The children had the week off and though I still worked half-time I devoted most of the week to my writing ~ which felt wonderful.
I finished my last round of edits to To Get Quit removing 315 extraneous words and fixing one big error that my editor (the brilliant Nancy Grossman) found that none of my beta readers had noticed. (I had cicadas singing in January.) The manuscript felt really tight and finished. So I sent it out, writing 12 query letters to my top choices of agents and the one publisher who has already asked for the full manuscript. Now comes the excruciatingly hard part of waiting for responses. Often no response ever comes which makes the whole process more difficult.
I was also encouraged this week by hearing that one of my beta readers, a well-read professional historian, said "you wrote about slavery in the best way that anyone ever has", and that she would be happy to have her quote on the jacket or insert of the book. Pretty high praise. To be honest I was happy enough to know that the story was still fresh in her mind six months later.
So I am feeling like that novel is doing what it is supposed to be doing, and must turn my attention to my latest; a completed middle grade novel that one might think is about elephants (it is) but is also about slavery and American History and what it means to be human and humane.
Every where I go I seem to run into him. I found the profile of this bust at The Currier Museum of Art so much more attractive. Looking good George!
I also took a little time off this week to take my friend Kate (Portsmouth NH Poet Laureate) on a birthday road trip to see the first folio. I have to confess that it might have been a little anti climatic. He never touched it. It was written after his death. It is of course an incredibly important document (necessitating that I be scolded by an overzealous docent when my jacket brushed the glass) as it saved many of the plays from disappearing. We can all be thankful for that, and I am thankful that the folio is on tour so that so many of us can see it. They did let me take pics, so here you go;
I finished my last round of edits to To Get Quit removing 315 extraneous words and fixing one big error that my editor (the brilliant Nancy Grossman) found that none of my beta readers had noticed. (I had cicadas singing in January.) The manuscript felt really tight and finished. So I sent it out, writing 12 query letters to my top choices of agents and the one publisher who has already asked for the full manuscript. Now comes the excruciatingly hard part of waiting for responses. Often no response ever comes which makes the whole process more difficult.
I was also encouraged this week by hearing that one of my beta readers, a well-read professional historian, said "you wrote about slavery in the best way that anyone ever has", and that she would be happy to have her quote on the jacket or insert of the book. Pretty high praise. To be honest I was happy enough to know that the story was still fresh in her mind six months later.
So I am feeling like that novel is doing what it is supposed to be doing, and must turn my attention to my latest; a completed middle grade novel that one might think is about elephants (it is) but is also about slavery and American History and what it means to be human and humane.
Every where I go I seem to run into him. I found the profile of this bust at The Currier Museum of Art so much more attractive. Looking good George!I also took a little time off this week to take my friend Kate (Portsmouth NH Poet Laureate) on a birthday road trip to see the first folio. I have to confess that it might have been a little anti climatic. He never touched it. It was written after his death. It is of course an incredibly important document (necessitating that I be scolded by an overzealous docent when my jacket brushed the glass) as it saved many of the plays from disappearing. We can all be thankful for that, and I am thankful that the folio is on tour so that so many of us can see it. They did let me take pics, so here you go;
