D. Fierst

Dear reader(s), sometimes you intend one thing, just to have another thing happen, and you follow that thing and hold off on the first thing all while doing your thing. Things!

Yes, yes, yes. And what do I mean by all that? Well, for sure, it’s something that has kept me busy as of late. So, short recap: I’m working away on Tiger Boat book #1 (if you remember correctly, finishing the illustrations, per my long spiel), then something came a bit out of the blue. Well, not the blue exactly as it seems to be a yearly occurrence, but for sure very bluish for me.

There are many publishing houses. Our little tale here involves one in particular that a few weeks ago announced that they will be (for a short window) taking non-agented submissions. But only for YA novels. As the Tiger Boat books are “middle grade,” ages 8-10, this left them out of the running.

But may I remind you of another little project in my back pocket: an in-fact-o YA novel I have in the works.

I love zombies. All things zombies, and there was a point during the long haul of the Tiger Boat books that I asked myself, “Self, why on earth have I not started something with zombies?” Shortly after, I did.

It started first as a diary-entry-style tale of a couple waiting out the zombie apocalypse in their boarded-up house. It was to be less about zombies and more about their relationship under those circumstances, but rather quickly, I thought it more interesting to have it through a capable teenager’s eyes.

After that little eye-opener revealed itself, things went very quickly from the idea to a short outline, to a full outline, to a chapter summary outline, to a first draft. And that is where it stayed for roughly half a year while I went back to the Tiger Boat series and mapped out a few other ideas to follow up on later.

All I Want is to Not Be Alone was shelved for the time being as a good idea and start, but not the main focus. That was until said publishing house announcement. Now, here is the kicker: The announcement asked for a short pitch, a synopsis, and a 2000+ word sample… and if long-listed, a submission of the completed novel.

To make life easy, I got into the habit of, before getting into details of new ideas, to have a pitch, blurb, and synopsis down upfront. I find that way I am sure that I have a clear story and no matter where the writing wanders the path is still fundamentally set.

So, check one: pitch. Of course, I re-worked it a million times to be as good as possible, but the basics were there. And I knew even if the story was not completely written, I would not stray from the main path I had already set.

Check two: One page synopsis. Now, last year I did invest some money with a professional editor, and we worked together to make a pitch, blurb and synopsis for the first Tiger Boat book. That time and money has been worth its weight in gold in that I understand how to approach these things and was able to get a good sense of what is working and not. Again, a million times re-worked, but synopsis in the bag.

Finally, the writing sample. I did have a good quarter fully written out. The rest where in short points on what are the main happenings in that part of the story (following dates in a journal). Again, I took what I had, put on my “editors” glasses, and got the first bit to a point I was happy with for submission. Check three, sample sent.

And there you have it! Prepared, submitted and done! Now all that is left is on the off chance of getting long-listed is to finish at least a first draft of the full novel by the end of July. I mentioned I had a full fourth written, right? A FOURTH!

So, it’s a risk. I am working like crazy to get it to that point by that time. Does this mean some delay to the Tiger Boat stuff? Yes. But I’m turning left. I find if you’re allowed to knock on a door in the chance it might open, you owe it to yourself to knock as hard and loud as you can. Even if it means balancing it out with the door I’m trying to build on my own, then that is OK. Even if I’m not picked at all, it’s OK. It’s worth it to myself to push it and push on no matter the direction an opportunity might be.

The great thing is, after being in Tiger Boat’s world of 8–10-year-olds for so long, it’s really nice to be in a bit of an older space and tackle topics in a way that I find are more direct. The story seems to just be in the air already and it has been easy to spill it out.

I mean, how often can you write something like: Some of them are like non-stop fart machines.

Then, left it is for the time being.