At RWA national, the effervescent and fit Ms. Cherry Adair, who conducted an excellent workshop on layering and texturing your novel, mentioned that she wrote seventeen complete manuscripts before she sold one. Holy Shit Batman! That is serious determination. And my lovely and oh so talented friend, Ms. Brant said that her recently sold and scheduled to hit stores in 2009, is her fifth novel. It's time for the heavy sighing to begin, folks.
To add insult to injury, I just read over at Janet Reid's blog that Courtney Summers (a literary rock star in the making) was also a manuscript or so down, before she got the one that we're all breathlessly waiting for, done and sold. All I can say is wow.
The bright side to this is that the panicking took place away from the public (though I don't suppose yakking about it here leaves much to the imagination then, does it?), and I can soothe myself with the knowledge that others perservere and keep plugging away at it until they reach their goals.
So, keeping the title phrase in mind, I'll shut my trap now.
