Finished chapter 17 last night. It was a shorty. After reading my wife's comments, it will need work but nothing drastic. She also had an idea for a little change that I really like.

Mellow seems good. Sorry about the rejection though.

Is what it is. I'm really thinking that after this round of submissions is over I may just take a break and not try to get an agent. Could be that I'm just willing to say that publishing has won this round and perhaps, the overall fight. I mean, I've got a fairly healthy ego, but I'm not completely immune to being repeatedly told that I'm good-- just not good enough.

I predict "VICTORY!" in your future, Barb.

being repeatedly told that I'm good-- just not good enough.

Doesn't seem like that's really what your being told. More like "Your good, but unusual, and we don't know what to do with unusual"

Which is as much of an obstacle, but shouldn't be as much of an ego ding.

I don't think it's a matter of not being good enough, Barb. I think it's a matter of being a little outside the norm in a *really* tight market. Which could change, you know?

Doesn't seem like that's really what your being told. More like "Your good, but unusual, and we don't know what to do with unusual"

You're probably right, but the end result is that it feels like "not good enough," because you hear with a fair amount of regularity about the rule breakers and benders who have the breakout books. But as Amy said, it's a tight market and people are far less willing to take chances right now.

I don't have a lot of ego invested in writing because it's not what I do. My opinion of my draft seems to take massive leaps from, "hey this is pretty good" to "this a big steaming piece of crap".

One of my wife's comments from the last chapter:

"You are a bloodthirsty author, aren't you! I think if I hadn't known it before now, I'd be really sure a guy was writing this. I'm trying to think of the last fantasy novel I read where the main characters were dropping like flies in sudden, often brutal, ways."

It's only four characters so far. That's only 0.236 characters per chapter.

you hear with a fair amount of regularity about the rule breakers and benders who have the breakout books.

I wonder if that is really true.

But as Amy said, it's a tight market and people are far less willing to take chances right now.

I'm sure that's true.

you hear with a fair amount of regularity about the rule breakers and benders who have the breakout books.

That's most true when you have a publisher who thinks they can exploit some angle as "rule-bending" and sell more books. It's not always true with regard to quality or actual uniqueness.