A New Kind of Waiting

It's been a little over two months since Corey and I announced the sale of WHAT ABOUT MOOSE? And a little more than that since announcing the illustrator.

So now we are in the waiting stage again. But this is a new kind of waiting.

For our little Moose, the nail-biting, breath-holding, sleep-depriving, what-if kind of waiting is over. We no longer have to wondering if WHAT ABOUT MOOSE? will ever be a book. Our revisions and edits are done and, according to our lovely editor, we have now entered a quiet phase while other people work their magic with our story and characters.

I don't know how long it will be before we get any updates. But I'm cool with waiting. I'll just sit back, kick up my feet and...

What? I should probably be learning all about book promotion?

Good idea.

Threads of Hope

I am a spider
dangling above a pit,
each thread I spin holding a bit of hope
that
it will be                      
the one                  
that will lead me up up up
to where I want to be,
but knowing that
at any moment
a little snip!
could send me
f
a
l
l
i
n
g
and so I spin
and spin again
hanging my hopes
on tiny threads
that keep me
dangerously
aloft.

(c) Rebecca J. Gomez

What to do while waiting

I have been on a bit of a querying frenzy with HOUSE OF BONES for the past few weeks. And it has paid off... somewhat. My beloved novel-in-verse is currently in the hands of two brilliant agents who were wise enough to request the full manuscript (that's four requests for the full so far). In addition, I'm waiting on a couple of other agents who have yet to respond. I won't mention the one who sent me a form rejection yesterday...oh, too late. But, who cares? One less that I have to wait for, I say!

I don't mind waiting. Honestly. But sometimes I can get preoccupied with the waiting, obsessed with checking email, frantic with the "what ifs" that race around in my brain.

So I have to do something. But what?

I could write. But my latest project is slow going, only revealing itself to me a few lines at a time, which reminds me of how long the publishing process can take, which reminds me that I'm waiting to hear back from agents, which leads to checking email and chasing away the "what ifs."

I could doodle. But doodling makes my mind wander, and a wandering mind leads to ideas, and new ideas lead to thinking about old ideas that led to finished projects, which reminds me that I'm still waiting to hear back from some agents.

I could revisit an old manuscript. But revising makes me wonder how much revising an editor or agent will want me to do on HOUSE OF BONES, which reminds me that I'm still waiting.

I could play Scrabble or Words with Friends. But word games always make me think of writing, and thinking of writing reminds me of waiting.

I could read. But reading a great book reminds me that I hope to be published some day, which reminds me that I really want to land an agent, which reminds me that I haven't heard back from a few agents yet.

I could scrub the bathrooms. But scrubbing grime makes me think of cutting the junk out of a manuscript, which reminds me of all the stuff I cut and tweaked in HOUSE OF BONES to make it as polished as it could be, which makes me think of how marketable it is, which makes me think of how I just need to find the right editor, which reminds me of how much I need an agent.

You get the picture. I'm obsessed. There is only one cure for this obsession, I'm afraid.

I need an agent.

Ups and ups

Time's up!
Staying up.
Following up...?
Email popping up.
Looking up.
Reading up.
Keeping chin up.
What's UP???

Maybe is better than no

I sent a manuscript to a publisher last month.

I heard back from the editor a couple of weeks ago.

She wants to hold on to it till the end of the month, when she'll be making her final decisions, if that is okay with me.

Of course it is okay with me!

Now, if the end of the month would come a little sooner, that would be great.

The waiting (and waiting and waiting) game

How long will I have to wait? That is a question I ask often in my life.

How long will I have to wait for the test results?

How long will I have to wait for my teenager to get done with choir practice?

How long will I have to wait in line at the post office?

I don't mind waiting. As long as I know what I'm in for. Because then I can be prepared if the wait is going to be long. Bring a book or journal, run a few errands, or find some distractions to take my mind off what I'm waiting for.

It's the not knowing that can drive me crazy. Like a couple of weeks ago when I expected my daughter to be out by 4:00, or 4:15 at the latest. But when 4:20 came around and there was no sign of her, I started to get annoyed. A few more minutes passed. Snow was falling heavier and heavier and I still had to make it home to cook dinner and had no idea how long I was going to have to wait. By the time she made it to the car at around 4:35 I was ready to burst!

If I had known that choir practice would go that long, it would have been different. I would have been prepared. I would have endured the waiting by just "being chill" as we say in my family.

It's not much different in my writing/submitting life. I like to know how long of a wait to expect after sending something to an agent or publisher. And they try to be accommodating by putting in their guidelines something like: Expect a reply within 6 or 9 or 12 weeks/months.

No prob. I can wait six weeks. I can even wait 9 months (done that three times before in another area of my life). It's when one of them "only responds if interested" that it can be a little tricky. It seems simple enough. Wait until that 9 months passes and then put a little "rejected" into the response column in my submission tracker.

What about when the unexpected happens? One of those publishers that says "no SASE" and "responds within 9 months if interested" sent me a nice little rejection saying what they liked about my story (and why they chose to reject it) 10 months after I submitted it. A pleasant surprise. An encouraging surprise! Of course, I sent along another manuscript to the very editor that wrote the lovely note. But now have the rules of the waiting game changed? Do I let the nine months and then count it as rejected? Or do I wait a little longer, just in case?

The nine months have nearly passed. I've decided that I can't count on the unexpected. But I'm not going to discount it either. Who knows? There may be another, better surprise just around the corner!

I'll try to sit back and "be chill" in the meantime.