“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

Stephen King

Hey there. Things have been a little rough for me this past month, as I’m sure you’ve seen if you follow me on Instagram. But time heals, and I’m back enough to be able to write a blog post this week for you guys!

Over the past month, I have barely thought about writing or publishing or much of anything.

…But I have thought about one thing. I came to a very important conclusion.

First, it was sending out over 100 queries last January and only getting a couple manuscript requests back. One of which was a revise and resubmit, and months later when I finally got it ready enough to resubmit… the agent said she wasn’t taking any new clients at that time, and now isn’t even an agent anymore.

Next, it was not getting the response I wanted from my most recent round of queries, the one with the updated letter I was so proud of…

Then it was a couple Twitter pitching events with no traction…

And finally, it was not getting chosen for Author Mentor Match, a program that matches authors with aspiring ones to help them navigate the query process.

Basically, a whole lot of setbacks and a whole lot of nothing.

My conclusion? I’m moving on from my first book, my little alien-filled baby, In the Sky.

That might sound awful, but I’ve been in denial for far too long. I’ve spent months on here telling you guys that I knew everyone says your first novel probably won’t be the one that gets you a book deal. Hell, my Author Mentor Match application was me basically saying, “I know I probably sound dumb for continuing to try with this project, so if my mentor tells me to move on, I will.” If that wasn’t a plea for someone to just tell me to stop, I don’t know what is.

By no means does this mean I’m giving up on In the Sky. All it means is that my main goal switches to finishing up my second story and getting it ready for querying.

And no, I’m not “killing my darlings.” (Though I love that quote.) I’m not going to throw away everything I’ve spent almost a decade perfecting. Duh. I’m just going to casually put it aside and work on my other story that I love.

(Ps. I’m not clueless. I know it’s In the Sky’s word count that’s the issue. That and the fact that YA sci-fi is kind of dead at the moment… see below video. Either way, maybe if I take some time away from it, I can finally figure out a way to make the story substantially longer. And maybe by that point, sci-fi will have a crazy resurgence and I’ll have an agent from my other novel.) 😉

Love you guys. Thanks for letting me take a little break to get through a tough month. I’ll keep you posted on my progress with my second book and what’s to come. ❤