The Long and Winding Road to My Agent

There I stood, hands trembling, moments away from playing a starring role in my very own thriller. One where an irate passenger strangles an unsuspecting gate attendant in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses.
I had flown from LAX to Atlanta and was attempting to board my connecting flight to Tennessee. At the gate a uniformed woman stopped me, insisting I’d never made it onto the outbound plane.
“That’s impossible,” I said. “I’m standing right here.”
“According to our records, you’re not.”

Could something as mundane as a paperwork snag keep me from realizing my lifelong dream? Three months earlier, I had been riding the biggest high of my writing life—a possible breakthrough to traditional publishing. My link lay on the other side of this flight. I had to make it there.

For thirteen years, I had toiled in obscurity, writing in the pre-dawn hours before work and family intervened. I had attended numerous writing conferences and workshops, and poured my heart into two suspense novels. I had studied articles, absorbed criticism, adjusted plots, and queried agents. But I couldn’t find the key to unlock the publishing world and I didn’t have the courage to self-publish. I wanted the outside confirmation and support.

If there was one talent I excelled at, it was listening. I learned to incorporate honest feedback from credible sources, which enhanced my writing skills. One agent said she liked my novels but felt I wrote too far from the heart. Was there an event in my life I could mine for emotions? Help flesh a character to life?
Those questions led to the first-person protagonist of my third novel. Strong-willed, uneducated, eccentric, Willa was an unapologetic survivor of childhood abuse. In World Gone Dark, she embarks on a cross-country venture with her toddler in tow, only to be thrust into a post-apocalyptic world.

I felt I had finally nailed it. I had found my writing niche. My passion lay in dialogue and voices—first-person, character-driven novels. Quirky women who didn’t conform to society’s norms. I polished my manuscript until it shimmered and then made the rounds to agents. This time the declines were kinder, but they were declines nonetheless. The fog of discouragement settled upon me. Should I give up my goal of publishing? Write just for writing’s sake?

The same old conferences wouldn’t do anymore. Been there. Done that. Then a friend told me about a workshop taught by Robert Dugoni and Steven James. The bestselling authors centered their instruction around the first fifty pages of their attendees’ manuscripts. The catch was I lived in California and the workshop was held at a seminary in Tennessee. I was hesitant to spend the money, but decided to give my dreams one last shot.

A few weeks after forwarding my pages I received an e-mail from Steven James. Just three short lines, but their meaning could have stopped any aspiring writer’s heart. “Robert and I have both read through your fifty pages and we are very impressed. I believe it’s the best manuscript we’ve ever had submitted. I would like to ask if you have any more of the book ready so that we can get a broader, more comprehensive look at the story.”

I reread the words over and over. Could it be my day had finally come? I forwarded the manuscript with the highest of hopes. And then? Silence. One month went by. Two. Negative thoughts wormed their way through my head. Had Steven sent the e-mail in error? Did the full novel fail to impress?

On the day I flew to Tennessee, I couldn’t avoid the growing sense of doom. Add to that a mix-up at the airport? No. It just wouldn’t do.

It took an hour of stubborn insistence and the intervention of management before I stepped onto the connecting flight. The puddle jumper bobbed and weaved, leaving me to fear for my very life. But we mercifully landed intact, and during the ride to the workshop my negative thoughts receded. I was buoyed by the beauty around me. The hues of green, the flowering shrubs. I decided that even if I had been sent an erroneous e-mail, I would take full advantage of the trip.

At the seminary entrance, I climbed out of the van and introduced myself to the workshop staff. Robert Dugoni shook my hand and then quickly pulled me aside. “May I send your manuscript to my agent?” he asked, pointing to his cellphone. My heart leapt into my throat. Did he really need me to answer? “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
It took another few months and several revisions to sign on the dotted line.

But in the end, I became represented by Rebecca Scherer, the agent of my dreams.

However, this is no Cinderella story. The shoe didn’t quite fit. Although World Gone Dark received positive feedback, we were told interest in dystopia had waned. When editors asked to see more traditional work, I knew I needed to pounce. In a quick four months, I wrote a suspense novel based on a young woman’s desire for revenge. Within the year we closed a two-book deal. Thomas & Mercer launches my thriller What She Gave Away this coming September.

I don’t regret the years it took me to reach my goal; each person’s journey is unique. For me, the agent arrived after I discovered what I truly loved to write. Add to that persistence and patience—like my characters, I never give up. For that reason, I believe there will come a day when Willa, my first authentic heroine, leaps from the published page.

—
Catharine lives and writes on California’s Central Coast. A graduate of UCLA with an MBA from Drake University, she is a former business banker, adjunct college instructor and nonprofit executive with a handful of starter novels tucked away in a drawer. Her first work of psychological suspense features an outsider with a dark past and a bitter grudge who moves to a wealthy beach-side community only to find herself enmeshed in the secrets of her boss and his hapless wife. What She Gave Away will be launched by Thomas & Mercer on September 18, 2018. Catharine is at work on the second novel of her Santa Barbara Suspense trilogy. The thrillers are loosely linked by location and secondary characters.

Check out her website at:
https://www.catharineriggs.com/

Connect with her at:
https://twitter.com/criggswrite
https://www.instagram.com/catharineriggs
Preorder her book at:
https://www.amazon.com/author/catharineriggs

About WHAT SHE GAVE AWAY

Revenge is anything but sweet in this twisty thriller about two women with very different lives locked in the same deadly game.

Imagining the best way to destroy a person’s happiness is Crystal Love’s favorite game. Devious and unpolished, the plus-sized loan analyst couldn’t be more out of place in her new town of Santa Barbara, where the beautifully manicured women never age and the ocean views stretch farther than the million-dollar lawns. And yet her eye for the power dynamics at play in this tony community is dead accurate.

Kathi Wright, on the other hand, has made it her life’s work to fit in with the plastic people who surround her. But when her husband—a wealthy bank president—dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing. Then the FBI shows up, asking questions she can’t answer and freezing assets she once took for granted.

While Kathi struggles to outrun the mess caused by her husband’s mysterious death, Crystal seems focused on her game. But why? And who are her targets?

Spanning two years and told in Crystal’s and Kathi’s alternating voices, this tautly plotted novel reveals the power of choice and the price of revenge.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing