In June or July of 1998, only a few months before my first daughter was born, I finished all the preliminary work on a mystery novel called Bad Moon Rising. My plan was to create a series character who solved murders and name the books after classic rock songs, much in the same way Mary Higgins Clark uses snippets of standards in her titles. My lead character, Michael Rossi, was an investigative reporter for the (fictional) San Diego Herald and was asked to investigate the apparent suicide of a girl he was obsessed with in high school. The request came from the girl's mother.
My daughter was born in August and I didn't start writing the book until January of 1999. With breaks to write a self-publish the poetry book for my wife, and to re-type the teaching methods book (my computer had crashed and I only had a hard copy), the first draft of the mystery novel came in at 500 pages and took a whopping three years to write! My fellow teachers and I celebrated the completion of the novel (at that point, even finishing a book, let alone writing a good one seemed like a feat to me) by meeting for drinks at a place called B.J.'s, a local bar and grill. I will always remember that afternoon (primarily because I don't drink much). I am always grateful for the support and encouragement of my friends at work when it comes to my writing. To date, my wife, my mother-in-law, our best friend, three teachers at work, and two agents have read the mystery novel. After a year of subsequent drafts (2 or 3, I think) and some family business, I began querying agents in the Fall of 2003.
In February of 2004, I attended the 18th annual Southern California Writers Conference in San Diego and met in a one-on-one with L.A.-based agent Charlotte Gusay. In a letter attached to my submission package that was returned at the conference, Ms. Gusay agreed to read the entire manuscript.
I was walking on clouds and immediately called my wife from the conference. I had never reached this level in my writing and I wanted to savor it. A "real-live" agent wanted to read my novel. It was a moment I'd fantasized about my entire life. In our one-on-one meeting, I learned a lot from her and asked her if she would mind if I took the time for one more draft before submitting. She agreed.
After three months working on a new draft, I mailed out my first "all manuscript" submission. I was a bit taken aback, though, about the expense involved in duplicating and sending out a book. A few months later the SASE came back with a letter passing on the novel. Among other things, the letter said that I "did well in the mystery genre" but that my characters "need to be more compelling." Still, I decided to be happy that I was allowed to go through that process, saw it as a learning experience, and was excited to get professional feeback on my entire book. The comments I got back came from someone who sold books for a living.
That was invaluable.
A few other agents have requested sample chapters and then passed and one other agent, based simply on a query letter, asked to see the entire manuscript, but then passed on it. I did another draft for that novel and one more since. The novel is now down to a tighter 357 pages. I think that will be its fighting weight for all subsequent requests for the manuscript.
I have, actually, received positive comments on sample chapters I have sent out, which I use as the justification to keep going. If no one said anything positive about the writing that I'm sending out into the world, I might have to rethink my dream. Fortunately, that's not the way it's going. But so far, no takers. The bottom line, then, seems to be that I need perserverance and training. With that, and a little luck, Bad Moon Rising may some day find its way onto the shelves at your local Barnes & Noble.
'Cause I ain't givin' up.
Labels: Bad Moon Rising, writing practice
