The Waiting
It’s been said—if by no one else, then by me now—that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers have a song for every mood. Although his music was very much the radio soundtrack to my high school and college years, I didn’t dive into his discography until decades later. When I left my marriage in 2019 and needed to take a break from the well worn musical rhythms of that relationship, I turned to Tom Petty Radio, discovering the artist and his lyrics for the first time. His writing felt like my own—simple, honest, unflinching. Songs like You’re a Free Girl Now and It’s Time to Move On became my anthems. Wildflowers a promise of what could be.
Well, Tom has done it again.
In January of this year I began querying literary agents in search of representation for my debut novel SHE CAME BY IT HONESTLY. I spent three years writing the novel and three months trying to distill a multi-generational family saga into a few compelling sentences. My book is not a romantasy. It has no speculative elements (if you don’t count the horror story that is my protagonist’s marriage). It’s a story that unspools the past to find the clues to the present. A tale of growing up female in three different eras. An examination of mothers and daughters and all the ways we fail to be the people we could be. Until we stop failing.
I think it’s a good story. And one well told. So I polished my query, and sent it out into the universe.
Silence.
Rejection.
More silence.
It’s a tough business and I have a tough skin. I celebrate each rejection because I know I’ve got to endure a lot of them until I get a yes. I don’t take it personally. Well, I try not to. And once again, Tom Petty has a song for me.
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part
I’m not a patient person. But I have no choice. And when my ears ring from the deafening silence, I repeat Tom’s words:
Don't let it kill you, baby, don't let it get to you
Don't let 'em kill you, baby, don't let 'em get to you
My agent is out there. I know they are. I just have to wait.
