The Big-Two Five
Is this adulthood?
Good morning,
Welcome to THE 30TH WEEK of Quinn Writes, my weekly newsletter where I’ll be tracking my first novel’s progress as I take it from rough draft to (hopefully) published product. If I had been planning ahead, I would have lined up week 25 of this newsletter with my 25th birthday. Alas, I was not really planning ahead.
So, it’s week 30 and I just turned 25 – yesterday, to be exact. It was an excellent day full of F45, pickleball, chocolate-covered fruit, and online shopping.
Last week, I wrote a little bit about how every major birthday feels like it’s going to be the one that finally makes me feel grown up. In fact, I’ll happily quote myself on that…
When I was younger, I thought that every milestone birthday was going to be THE one – the one that finally made me feel like an adult. I thought at 16, when I got my driver’s license, that I would feel grown up. And then I imagined that when I turned 18, legal adulthood would feel like actual adulthood. But it never did. At 21, alcohol didn’t make me feel like a grownup. And at 25, I guess now I can rent a car.
This time around, something weird and unexpected happened. Maybe 25 really is the cutoff, because I think I actually do feel older. My early twenties are over, and I think I might be in my mid-twenties as we speak. But is it the age, or is it what’s going on in my life right now?
To be honest, a lot has changed since my last birthday. I remember the day that I turned 24 – I was still teaching fifth grade, still living in my old, too-expensive apartment, and eating a lot of ramen and Lean Cuisine frozen meals. I also drank two cups of coffee, two cans of Celsius, and two Diet Cokes every day, so I was riding high on caffeine.
This year, life looks a lot different. First and foremost, I’ve cut back on my caffeine habit. My organs are probably thanking me. But I’ve also moved into an apartment I can actually afford, my savings account is growing, and I buy vegetables every week when I go grocery shopping. I quit the job that I hated and started my own company, and now I work for myself. And I’m in the process of buying a house with the person that I love the most in the world.
So yeah, life is pretty good. I’m thinking 25 might just be my year. Now if only I could get my novel published…
Let’s get into that topic.
What am I reading?
Last week, I finished Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes and I liked it so much that I immediately bought another one of her books. So this week, I’ve been reading A Thousand Ships, which gives voice to the stories of the Trojan women who are captured as chattel after the Greeks have won the Trojan War.
If you’re thinking, “That sounds like a book Quinn would read,” you’re absolutely right. I love retellings of Greek mythology and stories that give voice to the people who didn’t get one when those stories were originally written (read: women).
In fact, I love reimaginations of Greek myths and Trojan War stories so much that I bought a 624-page book on Helen of Troy. It’s called… wait for it… Helen of Troy. That book, which is by Margaret George, will be next on my list after I finish A Thousand Ships.
By the way, this should be absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me. As Nicki Minaj would say, “I’m OBSESSED.” With Helen of Troy, that is. If you ever want to listen to me drone on about a random academic subject for 30-90 minutes, get me started talking about Helen of Troy. I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on her, and if I was ever going to get a graduate degree, I would want to study modern interpretations of Helen.
It is taking every ounce of effort to stop myself from going on a Helen-related rant right now, but I won’t do that to you. Instead, I’ll limit myself to just one fun fact.
Helen is often described as “the face that launched a thousand ships.” That language is evoked in the title of Natalie Haynes’ book, and it’s mentioned in the one-sentence blurb about Margaret George’s, which reads as follows: Acclaimed author Margaret George tells the story of the legendary Greek woman whose face "launched a thousand ships" in this New York Times bestseller.
With all of the attention it gets, you might (reasonably) think that “the face that launched a thousand ships” comes from Homer, the epic poet behind the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer is generally accepted as the origin source of the Helen of Troy story, which is detailed in the Iliad.
