Kristian Mercer

What better time to dive back into my blog than Romance Awareness Month!  (Did you know that was August’s new claim to fame?)

It’s been an interesting few months.  First, I didn’t win the Golden Heart—sadly, I wasn’t even a finalist.  My scores were all over the place, with the top being an 8.5 (out of 10) and the lowest a 5.  My final score was 33.40, which put me in the lower half of the paranormal romance entries.

Sigh.  So what I think this means is that readers either love DITM—or they don’t get it at all.  Still…sigh.

On the agent front…well, since January I’ve queried 27 agents.  Of that number, seven have not yet responded; 14 rejected my proposal outright; and six rejected my manuscript after considering the full.

So the good news is that six different agents have read DITM!  The bad news is, of course, that none of them offered representation.  But they’ve all given me positive feedback as well as critical advice, and I’m not giving up hope.  My perfect agent is out there somewhere.

Next up?  Well, there’s an interesting contest at the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal RWA chapter—I think DITM definitely has a chance in the Time Travel/Steampunk/Historical with Paranormal Elements category.  Did I mention that Deb Werksman, editor par excellence at Sourcebooks, is judging the finalists?

And in October I’m headed to the Emerald City Writers Conference, located in beautiful next-door Bellevue.  I’m looking forward to workshops from Rose Lerner, Delilah Marvelle, and more—not to mention the chance to pitch DITM to a new round of editors and agents.

Meanwhile, ideas for novel #2 keep percolating…it’s time to get back to the keyboard!