BREAKING IN

“A young witch is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist.”

Washington D.C. I had been writing rural noir. I had short stories published and a novel that I had been struggling with for several years. I just didn’t know how to write a novel. After getting a good draft, I landed an agent, but the book failed to sell. My agent had seen an early 50 pages of and encouraged me to focus on that instead. It took two years to write from first draft to pitch. My previous book took 8+ years to write, so that this book came so easily had me suspicious that it was any good. I sent I found my agent through . In December 2015, I signed up for a Boot Camp featuring the Sandra Dijkstra Agency and Roz Foster was assigned to me. After giving me feedback on my first 10 pages plus pitch letter, she asked for the manuscript. We worked on revisions for four months. In April 2016, she offered me representation. Roz and I are now at Frances Goldin Literary. The best thing you can do if you hit an obstacle with one book is write another book because it makes the first one less “precious” (I think that is something I heard Joanna Penn say). I also didn’t realize how left-and right-brained the business is. You have to pivot between the artistic and business sides. To do well, you cannot just focus on the artistic side. I have a demanding job, and I would go home and write 1,000 words each night or go to a class at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda to keep moving forward and build a community. I had a timeline in my head on revisions and stuck to it, even when it meant I sat at home every weekend.