More research today. Going through agent website after agent website. Some of them have really interesting things to say indicating they really do get it. They get the blood, sweat, tears, long hours, days, weeks, months, and sometimes years, the passion, the love, the words, words, and more words, the ideas, the thought, the planning, research, attention, editing, writing, rewriting, dedication, heartfelt, soul-wrenching, deeply-embedded, emotion that goes into writing a novel.
Creating a completely new world filled with previously unimagined people you will come to love as much as you love your own family because these characters are the people you really live with. You might say you live with your roommates, husband, wife, children, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, aunt...but you don't! As a writer, I live with Leia Marie Sutherland and the serial killer stalking her, and all of the other people that make up Leia's intricate world.
Sandra Dijkstra wrote an essay on her website to authors, agents, editors, publishers, and everyone else in the publishing world that is inspirational. She has this to say, "we do see the big sky, which is often bluer out here and can inspire acts of great courage (or foolishness).” Dijkstra is a West Coaster, rebelling against the traditional NYC location for the publishing industry. She truly gets what it takes to put your mind, body, soul, heart, and life into a book. Dijkstra understands it's the small things in life that inspire writers. Some days all it takes is the blue, blue sky to inspire you to get up the courage to quit your job or not look for a new one when you get laid off from yours and look seemingly foolish in front of everyone you know all to achieve a dream and write a novel. But not just any novel. Your first novel.
One agent said he is passionate about his favorite books! He understands why writers write: because they love that euphoric feeling of finding yourself in one of your favorite books. There's nothing better than finding yourself in the middle of your favorite book, turning page after page after page, unable to put it down, all to find out what happens next. What happens to these people in this fictional world. This particular agent shows a high respect you, as a reader and a writer, have for someone who can create such a believable world, you can just fall into. I have spent much of my life existing in these worlds others have created for me to fall in to.
Not every agent says things like these, but these are the kinds of people to which I want to give my novel. These are the types of people who will really appreciate all of the little details that went into creating a fictional city called Edenville and a cast of characters fit for any episode of Law and Order. These are the people I want to talk to for hours about books. And these are the people I will query first.
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