Jerkface

There's a teacher at the school where I work, who has always said hello to me, and I admit it, I've been short with him. He usually has that come-on type of grin and I'm not interested. Well, I guess he found the courage or what-have-you to engage me in conversation (of course it was an inopportune time at the beginning of the day when I'm trying to get everyone situated).

He asked me if I was a writer, which I thought was strange because I hadn't been telling too many people about my aspirations. He told me that he was also a writer, with a novel he had been trying to sell to publishers. So, I told him a little bit about my trials and tribulations with seeking out an agent. He asked about the genres I write in. He wasn't too keen on the vampire stuff, wondering what exactly the appeal is. I just shrugged, and explained that I've always had a love for supernatural stories. We were interrupted (for like the fourth time. He was persistent, this one) but I could tell he wanted to say more in dissention. At one point, he asked me what I was going to do when this doesn't work out, emphasis on the when. I gaped at him. "Do I sound discouraging?" he asked. By then, my surprised stare had turned to anger. What the hell, man? Like I really needed that first thing in the morning. Just because it's not working out for you doesn't mean you have to stomp on my dream. I know I teeter back and forth, feeling discouraged by the rejections, but I don't need any outside help with feeling depressed, thank you very much.

That was Friday. Today, he said hello but it's back to the casual nods and terse good mornings for that asshole.

Still waiting. I need to call about one; it's been a while since I've heard from her and she's had my manuscript since the spring.

Ouch

I went home on my break today and saw that I had mail. Two rejections; one from the last batch I sent out about the Yancy novel, the other from an agent I queried over the summer. His note was pretty, with the agency's logo across the top. He apologized for the form response, then said that he reviewed my material and found that it was not anything that he wishes to work with at this time.

Ouch.

Now, I have a relative thick-skinned approach for this process. You have to or you'd give up after the second try. As you may or may not know, I've thought about giving up plenty of times. I've even gone on "breaks," from querying and from writing all together. I'm really trying to not let this one little note card get to me but after reading it, I had to sit. I usually skim rejection letters, looking for the "unfortunately"s and "pass"s and "good luck in your search"s. But I read this one. And I'm regretting it. I'm obviously not the only who has or will receive this note card. And I feel bad for those poor fools, too.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for these very busy agents to coddle me in the least. I know they can't write constructive criticism for every letter or chapters they receive. That would be crazy and they'd never get anything else done. But that was just really damn harsh. I understand the process; that doesn't mean it won't sting.

Oh Man

So, I'm sitting here, reading the very first novel I've ever completed and, boy.... It needs work. I have to chuckle. It's not necessarily the plot line, but the prose. This story idea was given to me by a high school friend named Jenn about a blind date mix-up. The story evolved from there. It's basically about a group of friends dealing with life while attending Northeastern. There's sex, arguments, singing, even a stalker! Lol. I'll revamp it at some point.

I had a talk with Ashleigh about copyrighting. She's a lawyer so she thinks about those kinds of things. I started researching the process (and the costs) but my work computer was acting up so I couldn't go into it as much as I wanted. It's a little steep ($35) so I'll probably do them maybe two at a time. She was concerned about protecting myself and my work, with which I agree. It hadn't even occurred to me to copyright my stories. I've just been focused on writing and editing and finding an agent who'll be enthusiastic about selling my work (that's the word many of the agents use in their rejection letters, "enthusiastic" ::rolls eyes::).