An Accidental Opportunity

After arriving late, I discovered I missed the first session, but still had time to make my Read & Critique appointment. I read the first two pages of The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider and received some good feedback from author Bob Spiller. Then it was time for lunch.

I stood in line and waited, observing the other workshop participants to see if anyone looked familiar. A woman stood behind me in line and struck up a conversation. "Where are you from?" she asked.

"I'm from Denver. Where are you from?"

"New York."

"How was your flight?"

"It was good."

"So you're from New York? That's, like, the hot bed of publishing, why would you come to Colorado?" I asked, thinking she was a starving writer like myself.

"I'm Betsy Mitchell from Del Rey." For anyone who doesn't know, Del Rey is the fantasy imprint of Random House.

"Oh, wow, then I should definitely be talking to you!" I laughed.

So I had a captive audience while we walked into the banquet hall and sat next to each other for lunch. I told her about The Diaries of Lilith Fyerider and Journey to Artemisia.

I said, "It's so difficult to come up with something new and original in the fantasy genre."

"Well, that sounds new to me," she said about Journey to Artemisia and she clued me in to a few useful bits of information:

1) Del Rey doesn't take young adult fantasy, so if I want to submit to Del Rey, write it as adult fiction, which I think it is anyway.

2) They don't take unagented fiction unless you meet an editor (like Betsy) at a conference.

3) I can query as soon as the first draft is 95% complete. So that tells me I'd better get my butt in gear and finish Journey to Artemisia while she still remembers who I am.

It was wonderful to meet her. She's a very friendly person, which I appreciated because the whole process of meeting agents and editors can be so intimidating for first-time authors. I hope she enjoyed meeting me too. And I hope she will still remember me by the time I get the second half of the novel pounded out.