Procrastination and Heated Rivalry, a HIGMA

It all began with my family of gerbils.

 

I shared a Jenee-anecdote-of-the-day with my group chat, a notably funny story of me running out of my college dorm sans pants, smuggling a bag of gerbils. It had been a fire drill in the middle of winter. I was half-asleep. Sue me.

 

“That could be a book,” they said.

 

It could.

 

I soft-launched the idea on social media, and the idea was well-received. 

 

 

I wrote the first chapter. Loved it. But I had a different book to write.

 

I’d been a year into querying my fantasy book and had decided to write another, a sideways step into the same series I thought would do better in the trenches. So, my chapter was shelved, but it never left my mind.

 

I struggled to write the other fantasy. I dipped back to the romance occasionally, and punched out a couple more chapters. Then I got a book deal and writing the second fantasy became very necessary.

 

So, I escaped back to my romcom idea. Drafted it. Edits. Betas. Read Heated Rivalry. Edits. The show came out. Became obsessed. Prepared to query. Had a couple Heated Rivalry interactions with a literary agent, as one does.

 

Started querying (and realized I REALLY had to write that fantasy book now).

 

Some elements of the manuscript were a hard stop for the agent who shared my HR love, but I liked her, and I was impressed with her drive and work ethic. So I rewrote those parts.

 

She was my bestie’s agent, and the message of my changes were delivered. The agent sent her querytracker link.

 

Now, we had some rapport. And if there was ever a time to be my most authentic self in a query, this was it. I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity.

 

 

I’ve had rapport with other agents before, but this is still a business. Expectations were low.

 

She requested a partial.

 

Then she request the full. 

 

 

About a day sooner than I had guesstimated, I received a message.

 

 

The phone call couldn’t have gone better. I decided I hated myself and asked for a three-week waiting period. Loads of requests came in, I received another offer, but in the end I was still as confident with Rachel as I was in the beginning.

 

 

And now I really need to go write that second fantasy book…