Apollymi ::||:: Dark Passion Play

I can finally say it with authority: I have a publishing contract!

It's with Cacöethes Publishing for Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1. I simply don't have enough words to say how excited I am.

Thank you to everyone who stood by me and supported me in this rather scary endeavor. Many very, very huge thanks to katsuko, for helping me with the late nights and the (even more terrifying) summary, and daimeryan_rei, for the continuous support, love, cuddles, occasional competition, and ♥. Really, I couldn't have made it without the ♥ -- and both of you. Additional thanks also need to go to desolate03 for the support.

Amaranth should be out by December this year or January 2009. Pretty damned impressive, if I must say so myself. It will be available as a print book and an e-book, with the latter coming out first. There will be some editing that needs to be done, but yeah...

Hooray!!!

Okay, I've sent 6 queries to agents and 1 query to a publisher for Amaranth, so far.

Why is it that writing the queries is so much harder -- to me -- than writing the actual novel was? Even with the hectic pace of NaNoWriMo, queries are still miles and miles harder.

I wonder why that is.

Also, I got my first rejection letter over the weekend. Bummer.

After some really major soul searching and a good deal of help from some friends, I finally got Amaranth sent off for the first time last night. It's like letting a child go to school for the first time by themselves. I've been working on this baby since 1 November 2007; she's the product of a lot of my time, hard work, and headaches.

I'm not holding my breath on getting an immediate turn around or anything, but given how quickly Paula (Guran, editor of Juno Books) responded to my request for additional information, there is some hope for a reply in less than 2 months. The sample I sent her was 41 pages, so not exactly the longest thing on the planet.

And till that time is up, I'll try not to hold my breath. If I get a negative from this place, I'll go with looking for a literary agent next.

See? For once, I have a plan!

It took me a bit, but I do finally have a writing icon for The Preterhuman Series.

Behold!

(Stock image by stock.xchng's Wazari, used with much love but no permission)