So, my dragon manuscript is pretty much not something that publishers are buying these days. Also, at seven hours a week, I don't think I could commit to finishing an entire book within whatever realistic deadline a publisher would want. And that is assuming my daughter will continue to take naps. So it looks like I may not have real time to give this career until both kids are in full-day school, three years hence. Coincidentally, that will be about the time that I have to give my studio back to the kids, seeing as it is a borrowed bedroom and they won't want to bunk it forever.
(Bangs head on desk.)
On the bright side, Ruth Sanderson confirmed for me that it really is okay to post on the blog samples of art from my hope-to-someday-be-published book!
Also on the bright side, I now have a highschool student trading babysitting time for art lessons. If I can find four more I'll be golden.
In the two-steps-forward-two-steps-back tango department, I spent a week going down the path of another dummy book. Supposedly it was going to be something really simple I could hammer out in two weeks, as it is nothing but characters. But um yeah. I'm all about the environments, right self? Yeah. A book with ten characters every other page, two of which have to change subtly and steadily over the course of the book? That's not just difficult, that's poke-my-eyes-out-with-a-stick please.
Also good, I submitted the application for a SCBWI grant. Here's hoping.
My past momentum was fueled by a desire to take my dummy book to a conference. I still need to cling to that, methinks. I'll finish this dummy, finish the art portfolio, and give it a whirl. So this manuscript is too long and aimed at too old an age range and in verse, which editors mostly hate. At least my art is awesome, and I can mention Plato in my query letter.
In the mean time, I'll distract myself with this hilarious and poignant view into the lives and work worlds of those in the publishing industry. May I someday be the rare author who makes an editor smile. Or at the very least, never cause my publisher to bang-head-on-desk.
