Pauline West
  • Journal
  • Candlemoth
  • After Ice
  • Contact

Elation!  

6/17/2014

 
Newest stats:

So far I've submitted to six agencies...

1 request for a full
1 request for first 50 pages (from a major agency; a lovely rep who is also into beat literature- and if you know me, you know how much Kerouac et al meant to me when I was a whack-o teen) 
1 form letter rejection (this means indifference- ow)
3 still pending.

Everyone's website warns that they take anywhere from 30 days to 45 days to pretty much indefinitely to get back to you.  As I've written about here, I've applied to residencies and whatnot before.  Hearing back so quickly is incredibly encouraging, and a new experience for me.  Even if these agents decide my novel isn't the right project for them, clearly the first section of it (which they were initially sent) is a grabber, so hell yea!  

I expect this will go on for another six months.  You guys are going to get so tired of me always trying to find the pattern, but I can't help it!  It's my brain!

Here's what I've learned so far:

Come prepared with a fully completed manuscript.  Have a baller synopsis and query letter, ideally with a few notches in your belt, too.  Research like crazy to find literary agents who are interested in your genre.  Research the agents, try to find those you get a good gut feeling about- and personalize your query.  

If anyone does decide to represent me, 3-6 months down the line, here's what I imagine would happen next.  They come back with a bunch of suggested edits.  I do a rewrite.  And then, happy day! we go off to book auction.  Actually I don't understand that part yet.  But there's plenty a slip between the cup and the lip.  I'm not even going to think about that yet.  

(I just can't wait to get back to writing; I already have an outline for my next novel, The Savages.  I just want to hole up and work and not deal with anything else, ever.  Frankly.)

Meanwhile.  Celebratory glass of wine and- 

wonderful story in this month's New Yorker by Karen Russell.  Here's some of my favorite quotes from it: 

"And the Mojave was a good place to launch into exile together; already they felt their past lives in Pennsylvania dissolving into rumor, sucked up by the hot sun of California and the perfectly blue solvent of the day."

"Sand, sand, sand- all that pulverized time.  Aeons ago the world’s burst hourglass spilled its contents here; now the years pile and spin, waiting with inhuman patience to be swept into some future ocean.  Sand washes right up to the paved road, washes over to the other side in a solid orange current, illuminated by their headlights."

"In terms of an ecology that can support two lovers in hot pursuit of each other, this is the place: everywhere you look you’ll find monuments to fevered longing.  Craters beg for rain all year long.  Moths haunt the succulents, winging sticky pollen from flower to flower."  

"That night she basks int he glow of the TV as if it were the sun.  Yellow is such a relief."

"Calmly, he becomes aware that the girl he loves has exited the room.  Usually when this sensation comes over him, it means she’s fallen asleep."

"The crumbly truth: the boy imagined he’d be the one to betray the girl."

"apple-red agony"

"A weather seizes them and blows them around- a weather you can order for a quarter, the jukebox song."


Damn, she's good.  I love The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis.  Haven't yet read Swamplandia, although I have it on good authority from my bestie that it is wonderful.  Childhood transmogrified into pages.  Although she and I had a really oddball & lovely childhood, so maybe our idea of it is not normal.  

Comments are closed.

    Pauline West

    ​Pauline West's first novel, EVENING’S LAND, is winner of the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Award and recipient of the Carol Marie Smith Memorial Scholarship for the NOEPE Center of Literary Arts.  

    West's writing has been shortlisted for The International Aeon Award, and featured in International School Leader Magazine, Reddit’s NoSleep channel, The Art Mag and The Sierra Nevada Review.

    Pauline West's books on Goodreads
    Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance
    reviews: 15
    ratings: 27 (avg rating 4.04)

    Evening's Land Evening's Land
    reviews: 20
    ratings: 24 (avg rating 3.46)

    Candlemoth Volume 2: How To Spend It Candlemoth Volume 2: How To Spend It
    reviews: 7
    ratings: 10 (avg rating 4.40)

    Candlemoth Book 3: A Twist of Fate Candlemoth Book 3: A Twist of Fate
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 6 (avg rating 4.17)

    Stalker: A Gothic Thriller Stalker: A Gothic Thriller
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 4 (avg rating 4.25)

    Categories

    All
    All Babes Are Wolves
    Astra
    Candlemoth: A Holy City Romance
    Children: The Kids Are Not All Right
    Evening's Land
    Illustrations
    Instagram
    Journal
    Linocuts
    Loveliness
    Meditation
    Oddities
    On Writing
    Poetry
    Redux
    Savages
    Short Stories
    Stalker A Gothic Thriller
    Stalker: An Erotic Horror Story

    Archives

    December 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    August 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.