Personally, I prefer that quote to the Anne of Green Gables one, but if you’re struck with the desire to wax eloquently about the joys of October, I am not here to stop you. It’s a glorious month. Apples rain magnanimously from trees. Squirrels dart like crazed tyrants through every yard, claiming pumpkins as tribute. People still carry the glow of summer on their skin and in their hearts, unlike the Pale-tides of February. The world outside my bedroom window is on fire.

What I’m Working On:

Thanks to my children’s hectic sports schedules, I haven’t finished reading aloud my paranormal mystery. However, we’re almost finished, and then I’ll be sending it off to my agent for her thoughts.

I did, in fact, get that short story written! It was a lot of fun and quite short, coming in at 1100 words. I considered adding more but decided that I’d said what I wanted to say. Then, I pared it down to 990 words so I could submit it to some flash fiction online magazines. We shall see what—if anything—comes of that. If nothing, I’ll send it out in a newsletter for you all to enjoy.

The October Camperdown residency went swimmingly, and unlike my first October residency, I wasn’t terribly sick and I didn’t lose my voice halfway through the week. We have a fairly long gap between this residency and the early March one, but I’m still checking in with students and grading assignments and making sure no one is having a quiet, existential crisis as they work through their first drafts.

I’ve discovered that if I let the world know my plans, I’m more motivated to stick with them. So, now that this other manuscript is (almost) with my agent, I have begun thinking again. And my thought process so far this year has gone thusly:

• Do revisions on Thief (January-May)

• Send Thief out on submission to editors (May-??)

• Write a novel while Thief is out with editors

• Shoot, the novel is written and we still haven’t heard back from editors. I now have two solid manuscripts for my agent, which means I have time to think about writing something else that isn’t specifically for New York publishing.

• Hey, remember Marten from The Winter King? I wonder whatever happened to him….

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what the project previously known as Secret Project is: I’m diving back into the world of Hrimsby (and beyond, shhh) and revisiting some old friends as well as making some new ones. I won’t say much more about it yet, however my goal is to do the novel prep in November and December and start writing in January. It will be wild if I manage to write two novels during the time that the Thief story is out on submission. But that story is completely out of my hands, and while I’m not sure why the Lord is making me wait, I can rest assured that it’s for a very good reason.

What I’m Reading:

October was a strange month where I started several books that I definitely thought were Christine-shaped only to set them aside after 50 or 100 pages. Additionally, I founded a creative writing club at New Saint Andrews College so I was busy reading through short stories to decide which ones to assign to the students.

I did, however, enjoy a slightly unusual middle grade novel by Gary D. Schmidt called What Came from the Stars. And I read Born a Crime by Trevor Noah which was quite funny (I’ve heard that the audiobook is great, although it has some swears so careful around your kids).

For audiobooks, I listened to Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones. House of Many Ways is definitely a stronger book, although I really enjoyed both of them.

A Writing Tip:

Last month on Instagram, I asked my followers what topics they’d like covered in the Writing Tips section. One question was about self publishing vs. getting an agent.

This is not the easiest question to answer without stepping on toes, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. A good agent will make your book better. So will a good editor. There is a high level of gatekeeping in traditional publishing, and a lot of it is there for good reason. I have received fantastic edits both from my agent and from my editor at Canon, edits that I would not have thought of on my own.

2. Self publishing is a LOT of non-writing work, and if it’s not work you’re interested in (hiring someone to design the cover, managing your own distribution/sales, doing all your own promotion, hiring a freelance editor, etc.), then don’t go that route.

3. There are great traditional publishers that don’t require an agent, so it isn’t as if the only two options are agented or self-publishing.

4. An agent will also handle all kinds of tricky and unpleasant things like contracts, foreign rights, and disagreements you might have with an editor.

5. Getting an agent and then getting a book deal and then getting that book published takes a very long time. Years. But that’s its own form of gatekeeping: if you want to be in the traditional publishing world, you have to be willing to play the long game. It isn’t for everyone, but it isn’t as impossible to get an agent or a book deal as you might believe. It just takes grit and flexibility (like rock climbing)

6. No matter what route you choose, your goal should always be excellence and a desire to serve the reader. None of your decisions should come from laziness or hubris. Stretch your writing talent as far as it can go, and trust God with the outcome.

That’s it for October! See you next month,

Christine