictional town of Crowle (at the base of Seneca Rocks). The novel follows a young girl and her brother as they learn magic and go on adventures. The first literary agent I queried was on January 26, 2020. I submitted to 53 agents total, and I received either boilerplate rejections or the sounds of crickets.
The second book I finished was an urban fantasy novel set in Morgantown, WV, called Cinderwhite. The story follows a slacker in the process of failing out of college while coming to terms with the fact that he can now see ghosts. This one is currently in limbo, awaiting me to return and do some edits before submitting. The manuscript sits out on the frozen tundra, beckoning me back.
The third novel is a door-stopper epic fantasy story, Thieves at the Banquet, sitting around 195 thousand words, with a large array of characters and heavy worldbuilding. Shipwrecks, mystery, and the like. My first submission to a literary agent was on September 20, 2023, and I have submitted to 20 agents so far. It is a bit of a draining process, sometimes feeling like I am submitting my manuscript to the burning flames of a fireplace rather than an agent, but it is the process.
Where do I go, now? My plan is for Shepherds of the Vale to go through another round of 50 queries and see where I end up. Cinderwhite needs a fine eye of an editor, but since I do not have one of those, I guess that will be me. Polish it up and see if I can find it a nice home out there. As for Thieves at the Banquet, I have told myself that I will submit to 100 lit agents and then consider self-publishing. That whole road is risky, and it certainly can lead to just as much failure as 100 rejections. But that is where my head is at in the moment.
Alright. I’ve taken the plunge, and I have survived. I will update soon.