And so I say farewell to the querying trenches, a place where I learned much and loved little. Wise Man's Folly has a home. "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul," et cetera.
I will be working, sans agent, with UK-based John Hunt Publishing's imprint, Cosmic Egg Books, to bring this comfort-soup-quest-fantasy to a bookseller near you. Delighted is an understatement (!)
My stats, for those who are so inclined:
Rejections: 50
CNR: 6
Partials: 1
Fulls: 2
Offers: 1
The year ahead will look like a lot of shameless self-promotion and I'm...here for it. Join me as I fight tooth and nail for the tiniest tract of internet territory, in the hopes that some might find me and my book, and maybe even like it.
Creatively, there will also be a third and final pass on the book, finishing this WIP short story (my first foray into Sci-Fi), submitting that short story, working with an artist on Wise Man's Folly's cover art and starting the next project...so that I might have the privilege of returning once more to the dim dark of the querying trenches. Until then...
What I'm Reading: The Idiot (by Elif Batuman, not Dostoyevsky) and The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow (whose heart-forward, perceptive story-telling is like bracingly bitter chocolate pudding I eat with a tiny silver spoon). What I'm Eating: Chanterelles. Alas, another year has passed and the chanterelles have eluded me once more in the field. I got these from a nice man on the side of the road with a folding card table, a silver scale and a wicker basket full of these golden beauties.
What I'm Listening to: My Spotify algorithm has been well and truly hijacked by my four-ish month old baby, who requires ocean waves, non-looping, to sleep soundly, as if he's some old weather-beaten skipper with a Mom tattoo and an Irish whiskey habit. I haven't discovered anything new lately. I hope the next time around I have some fresh beats to share, but for now its mostly rugged oceanscapes and old folk standbys (CSNY, The Beatles, Gregory Alan Isakov). Wise Man's Folly playlist forthcoming, I guess, because that's what the kids of Booktok will want: vibes.
What I'm Digging: The sprouted jerusalem artichokes I tossed in my garden bed that have since issued forth from the soil, magnificent and furry, from beneath heads of lettuce.
The uniform, most days since baby isn't overly fond of napping alone.