So I have been (unfortunately) banking on one agent to like my work. And this ONE agent may yet pan out. I still have one chance left with this agent, so there is yet hope. BUT I need to plan to fail and change tactics. One Enchanted Stitch is basically dead in the water. I have a published author willing to help me out in February, but until then I’m not sending out any more queries.
My plan- or my whisper of a plan, my vague thoughts in a plan-like direction are to switch to adult fantasy novels. I guess. I have a couple MG (middle grade=books for kids age 9-12) left to query. But (so many buts! LOL!) there is no path forward for self-published or small press MG books. There is really only a YA and adult market. I don’t like romance so that leave out YA which means my only path forward is writing adult novels- fantasy obviously, and trying to find a stable small press that is open when I actually have a book ready. I can also try agents that rep regular fantasy novels aimed at adults. I worry that I have a lot less to say in adult novels.
Genres I like: fantasy, urban fantasy, vampires (are those a genre??), contemporary fantasy, and yeah… more fantasy. So I have some plans. ll of them are going to take a long time to execute and it’s hard to be patient. I have never been able to crank out books. My record is writing 3 in one year! BUT I am still editing them and not writing any new ones. I feel bad that I haven’t written a new book in a year. I have one I still need to finish that was derailed by the pandemic. First I need to read it over from the beginning because I can’t even remember all the character’s names.
Lately I feel like my enthusiasm for writing and reading is waning. I’m not sure how to get my interest back. Well, I do sort of. I mean I THINK a success, some kind of success would help. But I don’t KNOW if that’s true. For one, I haven’t had anything I’d call a success in a long time. And secondly I could be wrong. But I am still left wondering how long I can keep this up. I like writing, but I want it to be a career. Which, yes, yes, I know is absurd, blah blah “no one makes money writing” blah blah.
Anyway, I have been working on my wizard cat painting. It’s a wizard because it has a wand. I will put in shiny star things in toward the end. Unless I forget I was going to put in the shiny star things.
So a BUNCH changed after I painted the cat orange which is NOT what I wanted to do. I wanted grey-blue but realized that I had gone hog wild with cool tones in the background and needed warm tones in the foreground and I sort of sank the whole painting. I also don’t like the flowers but I’m tired of trying to fix them. I also don’t know quite what to do with the butterflies. I also hate the shoulder bag! Arg! But anyway, it’ll turn out OK when it’s done.
I don’t know why NO ONE can make an opaque red acrylic… I DO have that whole set of Turner acrylic gouache that I STILL haven’t touched. And I’m not going to until I get better at friggin’ acrylic!
Also--I like how your painting is coming along. Don't give up!
People can make a living from writing, but usually they have some sort of day job and start publishing and figure out when they are beginning to make enough to quit their day jobs. --And as you know, it's not easy and can have its up and downs.
Opaque Reds--are usually expensive, like Cadmiums, although there are some hues that are closer to opaque. The more violet colored reds are usually not very opaque. There is probably some info somewhere about which colors for which brands are more opaque.
Not sure about the career advice. I'm pretty clueless, myself!