If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m trying to publish my novel. It’s an angels/demons Romeo and Juliet set in a modern interpretation of Revelations with strong Qabalah and Kabbalah themes. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it is an expression of what Qabalah and Kabbalah mean to me, not just in this life, but in past and future lives.
I’ve had a lot of luck, it’s true. I’ve had full requests from numerous agents and editors; including one agent at a very famous agency and an editor at a midsize house that’s contracted movies. Almost everyone who I’ve submitted to has read the full manuscript and a couple houses almost gave me a chance but in the end, I was branded as “unmarketable”. I found a blog post from a couple of years ago when I took my 3rd draft to a stuffy writers’ group in Louisville KY and two years later, my story is still too offensive and oddball for the industry despite the fact that I’ve been flagged as “up and coming” and “talented”. And yes, I have gotten into it with people who are well to do in the writing world who tried to knock me down because I know what I have is powerful and haters gonna hate.
After going through all my rejection letters and comparing them, they basically all said the same thing: “You’ve got talent, kid, but if you want to make it in this industry, you have to write YA.”
I felt really angry and discouraged after I put the pieces of the puzzle together. How could an industry that withholds comments praise my work and then deny me a contract over and over again?
Once again, I was the oddball.
It reminded me when I was trying to make it in dance and people said, “You’ve got talent, kid, but if you want to make it, you need to drop at least 30 lbs and get implants.”
Almost good enough, always almost good enough. But something is always missing.
The day after I got the rejection letter, I fell very ill and was ill for two weeks. All of my writer friends told me to put my manuscript away. The stress, anxiety and brooding only made me sicker until I just got sick to care.
And then my health returned and I cared again. A good friend used a quote of mine against me when I was whining about my frustrations. “Didn’t you say you find things when you stop looking for them?”
Damnit, I shouldn’t be so quoteable
Then the reality of my words hit me this evening. I was sitting at my desk tonight and the word, “Kodansha” formed in my mind out of nowhere. I was starting at the Tree of Life on my desktop, zoned out and trying to motivate myself to finish the astrological aspects for March (which by the way, are insane).
Kodansha is the comic book company that published Sailor Moon, where my dreams of being in the comic book industry began. And then it clicked.

A character I created when I was in middle school. I’m only going to pitch a script but I’ve always enjoyed drawing comics for myself.
My next move is to pitch my MS as a script to comic book publishers. The comic industry is a lot more open minded than the lit industry. And although I’m a woman and it’s a boy’s world, I do have a female friend who is successful in the comic industry so it’s not impossible. Suddenly, everything felt right.
It’s been a dream of mine since I was 12 to have a comic book series and now I see a way to make that dream a reality. I think I’m on to something and it’s really exciting. I think it may be the corner of the market where my story could find a home.
I talked to my friend in the business and it seems like I’m experienced enough with pitching to do this right.
I need to do some research but once I cruse the comic book store to find out what publishers may be interested in my work and I find out their guidelines, I don’t see why I shouldn’t go this route.
After all, I put so much energy into manifesting this when I was in middle and high school. I drew stacks of pictures, wrote scripts and dreamed of what it would be like to have my very own series. I even studied art seriously and even almost majored in illustration to make this dream come true. And then I put it down because I lost my confidence. But maybe it’s time for it now. Who knows, it’s crazy enough to actually happen …
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I definitely think your story would work perfectly as a comic book. Any artist would be lucky to work on the script you have!