My plea: let today turn out the way I want it to. Life has gotten in the way for the past couple of days meaning no writing time, but so far it looks good for a project I've been leading up to for awhile.
Here's the deal: I've been writing since dirt was new, selling upwards of 50 books under my own name and various others. Along the way, there have been several (four in fact) that never got beyond the proposal stage--meaning several chapters and a synopsis. There's a common theme in them, romantic suspense which says something about where my heart is.
As for why they haven't sold, your guess is as good as mine. They've been shot down by editors and agents so why don't I just move on? Several reasons starting with my reason for writing them in the first place--the characters spoke to me and I worked my tail off developing the plots. They are stories of my heart, maybe more-so than the ones that have sold because I've put so much energy into them over the years trying to get them to win favor with the powers that be. Yes, I admit it, I've tweaked and tempered them. In all but one case, its been awhile since I've looked at them and believe I can approach them objectively. Are they still good or has the initial energy and belief in their value been lost while tweaking and tempering?
So that's what the next few days are about, bringing objectivity to those projects and deciding which, if any, I want to get behind one last time. I recently broke with my agent so have a clean slate so to speak. I'll be proposing them to virgin agents and approaching several publishers on my own. I could sink or swim but by damn, I'm jumping back into the water with as many as four of those suckers.
The days march on. Time to grab hold and get with the getting. I'm not excited or discouraged, just feeling good about the process. Bottom line, addressing those projects is part of a writing career.
Vonna
