I know, I know.

*slaps own wrist*

I've been a bad, bad blogger. And I'm sorry, I really am. My only excuse is that my life's been crazy between moving, planning a conference, volunteering, and, well, my alter ego.

Amidst all of that, though, I did hear back from another agent. Once again, I received a rejection.

The thing about being a writer is that you have to develop a pretty thick skin--and yet somehow remain vulnerable enough to be able to emotionally connect to your reader. That probably explains why most of us are on meds or in therapy or both. To be honest, though, the rejections really don't bother me. Granted, if I were getting nothing but negative rejections they probably would bother me. But when they're positive? It's hard to get too upset when someone's telling you you're a good writer, they just don't love your book.

Granted, that's also extremely frustrating.

When you keep hearing the equivalent of, "You have a good plot, I really like your voice, and your characters are interesting," BUT "I'm just not in love with it," it's like being told, "it's not you, it's me." Which we all know is the lamest breakup line ever.

Considering this isn't a breakup, and as writers we're also readers, having an agent tell you something like this makes sense. Frustrating sense, but sense nonetheless. I've bought many a book thinking, "Man, this sounds great," only to end up totally not loving it in the end. Somewhere, somehow, I lose interest. I mean, I'll keep reading, but it's not one of those books that'll keep me up until two in the morning when I've gotta be up in three hours for work. To be honest, those books are few and far between for me anyway. But as a reader, I can understand, and as a writer, I'm not sure I would want an agent who didn't completely love my book. Why? Because if she doesn't love my book, she's not going to push as hard to sell it as she would a book she does love.

So it's the waiting game. Waiting for the right one to come along, to see my manuscript and fall head over heels in love with it.

Kind of appropriate, considering I write romance.

Beyond the Right One factor, though, is also the economy. Let's face it, agents and editors are probably going to be hesitant to go out on a limb for a new author, not when publishing houses are laying off employees left and right, closing down entire lines within the house, and not accepting any new submissions until sometime in 2009.

It's scary stuff, folks. Granted, so is the state of my checking account, and I'm willing to bet that editors and agents and publishers are also looking at their checking accounts thinking, "Oh, crap. This is so not good." And, come on, a reissue by Nora Roberts from the 1980s would probably sell better in this economy than a brand new novel by Aubrey Curry. Why? Name recognition. When people barely have any money to spend on luxury items--such as shiny new books--they're going to go with the tried and true rather than the new and unknown. Or they'll go to used bookstores or the library, which makes no one nothing.

Does that mean any of us should stop querying and submitting? Not at all. It just means you need to be more realistic, and understand that things might be a little rough until the U.S. economy pulls out of this slump it's in. For a lot of us, it probably means only querying agents who accept e-queries rather than who want you to snail mail them (when I said my checking account was bad, I wasn't joking). It means being selective about our postage. It means not giving up, and telling yourself that this won't last forever.

And to quote Journey: "Don't stop believin'."