Coming Soon

I’ve been trying to come up with an obligatory New Year’s post for a few days now, but nothing’s come to mind, so I’ll just fire a few random thoughts at you instead.

First off, I wanted to share this article with you, “Living the Abundant Life,” from Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s the best New Year’s thought I’ve got, and so much of it applies to writing (not to mention querying). I especially liked these lines:

“Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.

“Have the determination to make the effort, the single-mindedness to work toward a worthy goal, and the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitably come but also to make a second effort, should such be required. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow.’”

Next, I have another interview for you, this one our fifth installment of “Agent-Author Chat.” Fellow blogger Adam Heine and his new agent, Tricia Lawrence of Erin Murphy Literary Agency, agreed to come on the blog and answer a few questions about how they came to be a team. Watch for that post to go up this Friday.

Lastly, in case you haven’t heard, I’m having a baby, like, next week. Exactly one week from today, Honey Bear and I will welcome Baby Number Three to our family and the world. (That is the one good thing about having C-sections: their predictability.) So I’ll be taking the next couple of months off. I’ll definitely post something about the birth, but after that, I’m not planning to blog again until sometime this spring, probably in April.

But have no fear! I already have a handful of agents waiting in the wings to do interviews and judge more rounds of “An Agent’s Inbox,” so when we come back in April, we’ll pick up right where we left off. In the meantime, I’ll do my best to figure out this whole taking-care-of-three-kids thing.

Happy New Year!