What to Drink While on Submission

I know what it's like to be on submission with a publisher. I am doing it right now, even though you can't see me. It's like FIGHT CLUB because Rule One is that you are not supposed to talk about it. (Rule Two is to take a soap making class from your local community college, to pass the time.)

No. No, no no. Rule One is to write the next book. I am doing that. I am almost ready for little MOA to go to beta readers. I am happy with MOA and it's given me some distance from my baby, erm, book that is out on its own, sloshing in and out of email inboxes.

It's almost Thanksgiving and almost winter, but seasonal changes don't just mean changing outerwear and finally taking down the Halloween decorations. It means (for me) changing what I am drinking.

Last season's drink of choice was the Dark & Stormy. I was feeling a bit 'lashed to the mast.' But my new submission drink of choice—the drink I will enjoy while trying not to worry—is Penicillin. Here's how you make it, courtesy of Serious Eats.

Photo: Jennifer Hess

Penicillin 

• Ingredients:
• 2 ounces blended Scotch whisky (Famous Grouse works well)
• 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 ounce honey syrup (see note)
• 3 slices fresh ginger
• 1/4 ounce Islay single malt Scotch (such as Laphroaig)

1. 1
   Using a wooden muddler or mixing spoon, muddle the fresh ginger in the bottom of a cocktail shaker until it is well mashed. Add the blended Scotch, lemon juice, and honey syrup, and fill shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled, about 20 seconds.
2. 2
   Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass (you may wish to double-strain through a fine tea strainer to remove the small flecks of ginger), and pour the Islay Scotch over the back of a bar spoon so that it floats atop the drink.

BUT WAIT! are you on submission and a non-drinker? Never fear!
Here's a gorgeous recipe for a Hot Cranberry Orange Wassail which I've tried and is delightful (would be more delightful with scotch, but that's me...)

What do you do when you are querying or on submission or entered in a contest - when your baby is out in the world and you are biting your nails? How do you cope?

IWSG - When To Stop*

Insecure Writers Support Group is a monthly bloghop - check out the other participants here.

*Which is not the same thing as Giving Up.

So, on my birthday I got a rejection from an agent I really respect. Not the first, or the last time that will happen, I know. Then the next day, I got a rejection on my full. An AWESOME agent who I 'met' at a conference and who has had my full for months. It was a form rejection, though a kind one.

Unlike the 13 rejections that came before it, this one took the wind out of my sails (and the air from my lungs, the sparkle from my eyes - you get the drift.)

While struggling to recover, I tried to parse why this one affected me differently. Here's what I came up with:

1) Rejections hit in weird ways. It has to do with where you are in your day, what you've accomplished or not accomplished, if your kid drew on the wall with a black sharpie, it all has an affect.

2) This was a rejection on the full ms. Which means that I can't fool myself into thinking that the query just wasn't strong enough. The query was fine - it got a full request. The problem is in the writing. (I can hear you saying, but it's just not right for that agent, doesn't mean it's not right for another agent - I know, I'm getting to that.)

3) This was an agent and an agency that I really wanted. I didn't realize how much until I got the rejection - how much hope I'd pinned on it. It's disheartening to find that an agent that you 'connected with' doesn't connect with your work.

Aside from all the usual disparaging thoughts - I suck as a writer, my book sucks, the agent sucks (strangely, I never really think that) - a new thought emerged, "Maybe it's time to stop."

Stop querying this book. Stop thinking that this book is the one that's going to be published. Is it time to let in the thought that this might be one of (many) books that I write that goes nowhere?

Well, duh, of course that's (very) possible. But while I was blood-sweating-and-tear-ing over it, it seemed like it was THE ONE. And I got so much positive feedback, much more than I expected, from other writers and editors. I believed in the book.

I still believe in it. I wrote the kind of book I want to read. And maybe that's where the problem lies. Maybe, at this time, it's not right for the market, and no agent is going to connect with it.

The other problem is how much of a time suck querying BookEnd has become. NOT because it takes so long to send out a query - but because of the time I spend obsessively checking out new agents, checking in to QT forums and other forums, following agents on twitter, checking agent blogs - looking for crumbs of information that may somehow give me a clue, some idea how to get in. This kind of behavior feels like work, feels like accomplishment, but it's just keeping me from writing.

