Look what arrived today!

Soooooo guess what arrived for me in the post today?  Something that got me all excited and motivated and weepy.  Ok, maybe not the weepy part, but the first two for sure.

I'll give you a clue:

That's pretty much as good as clues get, seeing as it gave the answer away completely.  YES!  The 'Children's Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2013', aka the author bible.  I remember buying this back in 2004 when I was like 12 and had ambitions of making it as a big-time author... no, seriously.  When I was 12 I was much more motivated than I am now, and much more naive, obviously, seeing as I'm 22 - ten whole years later - and still unpublished.  Worked out well, eh?

But you see, that's why I bought this book again.  I'm halfway through a manuscript that I'm taking very seriously, and while I have written several projects that have exceeded 50K+ words, I don't think I've ever been as excited about one as with this one.  I'm not saying it's amazing or publishable, but it definitely feels more like a book than anything I've ever written before.  To put it bluntly, I believe that it's workable.  It's raw and completely unedited, but I believe I have an exciting and malleable idea that can be moulded into something that eventually - with a bit of luck and hard work - can be made into a publishable novel.

That's the dream, at least.  But until then, I just need to keep writing and keep doing my research, which is where this little beauty of a reference comes in.  There are lists of literally every publishing house and literary agency that you can think of, as well as useful articles from writers who've 'made it', so to speak, and their wisdom with regards to how you can 'make it' also.  So I'd highly advise any aspiring novelist such as myself to invest in this little tool-kit.

Right now, I have my manuscript opened up in front of me and it's exactly 38,549 words long.  To make it sound a little bit better, I'm going to bump it up to 40K, just for arguments sake.  I estimate that the completed manuscript will be between 80-100K words, so I'm about halfway.  Its really exciting.

Some beta-readers would be nice, when I'm ready.  I obviously have no idea where to begin looking for them, so if anybody could appeal to me on that front then I'd really appreciate it :)

Thanks for reading, guys.