More Kissing in the Rain

Clearly, we like kissing scenes. :)

My post popular post on this blog is called Kissing in the Rain, from Valentine's Day, 2012. It gets about 50 hits a week, presumably from Google searches. The excerpt is from my YA novel THE SWEET SPOT, which is under revision with my agent.

Soooo, I thought you might like the following excerpt, from "Stella's Hero," a short story in TIMELESS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE (from Pugalicious Press) written by me and my writing partner, Ansha Kotyk. It's also a kissing-in-the-rain scene. Enjoy!

 ***

She would never see Jie again. She would never see his smile or touch his beautiful face. Knowing these things made her steps even heavier. For a brief moment, she thought about walking to the waterfront. It would be easy in this weather to just keep walking. Into the harbor. No one would miss her. All the pain would be gone. Her dress, heavy and wet, would help her sink into oblivion. She began to cry tears of frustration, anger and remorse. Someone grabbed her arm from behind.

Fear gripped her heart. She wrenched free and ran as fast as she could in her sopping skirts.

“Stella!” Jie's voice. Desperate and hoarse.

She stopped but couldn't turn around. A million emotions coursed through her. Relief. Joy. Anger.

His warm hand rested on her shoulder as he turned her to face him.“Stella.” He was out of breath, but he looked determined. “I couldn’t live without...”

She searched his eyes. He leaned toward her and kissed her softly on the lips. An explosion of emotion seared her brain as she pressed her body against his.

He pulled away. “You understand what this would mean?” His eyes met hers, asking her.

“Sometimes you have to give up comfortable living for your dreams,” she said, putting her arms around his neck and pulling him close. She kissed him again, his arms closing around her waist. Nothing in this world was going to take him away from her again. She wouldn’t let anyone tell her this wasn’t right.

And when the kiss ended and the rain fell between them, Jie held her hand tightly. “My whole neighborhood will know about this in an hour’s time. There is no going back. Are you sure this is what you want, Stella Thompson?”

She nodded. “Always. This is what I’ve always wanted. I just didn’t know it until now.” 

***

You can read the whole piece and six other short stories in TIMELESS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE.  Available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

My Agent Story

I promised the more coherent details of finding my agent.  For those who missed the announcement on Tuesday, I am excited and honored and delighted to announce that I have officially signed with the fabulous Vickie Motter of Andrea Hurst Literary Management. (Yes, the adjectives are ALL very important to that sentence). 

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am. 

The last few days have been a whirlwind. Here’s how it happened:

I first read about Vickie Motter on Krista V’s website Mother. Write. Repeat. (Thanks, Krista, for your wonderful agent interviews!) Thinking that my YA contemporary might be a good fit, I sent my query to Vickie in early January. Over the next couple of weeks, she requested a partial, then more pages (along with my author bio and synopsis). While I was on vacation in Florida, she requested the full! The worst part of vacation was that I couldn’t send it to her until I got home!

Vickie made THE CALL on 2/24. I had convinced myself it would be a revision request. When she said, “I’m offering you representation” I think I stopped breathing. Because her next words were, “have you been holding your breath this whole time?”

We won’t talk about all the questions I forgot to ask during our conversation—but she was kind enough to respond to everything I needed to know via email the next day!

I officially signed with Vickie on March 1. My only regret is that she’s on the other coast. Not because I don’t think she can do a great job from there—I’m confident in her ability. It’s just that I dearly long to say “I’m not available today, I’m having lunch with my agent.” Maybe someday.  

I’m thrilled to start the next phase of my writing career. I will be working on revisions with Vickie in preparation of subbing my novel to publishers this spring. I’m terrified. I mean, um, completely confident.

Oh, and I need to say that I would definitely NOT be where I am without the support and friendship of my three crit partners. Ansha Kotyk, Laura Pauling, and Jen Carson—have been cheerleaders, task-masters, copy-editors and good FRIENDS. I can’t believe how lucky (I mean, how smart!) I was when I sat next to Ansha at the 2008  NESCBWI conference. Love you guys!

And thanks to Vickie Motter for loving my story and taking a chance on me. I’m so excited to be working with you! 

I'm not really a superstitious person, but my co-worker took me to lunch the day I accepted Vickie's offer.  I grabbed a bag of chips and my drink. When I got to the table, I looked at my chips. The universe just told me I made the right choice.

I know you all want to know the stats, so here they are:

I started querying officially in June 2010. I sent a couple of “too early” queries earlier in 2010, but that’s another post. According to QueryTracker.net, I sent 67 queries. Of those, I had eight full requests and four partial requests. 

So my advice to all my writer friends is KEEP QUERYING. (After, of course, you write a great story, have it critiqued, and revise, revise, revise.) It just takes one agent to love your story—but it might take a bit of work to find that one person. 

I’ll blog more about my query and my book soon, so stay tuned. 

Check back on Monday for a party!! Get your recipes ready! Psst...There might be an agent query critique up for grabs, as well as other cool prizes!