Thank you Skywriter Susan Banghart for bringing a Minion to the our critique meeting. He's one of a few Minions she received for Christmas from her husband Scott. Is this Minion named Stuart?                                              Whatever his name, he has become our Minion Muse.

Photo by Skywriter Janet McLaughlin. 

Happy New Year fellow writers and readers. 

Looking forward to 2016 and all the hope it brings.

While a lot has changed in 2015, there is still one fact that remains unchanged in 2016:

Thanks to my friend Carol Peterson for the photo. 

If you've found yourself checking out Writersdigest.com and Chuck Sambuchino often, there's a good reason. It's a great place to find new agents and now a FREE contest for writers of YA Fiction.

                                     It's  the 19th Dear Lucky Agent Contest, but it's new to me. 

                                                         Hope Springs Eternal, right?

Go for it if you're a YA Fiction writer. But hurry, the contest closes Oct. 29th. That's this Thursday.

  

Pay attention to the social media instructions too. You have to post the contest via two different social media places as part of the submission process. 

Why not enter? You or I might just be one of the top three winners and get our first 10-pages critiqued by Agent Judge Eric Smith of P.S. Literary, an agency I've been reading a lot about lately. Plus winners get a free one-year subscription from WritersMarket.com and a choice of one of any of Chuck Sambuchino's three new books. 

Wishing you good luck with your writing and with the contest.  

Check it out:

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/19th-free-dear-lucky-agent-contest-young-adult-fiction

http://tinyurl.com/nz6n2p8

                      Time to send out more queries instead of sticking this book in a drawer.

                                                   Think about persistence.

Susan Banghart's article in the Fall 2015 SCBWI Bulletin says it all. 

 In Never Stop Believing, she writes about how for writers, "Doubt steals persistence from your toolbox." And how "You must steal it back." She writes about a way to "fight negative thoughts" and "not to do alone." She writes about critique group support and how important it is to be "fortified by  your writing tribe."

Susan is such an important part of our Skyway Writers' writing tribe that her words arriving in print yesterday gave me inspiration and motivation to spend today researching agents. I'm sure she reached many other writers who might be low on their persistence levels. 

Thank you Skyway Writers for being  my tribe. And thank you Susan for reminding all writers to carry on and Never Stop Believing. 

September days spent at Highlights were relaxing and productive. My second year there and  it felt wonderful to return. Time spent with Janet and Augusta was special too, as it had been last year. Plus we met up with a group of Un-workshop writers and just clicked. We exchanged email addresses and plan to keep in touch from time to time. Maybe even meet up again next year.
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But this year I found something special behind my cabin. Although I've grown up with orange trees in easy reach and the scent of orange blossoms floating through the Florida air is my all time favorite, I was in for a fruitful suprise.

I saw a half rotten apple on the ground and figured someone took a bite and pitched it. Not too cool, but hey it's fruit and the woods across from my cabin were probably full of animals that might enjoy a snack.

Then I spied another and another and looked up and spied an apple tree. That was a first for me.

                                        

                                          Apples trees are kind of magical.                 

So, I snapped several photos. Nope, I didn't eat a one. But for me and probably others who've stayed in cabin #18,  that little apple tree was the lovely start of another magical Un-workshop.

If you're ready to send out queries, you'll need to keep a list of what you're sent to whom. Whether you write YA, MG or PBs you'll be happy there's help for you at querytracker.net.

I won't elaborate ( too much)  on how easy it is to use. Check that out for yourself. However, I will say I've ditched my elaborate Excel sheet.  While I'd used QueryTracker to find agents, the track agents part was lost on me. Until now.  Once I realized that feature was available, I was so there.

You can actually create your tracking form online as you peruse the list of agents. What a concept, right? Simple. Less timing consuming. Complete with smiley faces to highlight agents requests for partials and full manuscripts and a little red-faced emoji for rejections. Easy to tell at a glance what your status is with each agent.

And get this, Patrick McDonald, the creator of QueryTracker is a writer who personally experienced the frustration of finding and keeping track of agents. So he simplified the process and shared his creation. Doesn't that make QueryTracker even more endearing?

Read an interview with McDonald on  writeforapples.com.

QueryTracker is also free to writers. A premium membership for $25 a year offers many extra features. How cool is that?

All I have left to say is thank you, McDonald!

Okay so I woke up really early thinking about querying. Like 4:30 a.m. and decided to think positive about the whole process. I mean, I've written hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and never submitted one thinking it  wouldn't be accepted for publication. Why should sending out a book query be so different?

It shouldn't.


After all, haven't many famous writers been rejected again and again before finally finding someone who believed in their books?  Who you might ask. That's a post for another day,  

This morning, I'll  query an agent or two before the Florida sun rises. I'll visualize an agent smiling as she or he reads my submission. Will  sending positive vibes into the universe or at least to New York City, help my chances of publishing?  Maybe and maybe not,

But I'm thinking about querying and I'm  still smiling.