A big announcement.

Or, the wonderful reason my focus is shot to hell today.

So because I have an outsized fear of cluttering up people’s email inboxes, I’ve been trying to post only every two weeks or so (mostly “or so”), and certainly not the same week I send out my monthly author newsletter. But I HAVE BREAKING NEWS!

Yesterday I accepted an offer of representation from

stuti telidevara

and Peter Knapp of Park & Fine Literary and Media. Yes, folks, I have a new agent.

Insert all the ecstatic phrases here: overjoyed, thrilled, elated, moved, over the moon, delighted…you get the idea. I nearly wept when I saw what Stuti and Pete said when they re-posted my announcement on Twitter (I still can’t call it X):

I love the word “harebrained.” Love.

Obviously I’ll be reminding my husband and son frequently that a “powerhouse creative force” must be indulged her every whim. (My son is an 18-year-old college student who knows everything and my husband is my husband so I’ll let you know that goes.)

Something else that touched me: Pete and Stuti’s clients welcomed me in a DM thread and added me to their Discord server. Writers supporting writers! I love that my author community has expanded.

At some point, I’ll try to write something coherent about my querying “journey.” For now I’ll just say this: it’s a numbers game (I’ve sent out ~60 queries in the last 1.5 years, and was prepared to send out 100+ if that’s what it took). Persistence pays off.¹ I worked with Stuti on two R&Rs (revise-and-resubmits) that truly made the story better in ways I couldn’t have imagined.

I see a lot of querying writers identify a “dream agent,” then become heartbroken if that person passes on their book. Well, someone once told me that a dream agent is the agent who loves your book and will advocate for it and your writing career. I agree 100%. She and Pete understand, on a deep level, what I’m trying to do with the book. I feel very, very lucky.

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And now back to my semi-regularly scheduled programming. I’m planning to send out my monthly author newsletter—where I give you lists of what I’m watching, reading, and listening to, as well as events for writers and writers AND random just-trust-me links—later this week. You can subscribe here if you’re not already getting it.

1. I keep thinking about how my “journey” with infertility treatments prepared me for querying. No, seriously. After undergoing 11 rounds of IUI before conceiving my son, and then two rounds of IVF and several more rounds of IUI (I lost track) to try to have a second child, I got used to emotional roller coasters. A topic for another post. Maybe.