TAG! You're It! - Tuesday & The Letter "D"

(a-z blogfest below)

 

 

Welcome to  

TAG! You're It! - Tuesday, 

where I ask the questions and my guests answer them.  

But that's not all, my guest also gets to tag my next victim. 

This week, Sara Larson has been tagged . . .  

by last week's Carolina Valdez Miller.

 

My Question:

 

A little birdie told me you have an interesting story about how you snagged your agent. Would you mind sharing that with us?  And then I'd love to know more about your book, so here's your chance to brag a little about it. Don't be shy now.

 

I'm not sure how to answer this question quickly, since it took me 6 BLOG POSTS to tell my whole story. (If anyone wants to read it all, you can go to http://sarablarson.blogspot.com and search "my path to getting an agent" pt. 1-6) The short version is that after suffering a difficult personal loss the summer of 08, I decided to finally get serious about getting published. I'd been writing my whole life, but never took the steps to figure out what I needed to do to get an agent and get a book on the shelf. I wrote a book in two weeks, revised for two more, and began to query. Whoa, was I ever a greenie! However, I still managed to get interest, and from my "#1 agent." After months of waiting, she finally rejected me. That was a hard blow. My dreams of being the next Stephenie Meyer (oh yes, I'll admit I had them) were blown to smithereens.

 

But the good news is that I didn't give up. A friend of mine (who was a former acquisitions editor) gave me a hard, but amazing, critique and showed me a lot of the mistakes I was making. I got some CPs. I revised and queried and revised and queried. And queried and queried. I got REALLY close, many times. When I'd queried over sixty agents, and started getting all the same responses, "I love it, your writing is so great, your characters are amazing, but I just don't love it enough..." (ooh, how I hated that word 'enough'), I finally decided to write another book.

 

I began querying that book in October/November of 09, and got even more interest than the last one. And still nothing worked out. Again, I got SO close, so many times. So I wrote another book, and started querying it in February of '10. Then... I got this email. About the book I'd queried in November. The agent apologized for being so late, but wanted to read it right away if it was stilll available. Two weeks later, she offered to represent me. I had a bunch of agents interested in my newest book that was out on query, so that became a.... unique situation. I gave everyone a week to get back to me, and then ended up deciding Hannah Brown Gordon at Foundry Lit + Media (the one who originally offered) was the best fit for me, and signed with her in March of 2010! We've been through a lot together, and I'm so grateful to have her in my corner. She really believes in me, and loves my writing, and you can't ask for more than that.

 

I have two different books I'm working on with her right now, but we won't be going out on sub until after my current project makes her debut in June/July of this year. Yep, that would baby #3! So, since I'm not sure which one we'll be taking out, I guess I'll just say keep your eyes on my blog for more info, hopefully early this fall.

 

So that's my story! Thanks so much for having me, this was fun.

 

More About Sara:

 

I have been writing since I was in second grade, and have the notebooks full of misspelled stories to prove it. Over the intervening years, my love of writing has grown even stronger, and luckily my spelling has improved as well. I almost got a “marketable degree” as a nurse at BYU, but turned back to writing when that didn’t work out. I live in Utah with my husband, two young sons, and a Maltese named Charlie. I've learned to write during naptime and the hours when most people are sleeping. When I'm not writing, getting shot with nerf guns, or tripping over soccer balls, I can be found wakeboarding at the lake, hiking in the mountains, cooking, or working out at the gym. If all else fails, you can probably find me hiding in a bubble bath with a book and some Swedish Fish. I am represented by the fabulous Hannah Brown Gordon at Foundry Literary + Media.

 

I'm also doing a 300 followers + 1 year blogiversary giveaway right now, so it's a good time for people to hop on over and enter to win. They get to pick their own prize. :) 

 

 

And now it's time for Sara to TAG a friend.  

Ali Cross

TAG!  You're It! 

AGAIN!!

And no, you don't get out of it, just because you've been tagged before.

So there!

Come back next Tuesday to see if Ali accepts the challenge and to see if you've been tagged.

 

Which brings me to the letter "D".

Which stands for DOJO.

Visit Ali's blog to find out more about her Ninja World.