Hi, it's me again, making promises to post more regularly and then noping out for three whole months. This time, I think I'll actually be able to keep my promises, for the simple fact that I've been doing more these past three months, and I'll be doing even more in the three months to come, and you know I generally get in these really productive little grooves, and...
I'm running a pitch contest!
And I know. You're probably thinking, "she disappears for three whole months and arrives back without any meaningful progress on her WIPs or on her querying novel, and she gives us...a pitch contest? Did we even ask for this?"
I know, I know. Trust me, I thought the same thing as I was launching it, and every day as my #QueerPit team and I chip away at it (more on that later). But here's the thing: every step I take on my authorial journey teaches me a little bit about myself, and I've learned that I actually like and value the community-building aspect of being a writer almost as much as the actual novel-creation aspect. My progress on my work is inextricably tied to my progress building community, because it gives me the resources and connections to help me with my craft, and I help others with what I've learned, and the cycle of giving continues. In short, I've actually learned to love the thing I once dreaded.
I love it so much that I've carved out a little niche as a pitch contest veteran. Except for my first #KidLitPit, back in January, I have received at least one industry "like" at every single pitch contest, with the most likes I've received being six from May's #PitDark. This is unheard of, anomalous, extremely fortunate. I could put part of it down to sheer luck (maybe the algorithm really, really likes me), but I've found that the majority for me is strategy.
After #PitDark proved that this wasn't some anomaly, and that I'd actually stumbled upon something I'm very skilled at, I decided to post a thread on how I did it...and then that thread took off. Suddenly, I was supporting every pitch contest, building massive lists beforehand, mentoring others through their pitches...and lamenting the lack of any contests between June and September. Due to the WGA Strikes and fears over AI, many contests had been pushed back, cancelled, or moved to other forums.
#PitDis, for disabled and neurodivergent authors, was pushed back until at least September. #DVPit moved to Discord. And #LatinxPit, the most recent of the bunch, wasn't something I could pitch in, although I always planned to support from the sidelines. But wait! Where was a pitch event for queer authors? It was disarming -- there were absolutely none. Not in Pride month. Not beforehand. Not after.
When I did more digging, I found out that the only contest for queer authors, #LGBTNPit, ran for the final time in 2022 due to the difficulty of one individual running a whole contest. I was dismayed -- not least because a guaranteed 75% of all the writers I'm friends with are queer and/or querying queer stories. There was a massive gap in the market here, and I was prepared to fill it, because I knew it could be done. After all, Anima, one of my friends, ran #JoyPit on June 1st and it was a massive success.
So, I put out some feelers on Twitter and on my Writerly Wyverns discord...and it was a hit. I put a draft page on here after an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out how to use WordPress. I made a Twitter, and I got a team together, almost by accident. Some of my team members are really great with web design. One of them is fantastic with events planning. Our final member, and my deepest writing community friend, is a rockstar with agent connections (seriously, if she's not agented by the end of 2023, I'll probably cry).
Thanks to all of us chipping away, we now have a dozen confirmed agents and small presses, and that number is growing every day. I've poured my heart and soul into planning this contest, which still has a month and a half before it runs (August 1st, sadly, NOT Pride Month, because I knew we'd need more than a month to pull a meaningful industry turnout together).
And in doing so -- plus in working my way through my massive ARC hoard -- I've discovered the will to write again. Because, listen, I have NOT forgotten about Ais Dinsmore. I have the most queries out that I've ever had out at one time (20), over half of them from pitch contest likes. As I wait to hear back, I work on my Twitter, but I also brainstorm my next move. In the time between the last blog post and this one, I've decided I really, really want to set a prequel 15 years in the past, featuring Nerys, and that I want it to have chronic illness rep. Specifically, Nerys will have patellofemoral pain syndrome, my disorder. I've decided I want to write it in the vein of The Night and Its Moon. It will be sapphic, obviously.
I've also decided that, though the infinitely smarter move is to write the thing that is semi-disconnected from Ais, so I can query it as a separate book if I have to shelve SLL, I'm incredibly inspired to jump into Emrys's world. I won't say that Claire Legrand's brilliant A Crown of Ivy and Glass directly inspired me, but it kinda did.
Anyway, I made my CampNano account this morning, so I can start massive overhaul revisions on July 1st -- and I'm excited! I'm genuinely excited to write again. I can't promise to blog here more frequently, because I'm also starting a thing with work (long story), and trying to take care of my health (my body doesn't like this whole "New Jersey blanketed by smoke" thing, and the wildfire 2 miles from my house is not helping). But I'm aiming for once a month -- or if something absolutely ginormous happens.
See you in a month :)
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