The traffic light changed to yellow. My foot hovered over the brake, drifted to the accelerator. Stop or go, stop or go, I considered the options. Too late I made up my mind. I hit the brake, a wee bit hard, and two large white envelopes slid forward from under the passenger seat.
How long had they been there? Two submissions packets to agents who ask for the first three chapters with the query, gathering dust since when?
On the way home, I dropped them in the post and then corrected my submission record. I'd been driving around with them for over a week, the packets forgotten until they made their way from the back seat to the front, under my unobservant eye.
I cursed myself for forgetting the things in the first place. After a week, I was in the "wonder if I'll get an e-mail asking for more" phase. Agents seem to ask for more quite quickly, and here I was wasting energy for something that couldn't possibly happen because I'd not posted the queries in the first place.
But it's all about the timing. Maybe the agent who asked for the full manuscript yesterday wouldn't have been taken by the query if I'd sent it when I prepared it.
So now I can wonder if she actually read the first three chapters after all, or just skimmed the query and thought she'd give it a try. Maybe once she gets the full manuscript she won't like the way the story plays out. Maybe she'll reject it as fast as she asked for it.
Maybe....no. Don't push your luck, boy-o. But St. Paddy's Day is only eleven days away, and maybe.....
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