Some days are easier than others.

Publishing is all about the waiting. You wait for the words to flow. (They tend to flow best when you’re driving, when your parents are talking to you on the phone, when you’re at work, or when a kid is demanding that you come and examine what he has built from Legos.)

You wait for responses from agents or small publishers on your queries. Sometimes this wait is minutes, more often weeks, but sometimes it takes much, much longer. No joke, I got a rejection in May 2015 for a query I sent in January of 2014. I had high hopes for that one, too.

If you’re lucky enough to be agented, you wait for responses from editors and updates from your agent, who is swamped and busy and trying to carve out approximately fifteen minutes of personal life per week, but is still probably 2000 queries behind.

If you get a book deal, you wait for the cover, for the blurb, for the new title, for the publication date, for the readers to find you. Then you wait to find out if you have another book deal.

It goes on and on. I’m both terrible at waiting and great at it. On the days when I show a real talent for waiting, I’m Zen. No eastern philosopher can spout more platitudes than I can on those days. I read—both published books and my friends’ manuscripts. I scroll through Twitter. I play touch football and go hiking. I cook and I enjoy it. I even examine the Lego creations with real non-faked interest.

During those days, the Zen days, I’m a delightful companion. I’m fun Mom. I’m loving Wife. I can say heartfelt supportive things to my fellow residents of Waitingville. I can write long stretches of my work in progress and read them and think they are wonderful.

It’s the other days that are not so good. The ones where I. Can’t. Stand. It. Another. Minute. The ones where I feel like storming the castle and demanding answers, in shouty caps with lots of exclamation points. Those days my kids know that I’ll let them watch way too much TV. My husband, with whom I go for a walk every evening, decides to go for a solo run instead. I eat too much and none of it is healthy. My online friends manufacture all kinds of refreshing outings in dark caves with no internet after they’ve tried fruitlessly to remind me that I signed on for this, that I knew what I was getting into when I first decided to pursue traditional publishing.

Fortunately for me, the Zen days outnumber the Not-Zen days. Just know, though, that when you have the Not-Zen day—and you will, if you’re trying to be published—you’re hardly alone.

I’ve been hiking many times with my husband and family and I love it. I’m a terrible athlete: I ducked and avoided the ball in softball, never managed to hit it in tennis, and can well recall my body screaming “Stop!” whenever I ran. I’m good at hiking, though. Miles disappear under my feet in the silence of the woods. The quiet is broken only by the regularity of my own breathing in time with my steps. Woods are good for both conversation or introspection, whichever mood strikes.

Most hikes are designed to take hikers over a mountain or three. After all, the views are better up there and the views are the carrots that take so many people up so many vertical miles. On occasion, the view at the top is so spectacular it takes your breath. You sit down, crack open your water, and feel glad to be alive. A lot more often, however, the view is only of a more distant peak. When that happens, there’s nothing to do but keep going if you want the spectacular. Hiking back down the mountain without reaching the true summit seems ridiculous, pointless, impossible, even.

Publishing is like that.

The first peak is finishing that novel, the one that 95% or whatever of people want to write but never do. You’ve done it. You’ve typed “The End.” Your word count is reasonable. Your concept is hooky. Your parents brag about you. Your spouse looks at you as if you were an eleven when you were only a ten before. Celebrate that view, but there’s another peak in sight.

The next one is finding an agent. I’ll be honest: this hike is twelve thousand miles long, or it seems like it. The trail rises and falls often, tiring you out and making you think about going home for dinner. Every time you decide to, though, there’s a little glimpse through the trees and someone you know waving at you from the top of that next peak.

A lot of hikers bite it during this part. Sometimes you have to write more than one book. Sometimes you have to write more than two. It’s a hell of a slog, but if you hang in there, learning and working, it’s achievable.

Even after that, there are plenty more peaks: getting a book deal, getting a second book deal, completing revisions to an editor’s satisfaction, meeting deadlines, and keeping away burn-out. Nobody ever reaches the end: there’s always another mountain in the distance.

I’ve learned, in both hiking and publishing, that good endurance is a must. It’s not a walk in the park. It’s the whole damn Appalachian Trail. Bring water and food. The only thing stopping you from reaching the spectacular is your determination and your feet. Take care of them.