But here’s a curveball. “The face that launched a thousand ships” is NOT from Homer’s 7th century BC work. It’s actually from a work that came along about 2,000 years later: Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus (1592). And in that work, Helen is portrayed as a literal demon who visits the titular Doctor Faustus from hell as the personification of lust.
I’ll leave you with that. And if you’re still reading after that major tangent, kudos to you. Thanks for sticking with me. I guess I’ll get back to the agenda here…
What am I writing?
Despite my best efforts, I still haven’t finished reading through Part Two of my novel. What can I say? It’s been a busy week. I’m just a few pages away from the end of that section though, and then it will be time to start rewriting Part Three.
It was not the most productive week ever in the world of novel writing. But you know what? Not every week can be a pinnacle of accomplishment. So let’s leave it there and set the same goal that I set last week.
By next week’s newsletter, I hope to be filling you guys in on how much I’ve rewritten for Part Three. But until then, we’ll keep this section short and sweet.
What am I doing?
Aside from celebrating my birthday and reveling in all of the glory of Birthday Month, I have been working hard on querying my children’s book Scarlett’s Countdown to Christmas. I am really proud of the effort I’ve put in on this so far, even though I still have a long way to go.
So far, I have sent 27 query letters, and I have received 7 rejections back. But I’m not getting disheartened. I made this query tracker to track my sends and replies, and my goal is to receive 100 rejections:
It might sound like a bizarre goal, but really, it’s just a mindset shift about the whole process. Obviously, I have to send query letters in order to get rejections. And since some agents never reply to queries, I’ll probably have to send more than 100. But now, when I get a rejection, I don’t have to get upset. I just say, “Cool, at least I have another one to put on the tracker.”
And hopefully, I’m opening myself up to more opportunities and casting a wider net with my querying than I might have otherwise. The thing is, I need only one person to say yes. Just one agent has to take an interest in my book. Even if I get 99 rejections before finding that one interested agent, that’s all it takes.
I love writing my novel, and I’m excited to query that one day soon. But I also have tons of ideas for children’s books, and I am excited to hone my skills as an illustrator so that I can continue making them even better. I’m actually hoping to invest in an iPad and Apple Pencil soon so that I can learn to use Procreate and do some illustrations through that application.
For Scarlett’s Countdown to Christmas, I used a combination of Photoshop and Canva, and I think the illustrations are kind of cool and distinct – or “bold and colorful,” as I say in my query letters. For example, check out this page:
Aside from querying like crazy, I’m pretty much doing the usual: reading, writing, revising, and reading some more. Speaking of reading, I also had a meeting of my book club this week, and we chose our next read. We got into a discussion of each of our favorite books, and since it was my turn to choose, we’re reading my favorite book next: A Visit From the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan.
If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it. This book changed my world. It changed the way I think about writing, about the structure of novels, about being an author. It’s the kind of book that I would be so proud to write one day – or to even come close to. Jennifer Egan is brilliant, and A Visit From the Goon Squad is a masterpiece. You won’t regret picking it up.
In fact, I covered it on an episode of my podcast if you’d like to take a listen.
By the way, if you’re a podcast listener, don’t despair! Books on Books on Books is coming back – I’ve just had a crazy few weeks and haven’t had time to record episodes recently. But it’s not over. I’ll keep you posted when the next episode (finally) gets released.
TLDR…
I think it’s about time to wrap it up for today. In order to motivate myself to write this in an efficient fashion, I have waited to eat breakfast until right now. I’m approaching a state of hangry-ness. Plus, I haven’t even had coffee yet! It’s a miracle that I’m even functioning.
Anyway, thank you for hanging out with me and spending a little bit of your time this morning reading my newsletter. I love sharing these updates with all of you! Bonus points if you stuck with me through the Helen of Troy anecdote.
I really hope you enjoyed WEEK 30 of Quinn Writes! Knowing that there are people out there reading my newsletters is part of what keeps me excited to write them. I already can’t wait to see you back here next Thursday!
Happy reading,
Quinn