Query and Baseball

I sent my newly revised query letter yesterday and after rereading it once or twice (okay, it was like 4 or 5 times) I feel REALLY confident about it.  I'm proud of the query, I feel like it's interesting enough, it's in my voice, it's written the way I feel about the overall book, and it conveys the story the way I want it to.  This is exciting because it means that other than continuing to edit the rest of the manuscript, I can rest easy and just keep requerying that email to various agents after I get the rejections.  These agents I've been querying require that I attach the synopsis (which is also just a page and a half of the general conflicts and main events in the book, and I feel okay about that) and the first 2-5 chapters.  And after reading the first two chapters that I sent yesterday, I feel really good and really confident about my chances of getting an agent with this round of querying.  I know, it's still a freakin long shot, but I've read a whole lot of successful queries and I think that sometimes one that might work for one agent at one specific time might then not even work for that same agent at a different time.  As long as there's nothing structurally wrong and the grammar isn't awful, it really just feels like luck.  And other than a misspelling of 'pierogies' in the fifth paragraph of the prologue, I didn't see any obvious errors (hopefully I'm not just missing ones because I'm ignorant of proper grammar, but that's extremely likely).  And in my defense of pierogies....(sorry Chocci Marie and Dad)...the computer and Scrivener all think that it's spelled pirogies, which might be a different word all together, but I went with it and didn't double check myself online.  Damn it.  Anyway...if whoever is reading the query is in the right mood and mind for it, they might love it and pass it on to the agent, who might feel similarly.  I just have to get the manuscript up to par.

Me and the husband are taking J to a baseball game today.  We're getting lunch at a Mexican place in northern Phoenix that he saw got great reviews on Yelp.  We're hoping we can keep her awake until after the afternoon events and have her take a late nap at home, but I'm pretty sure she'll either be super cranky at the game, or will pass out on the car ride home (meaning a 20 minute nap, compared to her 2-3 hour regular nap).  Or both.  We'll see.  It can't hurt to get my hopes up and expect a fun afternoon, right?

:/ I probably just jinxed myself.

Writing a Synopsis and the Next Journal Entry (date unknown)

I've been thinking about re-querying agents (well, not exactly 're-querying' so much as sending out my query to a few new batches of agents).  Unfortunately, one thing I hadn't anticipated after writing my original query back in March was writing a synopsis.  I just didn't see that as part of what I would need to do in order to try and persuade an agent to represent me.  I was wrong, so I tried writing up a quick synopsis and found out...yea, not so easy.  Today, for my 'do something on Earths Project' part of my To-Do list, I decided to research again how to best write a synopsis.  I easily found this blog post:

http://writerswrite1.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/how-to-write-a-synopsis

There's also a cool image attached to the blog (and I think this blog post is reposted from the original blog, so I apologize that I was too lazy to track down the original poster).

Immediately, I started applying this tactic to my book.  I am up to the third sentence and I'm finding it to be a much more helpful way of turning this arduous task into a much more manageable one.  Hopefully I'll be able to come up with the last few sentences for this and turn them into paragraphs without much trouble.  That'll be the goal for my weekend? 

On to the next journal entry...I block out a lot from the second page because I'm pretty sure it's for the next day, but for some reason, I stopped writing dates for a few pages.

Diary,  My mom just went for an interview.  Wish her luck!  She has a lot of experience so unless they pick family, she's in the bag!

I might bring you with me when we go to hershey on the 22nd.  If I don't bring you, I'll fill you in on the details when I get back.

I never had a diary that I enjoy to write in and kept this long.  I hope no on ever finds you and reads you!  Unless I'm dead!  Then it won't really matter!  I wish I could write about more exciting stuff but it would be more dumb if I lied!

I hope when I grow up ***************************************
I want an interesting job like being an archeiologist!  Now that would be fun!  I'm not sure if I want kids?  Maybe when I get older I'll change my mind!

                               Millie

Diary, It's so HOT!  I wish my neighbors would invite me down to swim!

I can't wait until my dad and I finish the tree house!  Then I can hide you out there!

                               Millie

I definitely remember wanting to be an archaeologist.  I think it was because of the movie 'Jurrasic Park'.  In fact, I'm sure of it.  I think my mother got that job she had interviewed for...not positive though.  I also think my neighbors invited me down that day.  The only reason I kept that part for this entry is because it's supposed to be 119 degrees in Phoenix today...the hottest day of the year so far.  It's about 2pm, so I'm assuming it's pretty bad out already.  I'm staying inside as much as I can today.

I remember not wanting kids through most of my childhood.  I didn't really decided I wanted a baby until I lived in Louisiana...about 4 or 5 years ago.  When that baby fever came on, I couldn't look at a baby without wanting one of my own with an intensity I've never before experienced.  So I guess there was no way of knowing at 13 that I'd get that innate urge.   

Guess that one wasn't so bad as far as embarrassment goes. Also, it's funny that I am totally screwing over the younger version of myself who wrote this and was so adamant about no one ever reading it (because, as you can see, I'm not dead).

First Two Queries Sent, First Two Rejections Received

So I finally buckled down recently and finished my query letter.  I have no idea if it'll be good enough to catch an agent's eye, but I felt pretty good about it.  If I get any type of positive response from it I'll probably eventually post it here, but for now, I'm going to wait and see.  My sister also gave me some really great feedback on the book after she read it.  So far, I have feedback from three people, and I've been going back through the manuscript trying to fix it up and tweak it so it works.  I need to put more effort in the synopsis, which I hadn't written yet as of a couple of days ago, but writing it is making me really doubt myself, which I hate.  

I sent out the query to two agents so far and I have already received two rejections.  I really assumed it would take longer to get responses.  I saw somewhere that email queries typically don't even get responses, and I'd honestly rather not get any if they're planning on rejecting.  So far, no such luck, so I get to deal with rejections from jobs and NOW rejections from agents.  I'm really hating the number 13 right now (aka, the year 2013).  I'm gonna  get a whole lot more rejections, from jobs AND agents...so I hope it makes me better at handling it....because it has always been a major weakness of mine.  

Back to sending out the query, working on the synopsis, and sharpening up the manuscript.  I'm going to be unrelenting.  I'm determined.  This is what I want in life, above anything else ever, so now that I've finally written an entire manuscript, I'm not going to quit that easily.  Or at all.  One really great part about the entertainment industry, it's so subjective that even books like 50 Shades of Grey can make millions of dollars.