A while back, inspired by a comment a fellow writer made, I wrote a post about how there are seasons in writing. A season for editing, a season for publishing, a season for drafting, etc. Much as fields are left fallow and crops rotated, concentrating on one aspect at a time of the writing journey is something I’ve found helpful when improving my craft.

All this is a long way of saying I’m about to start querying again. By that, I mean I have a shiny new book, beta-read and edited within an inch of its life, that I’m sending out to agents in the hope that one might take me on.

The querying season is one of varying weather, I’ve found. The spring-like hopefulness of the beginning, where days are brighter, the possibility of warmer weather lying ahead. This is how it feels when query letters are sent out, small birds leaving the nest, hoping to find their place. There are also stormy days and dark days when rejections roll in or, worse yet, your query is completely ignored, languishing unacknowledged in someone’s deleted file. And then there are brilliant days, when the sun shines bright and all seems well with the world, when you get personalised feedback, a request for more information, or even a request for the full manuscript.

I’ve weathered all those different days on my writing journey, and I’m still here. I think my latest book is one of the best I’ve written, and there are more stories from the same universe revealing themselves as I write. Not bad for something that started with a fragment of a dream.

This querying season, I’m hoping for more sunshine than clouds. I’ll keep you all posted 🙂

Update: I wrote this post last week, after sending out my first batch of queries. And, sunshine already, I’ve already had a full request! Watch this space…

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