A MOMENT TO CELEBRATE

Whew!

It has been a crazy, amazing, incredible summer! And since my kids aren't back in school until the second week of summer, it's not over.

I just realized that as I have been in the thick of Trek and Trek DVD, choosing an agent (still can't quite believe that one), "Alice in Wonderland", soccer, scouts, and now manuscript revisions, I haven't taken a moment to celebrate.

So here it is...

I have an agent! YAY! JUADSOL (jumping up and down, screaming out loud.). Okay, so that one might never become a popular texting phrase, but I like it.

Now that the contract has been signed on both sides I can announce that I am represented by the wonderful and lovely Sara Megibow of Nelson Literary Agency.

For me this is a dream. I have been following Kristin Nelson's blog, Pub Rants for almost as long as I've been writing. I love her no-nonsense, and non-snarky method of dispensing information and advice from the literary world. You can imagine how thrilled I was when Sara told me that both she and Kristin were excited about my manuscript.

YAY!

Choosing an agent was difficult, and stressful, and heart-wrenching, but as I turned in my first set of revisions to Sara this morning (1:00 am, did I mention my kids are still out of school?)I knew I had made the right choice. I felt completely comfortable hitting the send button, (still a phobia of mine). And I was okay even after I re-read what I had just sent and found mistakes. It was very important to me that I choose an agent who I could work with without being intimidated. I think that Sara has just the right blend of professionalism and personabolism. (Or is it personability? Are either of those even real words?) What I'm trying to say is that Sara is professional and personable with just enough of both of those characteristics to make her a great agent to work with.

She had wonderful ideas to make my manuscript better, and I enjoyed doing the revisions she suggested. I think that she'll be a strong force to push me to push myself and to keep me going in the right or write, (yes, I know, bad pun) direction.

I'm a firm believer in the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Our chief want in life is for someone who can make us be what we can be."
I think that's what a good literary agent should be, someone who can at help us be what we can be.

I know that acquiring an agent is more of a beginning than an end in this journey, but it helps to validate the long hours I spend hunched over my laptop while dinner burns (or never gets made) or the laundry goes unfolded (or never washed) or my children operate blow torches in the coat closet. (Just kidding about the last one, but has anyone seen my six year old?)

One step in the right direction. A million more to go. But I'm moving forward and getting closer to my dream, and that's definitely something to celebrate.

Now I think I'll go have a piece of really good chocolate. (One that I was saving for my husband's birthday.)