Yesterday (rather, at 4pm Monday PST, since the publisher is in Britain), the Open Door period opened for Angry Robot Books. And as planned, I sent my submission packet for The Widening Gyre, Book 1 of The Remembrance War.
Now begins the waiting. And the pretending it won’t gut me if it doesn’t do well. And the pretending I’m not on pins and needles waiting for that rejection.
To be honest, my Victory Condition isn’t that high–frankly, I’ll be happy if I get a request for the full manuscript, even if it’s ultimately not acquired. That said, of course, I’ll be over the freaking moon if it does make it to the end. So I’m hoping Tajen can pique their interest, and that the rest of the crew can hold it.
For those who’ve read the beta version, the submission piece ends at the end of Chapter 2, when Tajen has just signed Katherine, Liam, Takeshi, and Ben as his crew.
This is the same fragment (plus some more I added in later drafts) that got me accepted to Viable Paradise, so I know it’s not awful. And the Beta process helped me refine it. But man, it’s still such a nervewracking thing, to send your fictional darling out into the world.
Now that TWG is out there, I’m continuing work on Book 2, The Ceremony of Innocence (title, as always, tentative), in which the nasty war for Earth begins. I have the basic arc of Book 2 planned, and am now breaking it into chapters and structural arcs.
Book 3, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, is just a tiny seed–I know it’ll involve a civil war among humans, but the actual chapters haven’t been plotted yet.
Alternate title for Book 3, by the way, for those playing at home: What Rough Beast.
Off to the word mines!