Tag: manuscript

The Manuscript as Adversary

 I am done with the grading and have completed my semester, for which I’m very happy. I will be spending the next few weeks putting together spring classes for hybrid (in class and on zoom) and enjoying the season. And writing, of course.

The current project will be tearing into that first novel again (the one that has been edited and rewritten about forty times). This story is my adversary, in a very spiritual sense. 

  • “Without the aid of a worthy opponent, who’s not really an enemy but a thoroughly dedicated adversary, the apprentice has no possibility of continuing on the path of knowledge”

                                            — attributed to Carlos Castaneda

This manuscript does not know what it wants to be. It’s mystical, romantic, fanciful, mundane. It features the unexplainable in plain sight of an academic setting. It has a secret which is also the theme. 

But I think I finally have it. Someone once told me it was a romance novel, and at its core, I think it is. Two people who struggle trying to understand strange events happening to them fall in love while chasing the meaning of what’s happening — and facing the mysterious villain who’s trying to foil all their work. Their unlikely relationship (a twenty-year age difference) makes sense because there aren’t others like them around.

Whew! That’s a lot to unpack, but I don’t want to lose any of it. So fantasy romance it is.

Now to face my worthy adversary.


Note: I know that Castaneda’s writings have been proven to be a hoax. These quotes are still great quotes and worth thinking on.

A Glimmer of Success

Yesterday, an agent asked to see my full manuscript for the first time. Mind you, I have sent out hundreds of queries for my five novels. 

Let me be honest — I have sent out queries for books that I hadn’t sent through developmental edit or beta reading. I have sent out queries not knowing how to write a query letter. I have, rightly, gotten rejections.

I have learned a lot from my failures. The visual above doesn’t really show the road to success because it doesn’t incorporate learning from failure. One can work hard but wrong, and all that effort means nothing. 

This is not to say that I will get an agent out of this. I could get rejected by the other 27 agents I have queries out to. The agent who has my manuscript might pass. Hard work and learning from failures may not be enough. The book might just be “not what we’re looking for”.

But it’s a glimmer of hope, a glimmer of success. I’ll take it.

Dear Santa:

Dear Santa:


I dream of getting published by a major publishing house. Think of it as my visions of sugarplums for the season. I have no idea if my wish is overly ambitious, or if you can grant it. 


I don’t know if you answer adults’ wishes. I suppose if you did, you’d have to have McMansions and Maseratis in that big bottomless sack of yours. And I don’t know if you answer everyone’s wishes, because there are children starving and children separated from their families, and you haven’t granted their wishes. To be honest, if you have to choose between me and those children, I’d prefer you give them comfort and peace and all good things.

But I still wish, because I’m superstitious. I hope that it’s possible for you to hook into that ephemeral luck and catch its attention for a fleeting second so my manuscript gets a second look. 

So if you’re listening, Santa …

Querying progress: Not a lot to report

I haven’t reported my writing/query progress for a while, so here it is:

My Prodigies query got rejected by Tor/Forge and a lot of agents over the past few months.

My query is now out to three publishers — one big, the others small and independent.

One of the small presses asked for my whole manuscript, which is progress. We shall see.

The other two presses — it’s early days yet.

Please keep me in your thoughts and even prayers if you think this unabashedly liberal and universalist Quaker deserves them.