Sarah's Recipe for Romance

As I pack for a weekend visit to the town where I grew up, I find that there is a little voice in the back of my mind repeatedly asking: what will I say when everyone asks how the book is coming along? Or if I’ve found an agent? Or a publisher?  

You see, I will not only be visiting my family this weekend, I will be attending a wedding (a very special wedding as the bride is my best friend from grade school and caught the bouquet at my wedding). And at this very special wedding, I will likely encounter an overwhelming number of family friends who have a sincere interest in my journey down the seemingly bumpy path to publication. While I greatly appreciate their support and interest, I am not quite sure what to say.  

There are days when I feel like the great agent hunt is akin to finding a frog to be my prince, about finding that perfect match, an agent who is thrilled about my work. Not that I’ve been trampling through the woods (or in my case the parks in New York City) searching for a frog to see if one kiss will magically transform the amphibian into a literary agent passionate about my work, but there have been times when I’ve thought about it. Yet, kissing frogs in Central Park hardly seems like appropriate conversation for a wedding cocktail hour.

I could offer a detailed summary of the agents who have my manuscript and the revision I recently completed. And I could do my best to explain that it is not just about finding an agent, it is about finding the one who is eager and excited about my work (agents like all readers have different tastes). However, to someone who has not been submersed in this process, I don’t think the details would make any sense at all.  

Instead, I believe I will stick with the truth. While much less specific, it might offer a better glimpse into my journey. For me, the joy of being a writer is in the writing. It is in finding the right word, crafting a sentence that says just what it should, or learning something new about my characters.  

I’ll tell them that I’m at the exciting place in my second work-in-progress, Courting Scandal, where I can’t wait to get the words on the page. I’m so excited to write the next scene that when I’m at my computer I sometimes forget about the agents and the publishers entirely.  

And if my friends and family give me a funny look as my face lights up when I speak about my writing, then maybe I’ll tell them that I hope to one day catch a frog in Central Park.