My current favorite agent

That would be Felicia Eth, who I saw on one list as being one of the top 10 fiction agents in the country.

The top ten! And she wanted to see my work!

Hooray!

OK, so she was interested in my novel enough to want to see the first 100 pages.

I sent the pages off and waited with every cliche you can possibly think of. I burned candles. found out the origin of the "Eth" name and prayed to the ancient Gods.

So I get a wonderful email back from Felicia. Forget that she didn't want to pick me up, she said nice things about my writing, she told me what she thought was wrong, she gave me hints of how I might go about correcting it.

You can't pay for that kind of help from someone of her caliber.

Thank you, Felicia Eth.

So you CAN get rejected and it makes you feel even better.

But there is this: I sent the first 100 pages and Felicia told me some of the problems she had.

I wanted to send her back an email and say, "Felicia, all that stuff you wanted, it started on PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-ONE!!!

I didn't think she would buy it. She's too smart for that...

Yours in rejection,

Phil