Fletcher & Cooper

Book 2 (if I end up splitting it) is turning out to be a very different beast than Book 1. There’s a lot of moving parts, and–surprise surprise–after writing like 20,000 words in February and 40K in March, I may be burning out. Just a smidge. I am certainly not keeping to my goal of 2K words a day M-F, instead focusing on other things M-W (maybe writing 1-2K total across the three days) and then hammering out a grouchy 2K on Thursday before freaking out and writing in a blind panic on Friday.

The first Friday of the month I beat my previous record by writing 7,804 words. The second Friday I wrote 6,212–which is not a record but still impressive. So far this week I have written precisely: zip; meaning this week will be more of the same.

But at least the plot is progressing? I guess? I am definitely nearing a Dramatic Showdown. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. I have zero idea.

Querying/Submitting

Math time! So far this year I have submitted 66 times. Out of that are 45 queries for Blackout Odyssey. I’m up to 43 rejections for the year (22 for BOO including one I got this morning less than 12 hours after submitting; very surprising because query responses usually take ages and this was a personalized rejection).

Out of those rejections only five were ghosts (meaning the agent just didn’t bother to respond) which is a much better ratio than my querying for either Ashes or Creampuffs. I’m getting better at this!

Especially considering I’ve had three full manuscript requests (great!).

I followed up with the agent who asked to read it back in January (hooray!) and she got back to me with in a day (super! I mean, yes, low bar, but whatevs) to say that she’s still reviewing it (okay) and will get back to me “soon” (oh). It’s been two weeks (huh). I’ll probably prod her end of May if I don’t hear anything.

I’m behind on both of my goals to write a short story a month and attend some sort of networking event a month. Obviously with F&C soaking up all my creativity writing a new short story is low priority. But I have time to catch up. (The official goal is to write 12 short stories in the year and attending 12 events. So they can bunch up when I have spoons to devote to them.)

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Next week, Cutie and I are off to BC for a much needed break, and when we get back in May I’m expecting to have Space Crazies back on my plate. I don’t know yet whether Fletcher & Cooper will be done; I suspect not. I’m not sure how yet I’m going to proceed: I might take a break from F&C and dive into Space Crazies or I might hold off on editing until the manuscript is done. Won’t know until I get there. But either way, May and June will be busy busy!

I probably won’t update *Insert Subplot Here for the next two weeks to focus on a) writing and b) relaxing. So unless something momentous happens, I’ll see you all in May! Keep your fingers crossed for my manuscript requests and plot resolutions, please. I’m off to sacrifice a trio of pigeons and enjoy the West Coast!