Excitement

*            TWILIGHT AND JANE EYRE SPOILER ALERT            *

(Just in case you haven't read them and evenutally want to.  I hate being spoiled, so I thought I'd give a heads up.)

So, I started jotting down my little idea yesterday, and today I've been elborating on it because my computer software at work has decided to have a 'tude with me today--seriously, like every other day, it does not work.

I am so excited about this new book.  It has just been a fun idea of mine that I've had for years.  I'm not huge into the vampire thing.  I loved the Twilight books (except the last one--don't work up to some huge fight scene and then not have it, k?  And don't even get me started on the movies and Kristin Stewart now being the most paid actress in Hollywood....)  I've never really wanted to jump on the vampire crazy train, so that's why I never put words to my little idea until yesterday.

To me, it's just a fun project to work on while I figure out where Maggie's book is going.  I don't think I will ever pursue publishing it or anything, but I am having so much fun researching for it.  It's set in New Orleans, which I find to be one of the most mysterious, creepiest, coolest cities in America, and many of the characters are of Cajun descent or Lousiana Creole.

In college I had a "History of the English Language" class, and we discussed Pidgin, which I believe is where the Creole language originated--from the West Africa and Carribean slave trade (don't quote me on that; it's been years since I've had that class, but I think that's where it came from.)  And I also read The Wide Sargasso Sea in my Lit Crit class which is a kind of prequel to Jane Eyre (very interesting book anyone who is a Jane Eyre fan should read.)  It takes place in the Carribean and tells the story of Mr. Rochester's crazy, Creole, attic wife.  I love knowing both sides of the story, so I'm glad someone decided to elaborate on hers.  But don't even get me started on that love triangle and how I never liked Rochester and think Jane could've done better....

I really don't want this to be a vampire novel that glorify's vampires.  I've thought about having some kind of vampire love interest, because it seems like that would be the natural course for the book, but I don't like vampires.  I was Team Jacob.  I didn't trust the vampires.  While reading the Twilight books, I kept waiting for Edward to turn on Bella and attack her.  I think this goes back to an episode of "Are You Afraid of The Dark" I watched when I was like 7 and parts of "Interview With a Vampire" I saw when I was 10 which seriously scarred me for life.  I slept with my sheets pulled up around my neck for years.   Bottom line, vampires are not good or nice or make great husbands.  They are bad, and I don't like them.

So, to recap, having fun researching for the new book, Kristen Stewart has the personality of notebook paper, you should read Wide Sargasso Sea, and I don't like vampires.

-JGP

Boredom and A New Idea

Here's what I did for the past 30 minutes.  I've had this idea in my head for a while, and decided to get some of it out:

            I am not a vampire.

            This is something I tell myself often.  Whenever I can hear someone’s heart beating in the next room.  When I can spot a fallen nickel from 10 yards away.  When I have the urge to snarl at someone who made me angry.  I am not a vampire, and I refuse to be called one.

            My story is complicated, and it starts before my birth.

            My mother was an orphan.  She spent her life being bounced around from foster family to foster family.  Some not so bad, others not so great, but her last foster family was the worst.  When she was placed with a seemingly perfect couple at age 15, she thought that just maybe it would work out this time.  To her surprise, her foster mother turned into a raging alcoholic behind closed doors, and for good reason, as she lived with a physically and sexually abusive psychopath that brought my mother’s not so great life into a new level of hell.

            She suffered through the first few months, bravely taking the constant abuse, but one night, shortly after her sixteenth birthday, when the man and woman got into an alcohol infused fight that eventually led to the psychopath setting fire to the kitchen, she left.  In the midst of the commotion she packed her bags and made her way out her upstairs window and down the fire escape and into the streets of New Orleans.

            She started out as a waitress/stripper, then eventually started selling her body for top dollar.  It wasn’t ideal by any means, but at least now she was the one that held control of her own body, or so she felt.  For two years she lived the life of a high-priced street whore at night, and numbed the pain with drugs and alcohol during the day. 

When she was 18, she became pregnant with me—ending her night life.  She got away with it for a while, but she could only hide me for so long.  Her pimp kicked her out of her apartment, so she was forced to take shelter with the homeless addicts in a basement on 5^th.

