I signed up to have my query letter evaluated by a professional query letter evaluator. I signed up in February when I was sure I would have my manuscript not just drafted but polished, not just outlined but synopsised (is that a word?). In February, July seems very distant. Anything is possible. Well somehow the day after tomorrow is July and I have not made the progress I'd hoped for.
The entries are due tomorrow. So yesterday I went looking for my last query letter, thinking I could just have them review that and still learn from their analysis. I found the query letter in my email history, faster than looking through an old laptop for it.
So I knew it had been a while since I gave up on book #1, stopped writing fiction, and stopped trying to sell that first child/novel. A while. Like at least five years, maybe six. Well, it turns out the last time I sent this query letter was June 28, 2005. That is exactly nine years ago. Nine years passed without my writing a new work. Nine years without searching for an agent or attending a writers conference. It is scary, what a little discouragement can do. It rings true to the quote I often hear that successful writers are just those who don't give up.
But to the day, June 28th. That catches my imagination up and I wonder, what changes will happen in my writing life between now and June 28, 2023. That is only nine years from now. I sure hope that it is more than zilch, zero, nada. I hope that if this book #2 doesn't flesh out, that story #3 will pop out without pause. And the fourth, and the fifth, until I am old (er) and gray (er) and even if all 17 have not found a publishing home, that I will look back and see that I did not give into discouragement ever again. Once is enough.