You never know what little thing might change your life

It's September first! Time for my September Debut Contest! But...uh...well.... It will be up tomorrow! Promise! I'm working on something to make it extra FUN, so it will be worth the wait!

Thanks for checking in yesterday to catch the scorching-hot Luc trailer! All day, while Vania was editing and I was stalking my inbox, I was thinking about what a whirlwind the last year has been.

And then it occurred to me that it's been almost exactly a year.

Sunday marked exactly one year since I sent the query for Personal Demons to my truly fabulous agent, The Suzinator. It wasn't the first query I sent. Actually, it was the ninteenth. I was hopeful, of course, when I hit the send button, but, being a total newbee to all things publishing, I had no idea what that little click of the mouse would set in motion.

Suzie was truly fabulous even then. She read my query and got back to me within 24 hours with a request for the full manuscript. Everything from there happened in a blur.

So, I've been waxing nostalgic and went back to read my blog during that time and found this. It's my blog post from exactly one year ago today. I thought it was funny to go back and read, so I'll share it with you. Here goes:

My Muse is nuts...
So, I got home from my business trip to Austin on Monday and found out that our family reunion was moved to my house. Today!

It turned out to be fun, and I think everyone had a good time. Now back to writing.

I have three works in progress, and I know I should be working on the other two, but the one that’s really speaking to me (I mean that literally. My characters won’t shut up.) is a sequel to Personal Demons—which I have out on submission with agents. I’m trying really hard to redirect my muse, but he’s not hearing any of it. Problem is, even if my muse isn’t, I’m smart enough to know that spending time and energy on a sequel of a book that hasn’t sold is a waste of time. I’m thinking about writing it anyway—just to shut him up—and leaving it in first draft while I work on the others. By the time I finish those, maybe Personal Demons will have found a home with a really cool agent and editor. Who knows?

Along those lines, I’m still getting requests for manuscripts, so I have lots of really amazing people reading my work, and it’s very exciting and a little scary, but in a really good way. I’m staying optimistic. I will get a call from one of them. Soon. Maybe now… *stares at the phone*

Okay…maybe not right now…but soon.

So, what do you think? Should I bash my muse unconscious with a baseball bat and move on to a new manuscript, or just do the sequel and get it out of the way so my muse will be happy and move on to other projects with me? Truth is, I’m pretty sure I can’t write without him. After all, my job is really just dictation. So he may get his way in the end whether I like it or not.

Update 9/1/10: I was able to resist the urge to write the PD sequel while I waited on agents, but I couldn't hold off forever, and I did write it in November when we were on submission to editors. I couldn't help myself. And I've never finished those other WIPs, though one of those has been whispering in my ear recently. =)

What were you doing one year ago?