I'M BAAAACK!!!!!!!!

But first, an announcement – In the comments section of my last post, some lovely writer gave me a head’s up on a new charity drive led by some of our favorite authors to benefit Autism Speaks Please take a little time to look through their website and see all they do.

The event is an eBay auction, where some very impressive authors have volunteered to name a character in their upcoming novels after the winning bidder. Bidding starts on March 23, 2008 and ends on April 2nd. Authors include such notable names as Lee Child, Jodi Picoult, and our very own Patricia Wood.

Visit their eBay site to learn more and see if some of your favorite authors are participating.

On to the Blog Post

I’m back to the blog-o-sphere... and you know what that means – my novel is finished!!!! I just completed it and reformatted to one doc over the weekend, and sent it out to a few very trusted beta readers for a second opinion. I am officially done – huzzah!!!

I’ve backed up all of my files on a disk and removed them from my computer so that I can’t just sift through it willy nilly any old time. I know me, I can’t leave it alone and I will keep reading and second guessing myself if it’s accessible, so I am officially on a break from it to gain fresh eyes before I re-read and start submissions.

In the interim, I’m taking this week and probably next week completely off of fiction writing. I’m getting ready for Easter and plan to spend next week’s school break enjoying my kids... I’ll also be enjoying some extended reading time (I read while I’m working anyway, but I don’t get long leisurely hours to do so in the throws of revision, so I’m looking forward to it). And of course, I’ll be back in the blog-o-sphere, catching up on all of the posts I’ve missed and bothering you all 

I plan on breaking from the work long enough to tweak some shorts and get them out in submission, and to start researching my next one – it’s historical fiction, so I plan on trying to really work within the constructs of an outline this time, and I think I’ll need a few months of heavy research time, just to get well acquainted with the time frame.

As for Raskin’s Wings, I already have my basic query letter and synopses in fairly good shape – I also have personalized it for my top five agents, and have put all of that aside pending my re-read. If it’s clean enough and not in need of any major editing at the re-read, I’ll start submissions immediately... If I find that I need major revisions, I’ll give it another cooling period once I’m done... many revisions make for tighter writing.... lest anyone think I just finished a book and am going to submit, Raskin’s has already been revised in total about nine or ten times... not to mention the chapters that took complete overhauls upwards of twenty times.

After this, I won’t be mentioning that work much, if at all, on this blog. I kind of feel like this blog can discuss the writing process, but I don’t want to delve too deeply into my own personal submissions. I might mention something larger, like I got a lot of the same feedback and am back in revisions... but otherwise, I’ll likely only mention it if something thrilling happens, like signing with an agent or getting a publishing deal.

Now, for the question of the hour – I’d love an opinion on this. I have my top agents picked out and have researched them as thoroughly as I can. Some of them, from what I’ve read on author boards, are prone to request exclusives when they request the ms. While I’ve read that they’re all fine with the author declining because the work is out elsewhere, I’m a little nervous about the scenario where, say, uber agent #1 requests an exclusive and I jump at the chance only to get a request from uber agent #2, who I have to decline... and if #1 passes, #2 will know it’s a rejection and won’t that taint their vision of the project?

So, while all of my research says it’s fine to send out multiple queries at a time, and the wait for response would be endless going one agent at a time, I’m still a little nervous about the process... anyone got any thoughts on this?