When she was about six months pregnant with me, she was afraid of losing me to starvation.  She went down the alleys behind the strip and looked for restaurants who could spare some leftovers, expired goods, anything to get her by.  She built a good relationship with a young, Cajun restaurant owner, Lisette.  Lisette would always put her leftovers aside for my mom, and every evening she would come by.  Lisette took pity on my mom.  She helped her sober up and offered her a job waiting tables at the restaurant.  Things were finally starting to look better, but it didn’t last long….

One night while mom was taking the trash out back, she was met by a tall, handsome man with jet black hair and dark coal eyes.  His appearance was pleasing, but his aura menacing.  He lunged at my mother and silenced her before she had the chance to scream.

Lisette noticed she hadn’t seen my mother for some time, so she went out back to check on her, and that’s when she found my mother—neck mutilated, body drained of blood, cold, and lifeless.  Almost.  Lisette saw movement in my mother’s belly.  She went into labor in the midst of her attack, and I was struggling to get out.  Lisette ran to the kitchen to grab alcohol and a knife and in the back alley, performed my C-section.  She got to me just in time.  I was blue, suffering from affixation, nearly dead.  She revived me, cleaned me, and brought me in.  She called some of her less than respectable regulars to come clean up the mess, and they dumped my mother’s body into Lake Pontchartrain.  After all, it was New Orleans.  Who cared about the nobody whore who was killed in Leftover Alley.

Aunt Lisette, as I know her now, raised me as her own.  She was a hero for taking in the abandoned baby left in the trash behind her restaurant.  Only she and I know the real story, and why I am the way I am.

Mom was attacked by a vampire.  She was drained of blood.  I was filled with venom.  Because of my newborn age, my size, and my current state, I wasn’t turned by the attack.  But I was changed.

My name is Anika, and I am not a vampire.

Thoughts?
-JGP

I Got One!

I got my first snarky response from an agent:

Hi Jana,

I just glanced at this since I am closed to queries, but you should know that it is a big faux pas to query incomplete work. It must be finished (and revised!) before you query. Many agents request quickly and you're expected to send it within a day or three. 

M

I sent her an email back explaining my situation:

 

M,

Hi.  I know some agencies require the manuscript to be completed, but I've had several agencies request my work knowing that it is incomplete.  I would never submit an unfinished work to a publisher, but I am looking for an agent that wants to be part of the writing process and help me develop my story.  I apologize for inconveniencing you.

-JGP

 

 

I realize that a lot of agencies won't request anything from me because my work isn't complete, but I'm looking for assistance.  A small little agency that wants to develop me. I realize that may be a tall order, but I think that person is out there, and in the mean time, I will continue to work on my stories and characters. 

 

Besides, I've never been known to do things conventionally anyway. ;)

 

-JGP

Noah's Song

This is a song I wrote for my nephew, Noah, who passed away from complications of brain cancer on May 18, 2012.  I will always love you, and you will always be my hero, sweet boy.

You can see his memorial on http://www.prayfornoah.com/.

The Bravest Boy That Ever Lived (Noah's Song)

We are never promised tomorrow.

You always lived for today.

Running through the valley

With a smile on your face

Arms open wide

Waiting to embrace

Whatever life God gave you,

And you did it with grace.

I can only hope that one day

I can be that brave.

When I feel like giving up,

When I feel like giving in,

And it seems like the battle I cannot win,

When I think I’m losing strength,

I give it all that I can give,

Because I remember who I am

To the bravest boy that ever lived.

I always worry for what’s to come.

You took one day at a time.

Fighting this battle

While having the time of your life.

Ready for anything,

You kept running the race.

You pushed fear aside,

And laughed in the enemy’s face.

When I feel like giving up,

When I feel like giving in,

And it seems like the battle I cannot win,

When I think I’m losing strength,

I give it all that I can give,

Because I remember who I am

To the bravest boy that ever lived.

And you gave everything you had

With every ounce of strength you had left,

Loving, and hoping, and fighting,

Until your last breath.

So when I feel like giving up,

And when I feel like giving in,

And it seems like the battle I cannot win,

When I think I’m losing strength,

I give it all that I can give,

Because I remember who I am

To the bravest boy that ever lived.

Because you never gave up.

You never gave in.

