On The Verge

Long time, no type, friends!

I’ve had several bigger things happen since the last time I blogged…

I was invited to join Bethany Hegedus’ The Verge in early March. Bethany, herself, called me and we had a wonderful conversation. I jumped right in to what’s a sort of sub-community within the Courage to Create. It offers one-on-ones with agent, editor, and author mentors and has industry engagement opportunities each month. It’s been amazing! No regrets!

I hopped right into the March “Spotlight Salon” and *deep breath* read my favorite manuscript aloud to the visiting staff (two agents and an editor). It went WELL! It was truly exhilarating in the moment and the feedback I got was AMAZING!

Within the feedback, I received a request from an agent, suggesting I add a little more content to my 205-word story and then submit it to her. It turns out, under the right circumstances, it was extremely easy to add an additional 100 words to that manuscript! My now-315-word story sits with this agent. And I wait…

I also received an invitation to submit another manuscript to the editor from the “Spotlight Salon,” which I did, and now I wait…

And the other agent…well…that’s a long story. It’s sort of a coincidence, but I was paired with this agent for our SCBWI Conference…assigned to pick her up from the airport and such. So, when Bethany offered this agent to me as a mentor, I jumped at the chance. And, it so happens… she was on the “Spotlight Salon” Zoom call, where she loved my manuscript and recommended adding a few more beats.

With that additional 100 words accomplished, I decided to print the manuscript and bring it to our conference. I shared it with her during my 10 minute one-on-one session that I purchased through the conference (long before I knew I’d being driving her or be paired with her through The Verge). Well, she LOVED it. She said it would sell. Then I pitched her another manuscript or two.

Long story short, she NOW has another manuscript of mine as an official “conference submission” and it sits in her inbox. I’m hoping she’s enchanted by it or at the very least sees great potential in it, and that’s enough to move forward with me.

Meanwhile, I’m happily revising another manuscript that intrigued her, but ultimately felt wasn’t polished yet. I’m truly overjoyed to be working closely with her and I’m working hard to honor her well-thought out feedback.

In other SCBWI Conference news, it was just WONDERFUL! The presentations were so relevant to where I am in my journey! Plus, our bar, Round Midnight, hosted the cocktail hour, which was amazing! People raved about how lovely it was. On top of that, I pitched my story to an agent and an editor and they both requested it! And….now I wait.

So, here I sit, legs dangling on the verge of the next BIG step of my writing career (some days patiently, other days less patiently). Believe with me that my YES is coming soon!