For close to 20 years, anytime I've been asked to provide advice to aspiring writers, one of my bits of wisdom has been "Finish the book." So many newbie authors get wrapped up in perfecting the first chapter. Or the first three chapters. They tweak and rewrite and fiddle and fix ... and never get beyond those opening pages. Then they get a newer, better idea and start a new project, where they work to perfect those opening pages yet again.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Which is why I strongly advise powering on and finishing the book. Honestly, those perfected first chapters will very likely end up needing drastic revisions once you get the entire story down. So, don't worry about perfection. Write the shitty first draft. Don't edit until you have a completed manuscript to work from. This has been my advice.  And now I'm defying it. I'm working on a proposal for a new book that's been inside my brain for the better part of a year. In the last few months, I...

As I wrote last month, I was starting a new proposal for a new book and new series. On July 5, I turned those three chapters and a synopsis in to my agent. By the end of that week, she returned them to me with edits. Early this week, I sent the corrections to her along with the other assorted material needed for her to create her query. On Tuesday, she started sending it out to our first tier of editors.   Which places me back in the position of waiting for the new round of rejections to roll in.   Now you may think I’m sounding defeatist. In truth, I’m anything but. What I am is a realist. I’m shooting for the stars with some of the publishers we’re targeting. This isn’t my first rodeo. I know the story and/or my writing won’t appeal to everyone. There’s no avoiding it. There will be rejections.   However, there are a few of those publishers that keep me crossing my fingers.   The other thing that kept me occupied this week was More Than Malice, a vi...