Late...But I Arrived

[xakara]

Yes, when I say late, I mean it in that calendar checking, anxiety inducing, peeing on a stick, kind of way. I'm always early or right on time having not been late in over a year if not two at this point. So as you can imagine it was not a good week while waiting to find out if everything was about to turn upside down. (Thank goodness it's not)

It lead to a lot of restructuring of my life and choices, most for the better and only one that was coming out of sheer panic. Did I mention that this anxiety inducing lateness coincided with a rejection from a source I was feeling good about? Yeah, it was one of those weeks all the way around. 

In my mad scramble of "what if" paired with the dejection of once again being in uncertain waters I made a few decisions that seemed logical. I would stop the query process so that it was gone as a source of stress. I'd go for something full time instead of part time, but I'd still structure my day so that I could finish books two and three as well as keep up with the open calls for novellas. Once I went through edits for the novella coming out next year, I'd take what I learned, go back over the novel and then start the query process again with my revised manuscript. Fair and balanced right? 

Didn't go over so well in general discussion. 

To be fair I didn't tell anyone I discussed it with that I was late and making decisions in the light of whether a little piece of plastic was going to show one line or two when I broke down to take the test. So they were as direct or harsh as they felt they needed to be while still being supportive. After conversations all the way around it came down to a compromise. 

I'll send out my next batch of queries and make those my last. I'll keep looking for something part time but will accept something full time if I think I can scale back with it once I've ben at it for a short while. I'll make finishing book two my top priority in writing and by the time I'm done I should be starting edits on the novella if the release date stays the same. If nothing definitive has come of the query process at that point, I'll wait until my edits are done, use everything I learn to edit books one and two, and then start the query process again.

That only leaves the small press question to look at. 

Once I finish book three the plan is to start a new series or more likely a stand alone that could become a series. If nothing has come of the queries for Bloodsprite by the time book 3 is done, edited and ready to be submitted, then I've considered offering it to the same publisher of my novellas and querying the new book with hopefully more luck. I'm just not sure how soon it's time to go that route or how long I should wait before considering it. 

With the five I have yet to send out, I'll have queried all of twenty agents. I know that's nothing as far as some are concerned, but what is the right number? Fifty? One Hundred? Three hundred? Or is it more in terms of years? One? Five? As long as it takes to may New York say okay? 

There are some stories which people are just not going to be ready to take a chance on until it's proven that readers will pick it up. That's something learned through established writers and very very lucky newcomers. I can't count on being the one to prove that a bisexual, federal enforcer of color, in a polyamourus relationship with submissive shapeshifters, staking a political claim of dominance, in a series with highly erotic elements is marketable. I think it is, but that could just be me.

Amazing all the things you start to reevaluate over a few drops of missing blood. (Okay, more than a few but I was trying to be considerate.)

I need to go, six other things have come to mind but none belong in this particular meandering missive. Another time. 

Ramble Done. 

~X