I've recently been toying with ideas for WIPs, waiting for one of them to grab hold of me so I could put fingers to keyboard and start writing. When it finally happened, I opened a fresh word document and started typing. Then stopped. Then started. Then stopped again. I realized I needed to rethink my process. Now, I'm no outliner or avid researcher. I'm not a pantster, either. Generally, when an idea hits, I let it churn in my brain a little, then jot down a short query syno

June 2, 2006. The day I sent my first query letter. It was for an alternate history novel that took place in the Civil War era. That's all you'll ever hear about it. Now, I was thirteen when I queried my first novel. I received a couple requests for it, which (not surprisingly) resulted in passes. But I also received encouragement from agents who knew my age and believed in a couple years my writing might be strong enough to sell. I will always be grateful for their words. Wr