#mswl

Where have I been?

So you finish a novel, and you think that's the big scary hard part- right?  You have this book baby that you feel can finally stand on it's own two feet.  Better yet- she wants to learn to walk.  

I have three kids, I'm familiar with getting kids to walk.  Under human baby circumstances you gently encourage them to explore and walking happens naturally.  With your book baby, you have to hold onto their feet and basically do all the walking for them.  

All of this is an exasperated way of saying that my free time (you know, where I can make it) is spent scanning agency websites, reading specifics on the agents, glancing through my twitter feed, and because I stumbled on it- obsessing over mswishlist.com.  

In case you are wondering- MSWL stands for manuscript wishlist and it basically is a list of what agents are yearning for at any given time. 

This website has been amazing to me- giving me tidbits on what agents might be looking for in their own voice, and the tweets offer insight to their personality as well.  I have a running document with names of agents that I want to query, and added a few after going through every agent listed that is looking for YA.  One of them, I emboldened because she seem like someone I wouldn't mind getting a cup of coffee with in addition to having an interest in a book similar to mine.  

Just trying to be patient and make sure I teach my book baby to walk before running.  So much to do.  So much to research. 

In other news-  I think I might finally understand Twitter.  I know... I know... I'm a late bloomer. 

-Dante