Query Letter, Oh How I Love Thee...

So, my journey to write an amazing query letter to submit to potential agents has begun! And let me tell you, I find this harder and more intimidating than writing my entire novel. Don't get me wrong, I think my novel is wonderful. But it is so hard to condense 80,000 words into a 250-word summary. How do I get all of my interesting and compelling ideas down to just a few sentences? I am a wordy person, and that's part of why I wrote a novel in the first place.

So, I will write, rewrite, and write again. I am sure some of you will be asked to be test readers for me and give me pointers. Any volunteers?

New Page on Website: Mythology

Another question I get asked a lot is, "What is your novel about?" To more fully answer this question, I created the "Mythology" page on my website. I thought this little blurb about the universe I created would help give potential readers a bit more information before they dive into the first chapters. I hope you enjoy! You can click on the link below, or click here to view this page.

http://sites.google.com/site/theordersaga/mythology

Praise for The Order

I thought I would share some of the praise I have received for The Order. This first one is a comment from my personal blog, which is set to private, so unless you have been invited to view it, you will just have to take my word for it! :)

Angela wrote:

I love your book by the way, big fan.

Another friend posted this on her blog:

Melissa wrote (of a rough copy):

I read a great book the other day. It's not on the market though, so it's not very fair of me to get all your hopes up and DASH THEM TO PIECES when you find out that it's not available.

One of my friends wrote a book. I am still in awe! Not only that, it is an excellent book! One that even though I just read, I am reading again! I love it! Sure it has flaws, it's raw and hasn't been edited, but it is still wonderful!

I keep hoping it will eventually be published. It. Is. That. Good.

An author can't ask for better comments than that! Thanks everyone!

Novel Website

Well, instead of sleeping myself during Chris's nap today (I know, WHAT WAS I THINKING!!), I decided to play around with making a website on Google Sites for my novel. I was able to include on the website the prologue and the first chapter of my novel. I thought I would share. Here is the link.

http://sites.google.com/site/theordersaga/

I also included the link on my sidebar on the blog.

Will The Order get Published?

Probably the most frequently asked question when someone new finds out that I wrote a novel is, "Will you try to get it published?" What a question!!

Well, here is the process right now. I just had a good friend and writer edit my novel for the first time (if you don't count the hundreds of times I tried to edit my novel myself, along with help from my husband, sister, and other readers). Thanks again Emily!

Now, I have one other friend that I know about who is a college essay mentor- Julie. She has agreed to read my novel as an editor as well. However, she is currently busy with personal things and won't have time until April to get started. The good news there is that I will have some time to dive back into my sequel! I haven't really been writing for several months now because I have been focused on editing The Order, so I am just itching to get back to work.

After that? Who knows. Julie also knows a published author and suggested that perhaps this author would take a look at my novel and tell me if the thought it was publishable. If she really enjoys it, maybe she would even show it to her agent. Wouldn't that be exciting!

So, things are on hold for the moment until Julie can take a look at it and help me edit again. Then, I might start writing a query letter and see about finding an agent. That entire process is so overwhelming to think about!! Maybe with enough encouragement from my adoring fans, I will be convinced to share my story with the world! In the mean time, I will see about making a webpage where I can post a few chapters of my novel so the rest of you can take a look.

Editing Process

Yesterday my great friend and editor Emily finished going through my novel. I was so humbled and pleased by her reaction to my work.

Thanks for all your time and effort Emily! It was great working with you.