I Have a Literary Agent!

I am very happy to announce that I've signed with a literary agent. I am now represented by Janine Le of Sheldon Fogelman Agency!!

Getting to this next stage in my writing career is the result of hours and hours of struggling over getting the right words, as well as sending out many submissions and receiving many rejections, a sign that my writing just wasn't ready yet. 

About a year and a half ago, I decided to go back to writing picture books. I didn't stop working on my middle grade novels, but I started working on picture books too, because they are so fun to write. After all, I do teach kindergarten, where practically every day I come home with a great story idea. 

In January of 2014, I joined Julie Hedlund’s 12 x 12 Challenge, where the goal is to write twelve picture books in twelve months. In case you haven't heard of the 12 x 12 Challenge, it's a whole community of writers, working on writing picture books. Being part of 12 x 12 really motivated me to work on my picture book writing, and I began to study the craft of writing picture books and started writing more of them. Meanwhile, I took some great online courses from Jill Corcoran and Martha Alderson's A Path to Publishing to continue to work on my writing and my revision skills. 

In the Gold level of 12 x 12, once a month there is also a special opportunity to submit a picture book manuscript to an agent. Last fall, I submitted one of my manuscripts to Janine Le at Sheldon Fogelman Agency through this 12 x 12 opportunity. Janine requested more of my work and shared it with her colleagues. In the meantime, I continued to work on my writing projects, writing new picture books and revising a middle grade novel I wrote last summer. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when Janine e-mailed and asked if we could talk on the phone. I was both nervous and excited! We spoke about some of my writing experiences and goals, and about the work I had submitted to her. A couple of days later, she told me she wanted to represent me!!! So exciting!!! 

I'm so appreciative of my critique partners, many of whom I found through the 12 x 12 Challenge, and most especially the MiG Writers, who have stuck with me through lots and lots of ups and downs. 

I am also very grateful to Julie Hedlund and the 12 x 12 community for their support and encouragement.

I'm not sure where this new path will take me, but I'm so excited to find out!!