Great Feedback!

"My friend said take her with you/ To leave her here would be a crime/ But let's get outta Santa Cruz/ All I got is a Canadian dime." - "The Trip To Pirate's Cove" by Tom Petty

I heard back from the last agent I queried for Secrets (the one who judged the pitch contest I came in third on), and for the first time, I really am okay with getting a rejection letter. Honestly, I expected it since women's fiction isn't exactly his area of interest, but the feedback he gave me was terrific!

Not only did he think that the changes I made to chapter one were great, but he said that he understood Willow's reasons for wanting to move back to California because he felt that way as a teenager too, having left a small town in CA when he was a young child just like her. It's so wonderful to hear that I have conveyed the emotional reasons for her choice to return to her first home so effectively. I must be doing something right!

The fictional town of Santa Elena that I created for the Willow Ryan series is based in part on Santa Cruz, CA, a cool little hippie beach town in Central California that time forgot. I lived there from the ages of 9-13 and grew to appreciate it's unique charm and appeal as I got older. I wanted to give Willow a safe place that wouldn't judge her and would fully accept her and all of her baggage, and I think of Santa Cruz as a place like that. I also incorporated memories and stories of Santa Monica and Covina, CA into Santa Elena for other reasons, but Santa Cruz was my main inspiration. I'm so glad that my descriptions are accurately painting a picture for people who are reading my work.

Now, on to the next agents. I will be going over my list once again and selecting a handful of literary agents who I fell would be a perfect fit for my book, and I'll keep my fingers crossed as I hit the send button and stick the stamps on the envelopes.

Remember when you had to lick stamps? Are there any children of the 80's out there who recall being warned not to accept stamps from strangers because they could be laced with LSD? That was pretty freaky! I have a very clear memory of that conversation from first grade in Covina, CA. The first grader I teach doesn't even know that drugs exist! Ah, to be so uninformed and innocent...

Anyway, I have a good feeling about this next round of submissions, but I'll stop there before I jinx myself!