Yes, I'm still alive!
Sorry for the enormous break in updates, folks, but I assure you, I have been keeping busy... by waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. Let me give you the skinny on what's been going on the past 6 months:
As you may recall, my last post described the despondency of getting rejected by an opportunity that felt like a sure thing. What I neglected to tell you, however, was that the rejecting literacy agency in question did give me glimmer of hope within said rejection. While they generally liked my original manuscript for Sons of Sludge, they turned it down because of issues they had with it's ending, but expressed interest in seeing it again, in the event that I revised it.
And so that's what I did. I took a few months to revise the manuscript, changing the ending to what I thought might assuage the agent's concerns, and resubmitted it to them. Then I waited. And waited. Surely they would end up offering me representation, right? After all the work I put in, just for them?
Well, they didn't. For whatever reason (because they really didn't give me a specific reason), they said "no" again. And this time, that glimmer of hope was AWOL in the rejection. The door is now completely shut. It's extremely aggravating, putting that much time and energy into a dead-end, but I guess that's just the way the industry works. I knew that - more or less - going into this.
And it wasn't a complete loss. I believe my revised manuscript is better than the original, and it has now taken the place as the official copy.
But now what?
Though I'm not too optimistic, and I dread the process, there's still some options to scrape up from the bottom of the literary agent barrel. I can re-query agents that turned me down before, this time offering the revised manuscript. I know it's a long shot, but it's something.
And I promise you, Sons of Sludge WILL be available to read. I suspect it will be rather soon, too, unless by some miracle an agent responds positively, which would further delay its release (ugh). But either way, just like my Undead protagonist Zaul, this story isn't finished with life yet.
While I was waiting, I also wrote a couple of short stories, for a series I am tentatively calling "16 & Strange". TIME STOPS is about a completely paralyzed boy who can freeze time once a day, and THE TAXIDERMIST'S DAUGHTER is about a girl who can experience the lives of dead animals when she lays her hand on them. I may make these little nuggets available for you to read in the near future, so check back now and then.
Also, Float is once again available for free on Amazon, for today and tomorrow only. If you've never downloaded it, or know somebody else who should, now is the perfect opportunity to support your local independent author achieve his small-scale dreams. And if you REALLY love me, and have already read Float, leave a quick review for it on Amazon. This would help me more than you can imagine.
You'll hear from me soon, friends.