So, I've decided to stop querying BookEnd. I still have one full out there, and some outstanding queries. But I'm putting the breaks on it, at least until I can pull my gnat-attention span away from it and solidly onto my wip. It's one of my March Madness goals, and one I intend to keep for a long time.

So, what do you think? When is it time to move on?

The Dark Side of Querying

I know, ominous title, right? But I've been thinking about this a lot and I wish I could hire someone (and maybe pay them with homemade chocolate chip scones) to manage the querying process for me. It's not that I don't like the logistics of it, it's that I like it too much. I like logging in to Query Tracker, checking out agents on Literary Rambles. I like going to my online pals, my writing group or the QT forums for answers to my query questions. There's no lack of resources out there. There's also no lack of advice, contests, speed-agent dating and conferences to research. It's fun and it feels like I'm accomplishing something.

I'm good at this business side of being an author. I thrive on it, really. It's similar to the job I get paid for and I like it because it's not subjective and its quantifiable. I can make pie charts to represent my agent outreach. Safe, fun, busywork.

I don't mean to belittle the importance of this author eduction, not at all. But I'm worried that it's taking me away from what I should be doing - writing. I've started a project and it's exciting and hard and intriguing and maddening. So much easier to create a color coded pie chart.

While I'm not giving up on querying BookEnd - I've worked too hard on it to let it moulder in a digital drawer - I need to cut back on the 'education' stuff. It's nearly as bad a distraction as youtube, blogging and baking.

How do you manage querying your last project while concentrating on your current WIP? OR - How do you get your creative mind (rather than your jobsworth mind) back on track?

Hope - Despair - Repeat

Not long ago, eldest daughter came to me with two Barbie coloring books. Unfortunately, she can read. I say unfortunately, because it makes it awkward for me to lie to her when she can read things for herself. I'm just saying, it was easier to say the bakery was closed before she could read that the sign says OPEN.

But I digress. Eldest read the sticker on the barbie coloring books. They said WIN and HOLLYWOOD! and CHANCE! and she begged me to get on the internet and enter her into their contest. The grand prize was a trip to Hollywood, a visit to Barbie's compound (or wherever the heck she dwells) and a one of a kind Barbie that you design. Eldest almost swooned and she wanted to go upstairs right away and figure out what she should wear to Hollywood. I sat her down, looked her in the eyes and explained to her why she doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hades of winning. I rattled off a mega-ton of zeros. I may have even said the word probability. I also told her that the fun part was entering and it wasn't about the winning. I basically told her a bunch of crap to try to get her to not be too excited. In my professional life, it's known as 'managing expectations.' I guess in the real world I guess it's called killing dreams softly. It's what parents sometimes do, because we can't bear the idea of our kids being hurt.

Wouldn't it be a great story if now I told you that, against all the odds, eldest won the Barbie prize? That the naysaying mommy was wrong and should have had faith, dust & pixie dust (sorry, wrong corporation)? It would have been awesome, but it didn't happen. Instead, when she found out she didn't win, she cried, loud and long, alarmingly and heartbreakingly - the way only kids seem to be able to do. I comforted and consoled her and soon she'd spent out her tears.

Now, a couple of months after, I wonder if she remembers the Barbie contest. I know that she still wants to enter every contest she hears about (LaLaLoopsy, anyone?) I also know that she still glazes over when I tell her the odds of her winning are not ever in her favor (heh, channeled a little Effie there.) She just continues to believe she can win. I wonder how long she can keep that belief up.

I've decided not to tell her about probability anymore. Mostly because I'm currently engaging in some magical thinking myself. I'm not even talking about the occasional Megamillions dollar I drop at the WaWa. Yes, I'm querying.

So far I've sent out eight. I've got two partials out and I've gotten four rejections. I know that's not much yet, and I know I don't have any choice but to keep trying or give up. The trick now is to figure out how eldest does it. How she cries bitter tears (I reserve the right to eat chocolate instead) then shakes it off and keeps going, her spirit undiminished. It's probably mostly up to the fact that she's seven.
I'm going to go find my inner seven year old.

How do you survive the query process?