I Got a Rejection Letter Today

Friends, I got a rejection letter today, and I'm ludicrously happy about it. I mean, I get that the book's not for everyone, and in this case, I think I might've accidentally sent it to their YA Department... which was really dumb if that's what happened. 

The book is about middle age, and it's a hard-R. It's definitely not YA.

Oops.

Anyway. Craig got back to me from Dreamsphere Books, and he said No, which was fine. I really, really appreciate that he got back to me at all. I've been expecting nothing but silence from here until I give up in December. A straightforward rejection absolutely okay.

In other news, I just started the working on the third book in this series, which I realize is pathologically insane. The book started as Surf Girl Keeva but was recently renamed The Centurion's Murder. Ironically, this one really *is* a YA book, at least to start. We might get a little of the old ultraviolence in the back half -- we probably will; this is a Necropolis book, after all -- but the first three or so chapters are all kids surfing, hooking up, and playing high school football in South Jersey. Arguably my favorite passage that I've ever written sees Blaine playing middle linebacker through a series against Millville High to start Chapter 2. I wrote a trap, a pitch off an inside veer, and a shovel pass. Had to forcibly resist the urge to put Millville into the triple-option, but I managed it, if barely.

There's no chance I'm going to finish the new draft before college football season starts, which means that I'll eventually have to put it down for four-plus months and hope that my outline holds up until after the Army-Navy Game. I absolutely MUST put it down, though because AFF just got invited back to cover Army-Navy from Radio Row the day before the game and from the Press Box on gameday. For better or worse, friends, MY actual company is kicking ass. We're even doing our first ever Lifestyle show this evening at 6:30 pm. 

That should be an interesting experiment, albeit one that has nothing whatsoever to do with this post.

Regardless. I got down a couple of weeks ago and realized that one of the things I was most looking forward to in my life was figuring out how all the pieces of Surf Girl Keeva (or The Centurion's Murder) fit together. Bottom line, figuring out these little mysteries has become my favorite puzzle, and God knows I love a good puzzle. This one is more complicated than most, so I'm enjoying it quite a bit. That might turn the eventual finished product into an impenetrable labyrinth, but... who's problem is that? You guys aren't even reading this thing.

At the end of the day, you guys aren't important. That's what I realized. I mean, I hope at least some of you like these stories, but even if you don't, I'm prepared to live with it. Writing for other people is a fool's errand. We all know that.

I take a little heart that AFF started in part as me just writing about Army Football for myself right here on this blog, and it then exploded organically. Maybe that'll happen with the Necropolis stories, too. It's not impossible. But if it does, experience suggests it's liable to take years, and that's okay.

It's still nice when people tell me they're just not into it. That's so, so much better than hearing nothing.

We'll close by noting that today is R-Day for the Class of 2030. 

God, I feel old. Also, better you than me, kids.