ISSUE 1: Who's Standing At The Foot of Your Bed?
This week, I got my first query rejection.
Spoiler: The agent did not stand at the foot of my bed to give me this rejection.
And rejection is a pretty harsh word for it. It was a polite: ‘not for me’. I respect that. Because my work won’t be for everyone.
Before I began querying, I had my package evaluated (QUERY PACKAGE, YOU PERVERT). It came with an hour-long video session, which was ABSOLUTELY worth it. The person was an industry veteran who was able to tell/remind me (and I’m paraphrasing here):
It’s a business.
They’re often looking for commercial marketability.
They may like your work but already have a similar project.
They may like your work but don’t know how to sell it.
No agent is looking to intentionally disqualify your manuscript.
There are a lot of variables outside your control.
It’s hard to come to terms with how little control I have when handing something I spent every day with for the past 9-months. (Are we still saying, book baby?) But I did. This was their last sparkling piece of advice:
Get it over with.
I’m happy with what I submitted. It’s not perfect, but I did the best I was capable of right now. Every book is a lesson learned, and my next will be better because I pressed through all the challenges and discomfort this one presented.
👻KLB
You can find a sneak peak of chapter 1 here!
…now for the scaries part.
I’ll kick off this first edition with my personal scary story. 👻
Shortly after I got married, my partner deployed for about a year. We knew it was coming. It wasn’t a huge deal, but we’d been married for two weeks when they left.
LITTLE DID I KNOW. My partner had always…seen a spirit. At least a half dozen times or more in their life, they’d seen this man. The way they describe it is non-threatening, watchful man. WELL—my partner wanted this man to watch over me while they were deployed.
That kicks off a three-night saga of me having nightmares of a figure standing at the END OF MY BED.
I don’t recall any facial features, but I remember a taller build and a looming presence.
I woke up sweating, crying, and totally disoriented, but I was at my parent’s house, so I would talk to my mom about what was happening. We chalked it up to exhaustion, stress, life changes, etc.—all reasonable explanations.
On the third day, I woke up mid-walk.
I’ve never sleptwalked before and haven’t since.
I was walking to stand at the end of the bed and stare at where I’d just been lying.
I was the person standing at the end of my bed. I WAS SCARING MYSELF.
Now, if this spirit of a man had anything to do with it, I guess we’ll never know. It stopped after the third night. The next day my partner mentioned they’d sent the spirit to watch over me, and I politely told it: I’m good. Thanks.
Have a scary story you want to share? Drop it in the comments! I always love to hear about other’s paranormal encounters.