Okay. So funny story. I’m at RWA in New York. Nine lovely ladies who are fellow alumnae of 2014’s Pitch Wars meet to sing karaoke in a bar. Because we love her, we invite Brenda Drake, who brought us all together and made this spectacular singing extravaganza possible. She is SO AMAZED by the level of our vocal entertainment that she CAN’T STOP HERSELF from making us mentors because we were so awesome. Or because we so badly needed to be doing something else.

So I get to be a mentor! Last year, I was an alternate with a terrific mentor (Kara Leigh Miller) and I got my lovely and amazing agent, Sarah Younger, with my Pitch Wars manuscript. I write women’s fiction and romance for various ages. I’m also a full-time lawyer and a full-time kid chauffeur (I write half my words at their lessons and practices). I’ve been writing for years, have a copy editor for a father and an English teacher for a mother, and some of the most amazing critique partners in the business (ALL of whom are also mentors in this contest). 

And I want your Adult manuscript!!!

What I’d love for you to send me:
 

• Women’s Fiction of all kinds. I love most of the tropes. I especially love the kind described as having “heavy romantic elements.” If you’re not sure whether your book is WF or Romance, I’m your girl. If your hero is more Beta than Alpha, I’m your girl. If you blush when you see a half-naked man on a cover, I’m your girl. Favorite authors: Liane Moriarty, Anne Rivers Siddons, Allison Pearson, Emily Giffin, Jane Green, Jodi Picoult, Mary Kay Andrews, Rainbow Rowell.
• Romance. I love the sweet and a little sexy. There are other mentors better suited to the super sexy. I don’t do erotica. I’ve read it, I blush, I giggle, it’s a mess. I love old school romance. Small towns, big cities, whatever you have. Except dinosaurs. Do not send me your dinosaur romance. 
• Commercial fiction: I devour bestsellers. Recent-ish books I loved: Cartwheel, The Circle, Gone Girl, The Royal We, Water for Elephants, Seating Arrangements, The Kitchen House, anything by Pat Conroy.
• Time travel: I love books that use the device of time travel without being about the workings of the time travel. I’m not a fantasy/SF reader. I’m open to other magical realism where the emphasis is on realism and not magic. See: Outlander.
• Historicals: I was a history major. I travel to see historical sites and museums. I actually read all the plaques in the museums. Favorite periods: American Civil War, Titanic/WWI, Colonial America, UK from 1550 to 1800 (yes, including Scotland. See: Outlander), Gilded Age, British India, anything Canada. Extra points for an unusual period/setting.
• Thrillers: As much as I love Love, I also really enjoy a good serial killer. Extra points if you have a book with both love and a serial killer. I love Gillian Flynn and fiction that reads like true crime. I’m good with legal thrillers too: because I am a lawyer. Make sure your lawyer characters follow the rules or if they don’t, that they recognize the risks.
• Retellings of Classics: Send them all — Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Greek myths, fairy tales. Love all of that. I’m a major Jane Austen dork.

A note on diversity: I want it. I do not want diverse characters who are present only to teach me something or to allow you to say you have a diverse book. I want diverse characters who act like people and who are neither offensive stereotypes or sterling, saintly examples.  I'm not a fan generally of saints: never yet met one.

There are many amazing books in the world that are not at the top of my TBR pile. Life is short, and there are a lot of books.

Please DON’T send me (because I don’t read enough of these to be able to help you):

• Science fiction
• Fantasy
• Horror
• Military/Spy/Conspiracy
• Erotica
• Paranormal other than as described above
• I’m not allowed to accept YA or MG -- Please don’t send that!

Okay. If I get to work with you, my plan is to help you do the following:

     Get your plot holes filled.

• Pace your novel to flow and keep an agent reading.
• Make your dialogue sound real in the mind of the reader.
• Make sure your characters live and breathe, even when they’re off the page.
• Fix your writing/mechanic issues, if you have them. I’ll be honest: if you have major issues in this area, I’ll likely pass. You should review your manuscript for this before submitting.

I’ll read your manuscript and send you back an overall critique with my thoughts on all five of those categories. You’ll need to put on your big kid pants before you open that email. I’ll also send back my in-line thoughts on the little stuff. Then you fix. We talk. We email. We argue. Then you fix some more. I’ll read what you’ve fixed. I’ll critique. We’ll polish. And it’ll be amazing. 

One caveat, and this is a big one: If you can’t handle criticism, don’t submit to me or anyone. If all you want is for someone to tell you what an amazing writer you are, you’re barking up the wrong tree. This contest is for people who want to IMPROVE. 

That’s what we’re going to do. And I can’t wait!