When people ask me what I’m writing, I usually fumble around a little bit and give a vague answer. But I don’t want to do that here — I want to tell you what I’m really working on and where I am in the process.

Right now, I am getting ready to submit my first novel to agents, and it is an exciting and scary time in my writing career. The novel’s working title is Land Until the Sky Comes Down, which comes from the last line of James Galvin’s poem “Utah Ghost Town.” It is the story of two brothers bound and broken by tradition and ritual, the passionate and lyrical woman they both come to love, and how the three of them struggle to hold onto each other and themselves as they reimagine their own places in a family defined by Wyoming’s hard, beautiful country.

I have been working on the book in earnest since 2012, though the idea originated with a dream I had in 2009. It has been a constant companion for over ten years, and I am both elated and frightened to move onto this next stage. I have gone through it one last time to check grammar and spelling, and now it is ready to go out into the world. Finding an agent is the next step towards publishing it since I have decided to go the traditional publishing route. (I am intrigued by self-publishing but believe this book, a literary, place-based novel, will do better through traditional channels.)

Several people have asked me how I’ve decided which agents to submit to. My process was relatively simple — I went to my bookshelf and pulled down all my favorite books that are in a similar genre to Land. Then I mined the acknowledgements and the authors’ websites to find out who represents them. Because I admire these authors and their writing, I believe that their agents and I would also work well together.

I have read several places that it is best not to submit to agents between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and so I am drafting my query emails and getting them ready to go. On January 17^th, I’ll officially hit send and Land will take a huge leap on its journey. My great hope is that, after I find an agent and a publisher, the book will reach you and make a positive impact in your life, whether it simply entertains you, makes you feel less alone, or leaves you contemplating your own love of place and sense of belonging.

Here are those links to a few things that have caught my attention and which you might find interesting as well:

• I just read Celeste Ng’s compelling and beautifully written novel Everything I Never Told You. Her use of multiple perspectives is masterful: https://www.celesteng.com/everything-i-never-told-you.
• I love Gregor Barnett’s song “Don’t Go Throwing Roses on My Grave”: https://open.spotify.com/album/6CNGmca27f0qYpHWxWbxwU.
• I’ve been enjoying the interviews on Linda Siversten’s the Beautiful Writer’s podcast: https://www.beautifulwriterspodcast.com/.