Writing, Editing, and Querying...Oh My!

It has been a busy couple of months for me. I finished my pre-edits for my debut novel in January and am waiting on the first developmental edits from my editor. Then at the end of January into February, I finally started  doing my first full revision of my second manuscript: When Cardinals Appear (formerly known as The Winter Visitor). I sent those along to a developmental editor I hired through Critique Match and now I'm working on finishing my third manuscript: Snow, Sand and Sense! I'm hoping to finish the first draft by the end of March. And then, I'll spend April editing one or all of the three projects!

All of this is occurring while I'm doing some serious writing and editing in my day job as well. We are working on drafting a new proposed rule in my agency and I've been busy drafting new language and figuring out where it should go in existing regulations. I'm so excited to be working on this because it was the whole point of obtaining my first master's degree! I've been with my agency for 3.5 years now and this is the first chance I've ever had at drafting regulations. While it's a completely different kind of writing, I am tapping into my creative side a little through wordsmithing and considering logical outgrowth to help us prepare for the public comment period.

In addition to the above, I'm working toward my second master's as I'm set to graduate in July. I'm still seeking authors who found an agent and/or editor through a Twitter pitch event and will have a published book by 4/15/2022. I'm going to start seeking out authors on my own via Twitter, specifically through quote retweets on the #PitMad ending announcement. But if you'd like to volunteer, please reach out to me either in a comment here or at info@keschenckwrites.com.

Speaking of that #PitMad announcement, that was a huge shock to the writing community. I saw such an outpouring of love for the people who created and ran it for the last decade. I will forever be grateful to #PitMad for helping me find my publisher. For those who are seeking other Twitter pitch events, please note that on April 7th, #moodpitch is happening, which allows for mood board images with pitches. I'm planning to participate. I'm also hoping to start seriously querying When Cardinals Appear later this spring, so even if I don't get any love during a pitch event, I'm going to work to get this book out there!

Hopefully I'll have news on my debut novel to share in the coming weeks as it's tentatively set to be released in September. Stay tuned!