Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer

Here's the book Joelle sent me that I couldn't put down. Highly original and extremely well-written, it's an amazing debut novel. Dreamdark is as colorful and wondrous as the Jinn-crafted tapestry that gives it life. If the cover art didn't tip you off, this book isn't the gag-me-sweet faerie world of little people who flit around and make things grow (there is one in the book, but you can't help but like her). It's the brilliantly conceived tale of Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, who hunts devils that have been released back into the world by meddling humans who keep opening bottles hoping to have their wishes granted. She's tough, she's good, and she's endearing from her foxlick to her crow feather skirt. Shannon Hale calls it a tremendous book, and I agree. I hope Laini Taylor writes a sequel soon.

Anyhow, after reading that book and getting a reality check about the odds of getting my books published, I've been rather discouraged. Janet Evanovich says on her blog that she queried every agent in New York, twice, for her first three novels with no bites. Ten years later, she finally got a book published and now she's a NY Times bestselling author. But it took a whole decade! Publishing a book is a much longer road than I first thought. Now the blinders are off. Nearly 4,000 manuscripts were submitted to Fire Brand Literary during their recent open submission query holiday and mine weren't counted in that total. I think DK, Princess Pots, and my works-in-progress are good, but I'm not sure they are good enough to get noticed in the crush of hopeful writers. I think getting published is a lot of luck, perseverance, and hard work. But given the odds, every new writer that gets a book published is a small miracle.

I believe in miracles. I guess the big question is whether I believe that this particular miracle can happen for me.