Hubris?

Sorry all I'm talking about lately is the book I've been working on, but it's what's been filling up most of the brain space. It's completed. I'm giving it to three friends to read and edit, I've written a good query letter and a not-so-good synopsis that I'm still hacking away at. Then I'll super-edit the first fifty pages for a partial in case requested. Then, I think in two weeks when I get the manuscripts back from friends, I'll start querying agents.

I feel a lot different about it this time than I did when I sent it out before, over a year ago. It's a different book, a much more interesting book, a much better written book. I feel this giddy optimism, which I know will soon be crushed by piles of rejection letters, but no matter how much it gets rejected at first, I think I've created something special this time around. Something akin to the piles of published YA books that I read on a daily basis. And I'll keep pushing to get it into the hands it needs to be - go to conferences where you can schedule time with agents, and query, query, query. I'll let it sit for four months, then do even more re-writes in December after my classes are done, then do another pile of querys. For the first time, I really think this is a book that is publishable. Now, we'll see in a few weeks if any agents agree!

And either way, in three weeks, when grad school starts (eek! yay!), it will get put on the side-burner, and I'll get to fill my brain up with entirely new things - namely, reading Old English in my Midieval Lit class (eek again!), and Hemmingway short stories in the other.

Oh, and because I'm a total dork, I like to document the process: