Querying is…going. Of the dozen or so mostly agents I’ve approached there are two left who have asked to see the manuscript. And I’ve got one mid-size publisher looking too. I’d say, on average, about 1/4 have been getting back to me personally. Usually to request the full manuscript. The rejections have been fairly consistent: strong writing but the market trends for the YA paranormal category are causing hesitation. That’s probably the most frustrating answer to me at the moment because my goal has always been to just write well and not think about trends since the publishing process is so. very. long. Writing a novel can take years before it’s in a state that can be sent to agents/publishers. Then there’s the whole process of getting it into the hands of someone who loves it, finessing it, and finally getting it into the market (which can also take a couple of years). Anything could change during that time?

I’m not losing faith though. In the meantime, I’m working on a NaNoWriMo project that’s an urban contemporary novel set in London. What can I say? I love to travel. You can read an excerpt on my participant page (krugerkat).

Some fun media alerts: the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, who awarded me first place in the Atlantic Writing Competition, has a little blurb about me in their Eastword newsletter posted online recently. And on page 26 of the Fall 2011 issue of Atlantic Books Today, master storyteller Steve Vernon totally dropped my name! Finally, you can check out a Q&A with me at YA Simon (Simon & Schuster Canada’s book blog).