I went to the Tricycle Press send-off party in Berkeley on Friday. Despite the sad reason for the gathering (to say goodbye to the Tricycle staff), the mood was generally upbeat. I got to meet my editor, Joanne Taylor, see writing friends/acquaintances, and meet some lovely new people, one of whom is literary agent, Karen Grencik, who I thought was very open, friendly, and warm. I'd love to have her as my agent, but I think I should wait for Ammi-Joan Paquette's response first since she's asked for more of my work for consideration. We did exchange business cards, though.
I discovered that, depressing as my case may be (Random House cancelled my contract shortly after I signed it), there were other writers who were in a worse situation—some who received their very first publishing contract, one author's book was slated for a fall 2011 release and was just about to go into production, another whose book already had all the illustrations completed. All these were not retained by Random House.
Ahh...so turns the cruel, cruel world of publishing...