You never lost the battle.

Victory was yours in the end.

You never lost your strength.

You gave it all that you could give,

Because you knew who you were

To the bravest Man that ever lived.

Learning Experiences

So far I have submitted 31 query letters, received 3 requests for material, had 11 rejections (2 after material was requested), and I am still waiting to hear back from several more agencies.

I recently received the nicest rejection letter yet the other day from an agent that read my first four chapters.  He said about my book "There was much in it that I enjoyed, and I admire your writing."  He may have rejected my book in the end, but hot dang!  I'll take that compliment!  I've never been "admired" by an agent before.  He also wished me well in finding "the right agent and publisher."  Maybe I'm reading it all wrong, but I take that to mean he feels like my work should, at some point, be published.  And that is awesome!

So despite rejection, I am learning more about my work and myself as a writer.  Positive criticism (I realize that sounds like an oxymoron, but there is such a thing) is healthy and helps us grow into the writer we can be.  I have yet to have anyone tear me down (not in the writing arena anyway), and overall, even though I am being rejected left and right, this has been a really good experience for me.

I'm still working and tweeking and just waiting for the right agent to come along.  I believe in myself, I believe in Maggie, and I believe that eventually, it will happen....

Query Letter

I have had several people want to see my query letter since I have gotten quite a few responses, so I am including it below.  I have received both good and bad responses, but to me that's better than no feedback at all.  And most of the rejection letters have been quite nice.

I use "Young Adult Novel Query" as the subject to my email.

Query Email:

To Whom It May Concern,
(or Dear Ms./Mr. So-and-so if I actually know their name)

I am writing to request representation for my young adult trilogy entitled The Maggie McCauley Chronicles.  This series follows the life of Maggie, a young girl who learns she has inherited the ability to time travel from her late father.  This discovery reveals many family secrets, including the family’s history with the malicious Van Alstyne.  With the help of her eccentric guide, Philip, Maggie must discover how to handle her new found abilities so she may fulfill her place in the “Travelers Ordinance.”  Within Maggie’s journey to unearth the past and find her future lies a relationship with the father she never knew.

This book has been described as “the Time Traveler’s Wife meets Harry Potter.”  It has fantastic elements that will capture the reader’s attention along with real-life issues that will connect the reader to the otherwise ordinary Maggie.  This series will resonate with readers both young and old.

I would like to submit to you the first four to five chapters of chronicle one.  Once completed, the first book should contain 24 to 28 chapters and be around 300 pages in length.  I truly believe in this book and think it could be great.  I just need someone who can help me along.

Thank you for your time,

Jana Gordon Pettus

It's really short and sweet, gives a quick synopsis of the book, provides a genre and targeted age group, and offers an estimated length.  I also elude to the fact that it is not a completed manuscript when I say "once completed..." but sometimes they request a full manuscript anyway (see post below.)

Oh and DO NOT pay attention to the spacing, because Blogger is stupid and doesn't know what it's doing.  I've tried to fix it like elevendy billion times, and it never works, so whatever.  It's supposed to be spaced like a typical business letter.

So there is a sample you can go by.  I don't claim to be an expert on query letters.  I just googled one and used that a template for mine.

Enjoy!

-JGP

Rejection

I've received several rejection emails, but today I got the my first rejection from an agency that actually wanted to read the first four chapters of my book before lowering the hammer.  I'm a tough girl, and I can take rejection, but this one hurts more since they actually read my story--not just a query letter.

So you know what I did?  I sent out 19 more query letters.  "It only takes one."  That's what my mom told me, and she's right.

I sent one query letter at about 3:00 p.m. and received an email back about 20 minutes later asking for the entire manuscript.

Well, crap. I thought.  I don't have the entire manuscript done yet!!  I've always held the philosphy of "why write the whole thing if no one wants it?"  So now I'm trying to figure out what to tell the agency.  I'm torn between not responding until it's done (but who know's how long that could take?) and telling them it's not done and sending what I've got thus far.  Of course there is a chance they will tell me to wait until I'm finished to send it in.  I already had one agency tell me to contact them again once the manuscript is done.

I figure that after rejection, this is probably a good dilemma to have, so I'll take it.  I'm just trying to figure out what to do next.

-JGP