Ten Years

I’ve lived in Cincinnati for years, but it wasn’t until last January that I discovered all the young adult writers in this city. Now, about a year later, I’m still not sure I’m one of their group (what with not having an agent or published book), but they treat me like I am and I love to support them. That’s why, in the last three days, I’ve been to two book launches.

First, Melissa Landers’ launch of INVADED, the sequel to her YA sci-fi ALIENATED, was Saturday afternoon at the Barnes & Noble in West Chester.

I’d bought ALIENATED before I met her, when I’d found a signed copy at a different Barnes& Noble, and loved it. I’d talked to her a couple of times about her INVADED launch, about the story itself and the writing of it, but Saturday I still enjoyed listening to her discuss other aspects of it. She also read a passage, explained the origins of the alien language in the series, and teased us with a description of her next book, which will release next year.

As much as I was there to support Melissa Landers, I was also there to chat with the other Cincinnati YA authors. I wanted to learn more about their newest books and glean what information I could about writer life on the other side (the agented/published side). I also had a couple of query questions, which they enthusiastically answered. I may not be agented yet, but they’re determined to help me get there.

At some point, one of the authors mentioned that they’d be attending another launch (for another Cincinnati YA author that I hadn’t met) on Tuesday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Rookwood, my favorite independent bookstore. I promised I’d be there.

Yesterday evening, Joseph-Beth and Kristen Simmons launched her YA dystopian novel THE GLASS ARROW.

Of all that Kristen Simmons discussed—how grateful she is for the support of her friends and family, her other books, her inspiration, how so many people will let you do just about anything for writing research—what I latched onto most was that it took her ten years to find an agent and publish her first book. Ten years. And now, including THE GLASS ARROW, she’s written and published four books.

After she talked and read from her book, once I’d waited in line to get her autograph, I asked her about those ten years. We only had a few minutes (a small line of people behind me), but she expressed her empathy and gave me a few pieces of querying advice. But the biggest thing, the best part? She wrote this inside my copy of her book:

I won’t give up. I’ve said it many times before and I mean it as much as ever. (Never give up, never surrender! as they say in Galaxy Quest.) I’ll keep going to book launches and signings. I’ll keep talking with authors and listening to the advice they give me. And I’ll query and query and query, for as long as it takes, even if it’s ten years.