I decided to join the modern age (at last!) and start a website, even though I am, as of yet, unpublished. But I guess that is one of those things that can change anytime, right? My agent – the lovely Susan Cohen at Writer’s House – has recently sent “Samantha Ross” out on its third submission round, which is exciting and a little disheartening. Honestly, it now feels like so long since I wrote the book that I don’t feel quite the emotional attachment that I did in the early days when each rejection was a dagger to the heart. Now, it’s like, “eh, okay.”
Especially since once I wrote the book, I made the mistake of saying to Susan, “you know, I think this could be a triology.” And she was like, “well, write up what happens in books 2 and 3, and we’ll include it.” NEVER suggest your book could be more than one book if you only have vague ideas for sequels floating around in your head. That was a painful week or two, trying to take those vague – very, very vague! – ideas and turn them into actual beginning/middle/end one-page plot summaries. I did – with much help from my much more experienced writer mother of 80+ books who knows how to do this whole plotting thing. So, I confess it would be a little hard to dive back into that world if someone were to want to buy this book – and the sequels. I could – of course! – but sometimes I think that I like the book for what it was and that it ended in the right place with the characters just living on in some imaginary world where any future is possible. If I put it down on paper someday, the possibilities kind of end. So, we’ll see.
I’m excited about my new ideas for the moment. And no one actually sells their first book, right? (Or at least that’s what I hear from my fellow writers. I’m supposed to have a whole assortment of rejects under my bed somewhere. Do scripts count?)
Sarah Baczewski 