Hair of the Dog

Fabio, Fabio, wherefore art thou Fabio?

Welcome back, fellow schleppers.  It's Friday and so in the spirit of goodwill towards men, I thought I'd share a bit about myself and the book I'm attempting to get published in the hopes that it will make you feel better about yourself and the prospects for your book.

The beginning: I was an awkward kid with braces and a headgear in middle school, and instead of attending soccer camp or swim team practice like the other kids, I spent the entire summer between sixth and seventh grade reading (I gained about ten pounds in the process).  I think I read Gone with the Wind at least twice that summer, along with several other romances of the YA and historical variety.  To this day I swear I developed my love of reading and writing in those three months; my brain must have been on overdrive, because when I started seventh grade, I began to write a book about the guy on whom I had an enormous crush.  It ended up as an Antebellum South epic not unlike Gone with the Wind, in which I played Scarlett and he played Rhett (I was such a weirdo back then).  And so my first book was born at the tender age of thirteen.

From that year onward, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: a romance novelist.  I graduated from college in 2007 with degrees in English and Spanish, but to my everlasting regret, I allowed myself to get caught up in the corporate/pre-med/pre-law ethos that pervaded campus and only took ONE (yes, one) creative writing course.  Although my creative writing teacher recognized and nurtured my passion, I ditched my dream of writing for a career in finance.  After working nearly four years as a bond saleswoman - during which I barely had time to sleep, much less write - I decided I'd had enough of trying to live a life that didn't make me happy and I quit, largely due to the sage counseling and never-ending support of the man who is now my fiancee (love ya B!).

And so I set out to write a Regency romance novel.  During the time I worked at the bank, I had managed to write about 30,000 words of a story, mostly snippets conjured while drunk and bored on Friday nights.  I began writing full-time and in earnest in June, and had a finished manuscript of about 80,000 words by the end of September.  Because I had written the book over a period of about four years, it needed some serious polishing; I finished my fourth and final draft just in time to enter it into the Regency Historical category of the 2011 Golden Heart contest.

After the thrill of entering my first manuscript into my first Golden Heart contest, I set about finding an agent.  Though I know it's nearly impossible to get an agent being an unpublished first-time author, I figured I'd give it a go - wouldn't the brilliance of my writing shine through my lack of publishing credentials?

Apparently not.  I fired off my query letter to 25 agents and 2 publishing houses in November.  It is now January 7, and I have received 2 partial requests (both later rejections), 1 full request, and 8 flat out REJECTS.  As the rejections mounted, I figured it wouldn't hurt to enter a few more contests - the Great Expectations Contest and The Write Stuff (both RWA chapter contests).

While I wait for more rejections and the results of said contests, I figured it best not to dwell on the depressing prospects of Curse and so I began my next book, a YA historical/fantasy novel (hard to believe, but YA still seems to be the publishing world's hot spot).   Nothing like a little hair of the dog to get you through the day, no?

And while starting my next book is slow going and often frustrating, I have to say I DO feel much better about fulfilling my dream while writing.  Even if Curse doesn't end up getting published, who's to say my YA won't?  With every word, sentence, page, and book you write, your chances of literary fame and fortune increase; and I figure that if you write enough, eventually your chances start to look pretty damn good.  So, my fellow lost souls, follows today's lesson: perhaps finding Fabio (on the cover of your torrid historical) isn't so much about timing, luck, or who you know, but about perseverance, effort, and a hell of a lot of hair of the dog!