I GOT AN AGENT

That is the only headline I will ever type in all caps. Dawn Dowdle of the Blue Ridge Literary Agency has agreed to represent my crime novel LAST WORDS. We talked yesterday and really hit it off. She’s also interested in the project I’m working on now, a YA science fiction tale called “TIMERS: Samuel Tripp’s Adventures Across Dimensions with Rip Van Winkle, the Connecticut Yankee and Ebenezer Scrooge (Oh, And He Saves All of History).” More news on that when I have it.

I leave behind the wearying place I call QueryWorld. Wannabe writers are not supposed to moan about the process of querying to get an agent, but let me just say several months of nagging friends and total strangers alike was hard work. Querying has more rules than the Japanese tea ceremony, and agents will often say no based on a one-page pitch letter. I can now concentrate all my time and energy on writing TIMERS. Phew!

The odd thing is it feels like I’m running even though I’ve crossed a finish line. I’m very happy, but my mental to-do list hasn’t adjusted to the new circumstances. A big part of most days was dedicated to the process of finding an agent. I will be working with Dawn on edits to the manuscript and then comes the next round of submissions—this to publishers. But for today, I’m going to type again, I GOT AN AGENT!

4 Responses to “I GOT AN AGENT”

  1. M V P

    Congrats on the agent find, Rich! Excellent news.

  2. Charlie

    So, Rich, for the grossly uninformed of us West of the Hudson, what does a YA science fiction novel mean? Is the YA your hated sub-genre category?

    Hey, I actually have paged through a few of the classic authors…but I couldn’t tell you sub-genre from subway. Well, in Sci Fi anyway.

    c

  3. rich

    Hi Charlie: As an example, historical, procedural and cozy would be sub-genres of the genre mystery. Time travel and steampunk would be same for science fiction. YA, as in young adult, has lots of sub-genres (urban fantasy, realistic, romance, SF). It’s the word “sub” itself I was jokingly referring too. The stuff you read, literary fiction, has no sub-genres because they are all special by their own special selves. 🙂

  4. The Academy of Crime (Fiction) « rich zahradnik

    […] to workshop LAST WORDS, the historical mystery I’ll be readying for editor submissions with my new agent Dawn Dowdle over the next few months. The timing was pretty amazing. I heard I’d gotten into the CFA just […]

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