This is a long delayed post, but sit down and buckle up for a loooooog ride!
Though an avid reader and storyteller (to my kids), I wasn't aware I could write (or that I wanted to) until my sister got me into a short story competition over seven years ago.
That went nowhere, but, bitten by the writing bug, I plunged into a middle grade mystery.
Enid Blyton was my favorite author as a kid growing up in India and I crafted the mystery echoing her style.
Then, awed by my own "skill" and having no clue of the terrible mistake I was making, I sent it out to agents.
I still can't believe how polite the rejections were.
Then I switched to a YA mystery and joined an online group called Critique Circle, one of the best decisions I've ever made.
There, I met some wonderful writers, three of whom stuck with me.
They offered so much of their time, reading the mystery, then a YA paranormal, then my fourth novel, the YA thriller which ultimately caught the eye of my agent.
They also offered me some much-needed advice, that I need to stop giving up on my novels. Stick with the story, get critiques, revise, rewrite, revise again. Tear the story apart if need be and rewrite it again.
And so I did. I revised the thriller and the YA mystery and set out to find an agent who'll get my stories.
After reworking my query using help from another awesome online group, AgentQuery, I tried out for pitchwars. You could've knocked me down with a feather when the mentors I submitted to requested fulls.
I wasn't picked, but the requests were a huge morale booster. The response to the cold queries I'd been sending out were slowly but surely changing from "Dear Author" rejections to personalized feedback.
Then the bottom fell out and I was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2015.
Fast forward through surgery, chemo, and radiation, and I was back in the game.
In 2017, I was picked for pitchmadness and then for the Writing in the margins mentoring program, where the fabulous Justine Larbalestier mentored my book.
Some of the earlier cold querying had resulted in three R & Rs.
While reworking my thriller, I decided to enter Authormentor match round 4, and by a huge stroke of luck, was picked by Dana Mele. Dana is a wonderful thriller writer and the perfect editor. She helped me beyond what I could've ever asked for.
Oct 2018, DvPit came along. I pitched the following tweet:
All Tanvi remembers from the day her cousin vanished is waking up bruised & muddy. Then Mimi returns & frames her for murder. Now Tanvi must fill in the missing gaps & find the real killer or she'll be the one serving the sentence. #Dvpit #YA #OWN
I submitted materials to the agents who liked the tweet.
Then I received this:
Dear Suja, I have read your query for TARNISHED and I love the voice! Please follow the instructions below to upload your full manuscript. I'm looking forward to reading it.
Then this:
I just finished reading TARNISHED and I couldn’t put it down! Would you be available for a phone call later this week?
During the phone call, I realized I'd found someone who loved this story as much as I did.
Finally, in Nov of 2018, I signed with Zabé Ellor of JDLA.
Yay, happy dance!
Bottom line, keep writing if that's what YOU want to do. Because when you're a writer, the fun lies in the journey.
There'll be roadblocks and frustrations and huge impostor syndrome lurking around, but ultimately, we're all storytellers.