Thursday, August 03, 2006

Good News All Around

I went to work this week for a few hours and started getting geared up for the new school year. (Teachers start 8/7, kids 8/15) Seeing as this is my 3rd year teaching these same classes, I'm finally at a place where I'm comfortable to really start catering my lessons to the individual classes. I also found out I got a nice raise.

I'm a little nervous about my new additional duties at school (ESL Coordinator), but I'm excited about it too and the 2 workshops I have next week just for this part of my job. It's what I've wanted for so many years and now I have the opportunity to do great things for my school!

My CP tells me I CAN write straight romance, however I apparently have this inner struggle between RS and non-RS and it shows in my writing. She assures me though that the problem is totally fixable and we'll be working on that soon.

I pulled notes out of hiding on my next romantic suspense and I discovered that I have the perfect first 5 pages. Now I'm dusting that manuscript off so I can finish it and start entering it in contests. I also wrote quite a few notes down for my next contemporary in my lovely fictional village.

I've written a schedule for my writing- contests to enter, revisions to complete, queries to send, new manuscripts to start. Of course, this schedule is flexible considering things don't always go according to plan.

I got a rejection from an agent, which bummed me out, but she took the time to line edit 7 pages for me. That in itself was cool enough, but when I sent her a thank you e-mail, she e-mailed me back, told me to keep going, that I am a good writer and that if I had any editing questions to contact her. I feel like I'm on another rung of the ladder now that I'm getting personalized rejections AND words of encouragement!

5 comments:

Kelly Boyce said...

Good news within the bad news on the agent! That is encouraging. Good luck with the contests. You hear varying opinions on entering them but I always found them a great source of feedback.

Elisabeth Naughton said...

Wow, that's a cool rejection! That's definitely a stepping stone. According to my CP that means you aren't far away from landing a good agent.

I feel for you going back to work. Those first few weeks are killer.

Lexi said...

Kelly, I'e had pretty good luck with contests before. Thanks for stopping by!

Elisabeth, I like your CP's idea that I'm not far from landing a good agent. As for work, I'm actually excited right now. Of course, ask me again in about a month and I'll be able to tell you how many school days until Christmas break!

TJ Brown said...

Sorry about the R, but so happy it was given with a spoonful of sugar. Glad you are excited about the new school year, as well!
Teri

Bailey Stewart said...

Wow, I never thought I would be saying the words "cool rejection". But that's great that she took the time to answer you personally AND encourage you on your writing. I can't wait until next week when the kids next door go back to school and we won't have to listen to them all day (at least they're not out during the 100 plus weather).