Originally, I ended this to be a ramble about how I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, because I am slowly going stir-crazy during my one-month mandatory hiatus from my manuscript, and I absolutely need to do something.
But life happened. I finished my interviews for my Capstone, began coding data (blech), and then gave out candy on Halloween. And don't get me started on the World Series (Am I...becoming interested in sportsball?! Oh, the indignity!). And then I summarily had a mini-breakdown. There was no reason. It was a culmination of things. The Phillies were not involved, I promise.
But anyway, all this to say that I've had an idea percolating in my head for a while, but my mind has been occupied with Ais Dinsmore for a solid two years. I was hoping to use NaNoWriMo to begin chipping away at this idea of mine, especially since I spent the last week outlining it and pestering like, every single one of my betas...but when have I subscribed to others' timelines anyway?
So, instead, I attended a brilliant talk with Maika and Maritza Moulite, sisters and co-authors of Dear Haiti, Love Alaine and One of the Good Ones. The sisters were set to do a talk at Rowan around 12:30 today, but my lovely beta reader/favorite history professor had set up a 11:00 private meeting with a small group of us who are either interested in writing books or have written something, but would like to talk about publication. I, being in an utter brain fog these past three weeks, thought that it was for next Wednesday. It was not. It was today, and thank the gods I had enough gas to make the trip to Glassboro.
I was frantic. I was bookended by meetings--student appointments, part-time advisors' meetings, and the urgent need to grab my library book from Evesham before they carted it back to wherever I'd requested it from. I contemplated cancelling, claiming to be too busy with work--my horrifying bad habit, and something that I know leaves my friends cursing my name.
So I dragged mys to Rowan.this for yourself. Your job is just a job, and it doesn't pay the bills particularly well, but it does pay for grad school, so I guess it's a decent-ish job. But you're ranking that over your literal heart and soul, your beloved book child?"
So I dragged myself to Rowan.
And I came away bursting with information.
First off, I love author meetings. I love, love, love them. If I haven't read your book, meeting you will make me want to buy it. I get so excited around authors. I literally daydream about being published and doing my own author meet and greets (at local indie bookstores, of course). The Moulite sisters are a delight, and they shared some really valuable lessons about voice (plus an activity centered around writing a voice to match "Unholy," which I wish we would've had time to do).
But I felt like, after inhabiting Ais Dinsmore's head for almost two years, I had a pretty good grip on at least her voice.
It was the lessons that came next that are invaluable. When someone asked about the journey to publication, they were so incredibly transparent about their path, and it felt like someone had handed me a lamp to light the previously-dark tunnel I'd felt mired in. It felt almost the same as my meeting with M.C. Atwood, the author contact I made years ago who set me on the path to begin with.
Like my meeting with Megan, I came away with homework, feeling a bit behind. With Megan, it was an "oh shit" moment: my draft hadn't even been beta'd. Why on earth was I thinking about publication?
But with the Moulite sisters, it was more gentle. They discovered their agent through Twitter and the use of several hashtags, a thing I've long resisted, which is totally on brand for me. I mean, I'd even resisted the blog thing. I only made this because of the indirect advice of an agent who rejected me, whose website stated that they do in fact look at the "author's website" section of the QueryTracker form to get a feel for the author as a person to know whether they'd want to work with a person or not.
This brings me to my point. Many of us, as writers, are comfortable in the shadows. After all, stepping out is terrifying. I still remember the terrifying feeling of sending my manuscript to my first beta, and that was my best friend. But querying a book feels very much like college admissions to me. Sure, if you're a legacy, you've got an in already (and why do you think so many famous people are publishing memoirs? I mean, really). But otherwise, it's hard to stand out in a slush pile, so you've got to get yourself out there and do that scary thing: network. And while I am perfectly comfortable pretending to be a hot person at conferences, it turns out that I'm really, really bad at this whole social media thing.
So, I'm making a Twitter? Right after Elon Musk took it over? And I'm keeping this blog active? And I'm maybe going to start beefing up my social media more before January comes, and I get on that horrifying query train again?
In a word, yes.
Don't worry. I've made way worse decisions before.
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