New Year - New Beginning

After my first round of querying, I had 2 agents ask for more! It was very exciting to get those responses, but those agents did end up passing. One of them did provide some immensely valuable feedback. They indicated they weren't sure about the limited color palette and that the characters were reading older than middle grade. With that feedback and comments from my critique group, I've had many ideas percolating.

One of the things that makes Vexed and Hexed fun is the magic, and that was missing in my original opening pages. I decided to test out one of my new beginning ideas in a full-color version.

I can't help but wish this had been in the sample pages sent to that first agent. The limited color palette limited my work, and I will be forever grateful for that feedback from her and my critique group. It also aged the characters. Limited palettes are more common in YA than in Middle Grade and while it may be cheaper to print a limited palette, a full-color palette is more fun. That fun was missing in those first pages. Those pages are still in the story, it was just not the right starting point.

Also... I had been inspired by my own middle school style. I didn't realize that my style at that age was more of a middle-aged business casual vibe. The Limited and New York and Co. were my favorite stores, likely because they had larger sizes. I can see how a cardigan and pencil skirt make her look older so Vietta is getting an updated wardrobe.

I'm excited to see how these kinds of changes impact the story and make it even better.