ONE WEEK! And I'm still here!

It's officially been a week since I posted my first blog and it has not only been an AWESOME week, but I've been so incredibly touched by all the positive and encouraging feedback I've received from so many people.  It really has meant a lot to me.  Seriously, my husband is already sick of how disgustingly happy and excited I am about all this, especially with all the squealing occurring throughout our apartment during random and inopportune moments. (And no, we don't own a pig.)

On the writing front, I definitely feel like I'm in a really good rhythm and am willing it to last for as long as possible.

But yes...after some very little thought and absolutely no planning whatsoever I’ve decided to make a very public commitment to all my followers and friends (I know, this sounds pretty edgy of me...but wait for it), I’ve decided to set an official deadline date for when I will begin querying for agents (Hm...). 

Now for those who are unfamiliar with the publishing process, a query is basically a feeler letter you send to a literary agent that includes a brief summary about you, your book and the genre and market you’re writing for.  Now the thing about most agents is that they can represent and/or reject whoever and whatever they like, it’s really a subjective process.  And the key to all this will be for me to find an agent who is not only familiar with selling books similar to genre I write for, but also one who loves and believes in my work and success as a writer as much as I do.  So as you can probably guess, this can be a pretty intense and at times a very personal process that can be both exhilarating and thoroughly exhausting at the same time.

But I’m hoping that by setting this deadline it will 1) help me become more focused 2) add a bit of urgency to me in getting things done (for once) and 3) give me a bit of accountability for both 1 & 2. 

And with that being said I’m setting my query deadline for August 2011.  YAY!  It’s almost-semi official!  And what I want to accomplish over this time is to have picked up a few good crit partners and maybe have attended a writer’s conference if the opportunity presents itself.  But mostly, I just really need to get down and dirty with my editing to workout all the blurbs and kinks in my story until it finally sparkles and gleams like Edward Cullen in the Sahara Desert.

So wish my luck and/or pray for a really really big miracle!!! Either will do. Haha! :-)