August 22nd, 2016

This week I finished the final edits for the first book in 'The Legacy of Rythka,' the five-book fantasy series I am working on currently. I've had several other people read it and give their feedback (you know who you are; thanks!) and most recently I've enjoyed the privilege of being part of a writing mentorship program through Sloan Kettering. The Visible Ink program at MSKCC pairs patients with volunteer mentors, successful writers based in New York City. I've gained great insights about fine-tuning my writing, perhaps most importantly removing hundreds of commas from my manuscript. I've known for a while that I tend to throw commas in far too often, but I have a difficult time seeing it on my own. Receiving the level of feedback and advice that I've gotten through this mentoring program has been truly invaluable, and it is enormously relieving to know that my manuscript is at long last thoroughly edited, refined, proofread, and ready to send out. 

 Now begins in earnest the difficult and time-consuming task of securing an agent who will in turn find a publisher. The whole system and process moves far slower than I'd prefer and seems like a bit of a racket, but there isn't really anything I can do about that. So, I will simply try to send out ten queries a day until someone agrees to represent my work! I've had a handful of agents respond favorably and request a larger sample of my manuscript, but so far none of those have panned out, at least not yet. It's difficult to wait weeks for agents to reply, hoping that at least one of them will take an interest in my book. But it's hardly a foreign experience for me. If there's one thing cancer has given me plenty of practice with it's waiting for results beyond my control. I guess it's appropriate I'd pick a career that, at this stage at least, consists of much of the same.