I thought starting my second novel would be a bigger deal. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the ease of it and normality of how this all feels — that wasn’t it. I learned so much writing that first novel, that the second is rolling forward so much easier.

This is it. This is why the agents say “congrats on your first manuscript, we’ll pass, but hey — you should toss this and go ahead and write that second book!”

Nope. I wasn’t having that at all. So, I polished up that first manuscript and just started to query it again (took me a year!). One agent has already moved it to the top of their read pile for me. I’ll take it…