Big Announcement. Big. Huge.
As of today, I am officially represented by Rebecca Williamson of Sheldon Fogelman Agency.
I have been waiting eight years to write that sentence. Eight years.
Okay, to be fair, there was a lot of time “off” in those eight years. I started writing in 2017, before our youngest son was even born. Turns out, raising four kids and surviving a global pandemic can greatly affect your productivity as a writer. But even with all that life threw at me in those eight years, I always found myself returning to the page.
When I was first writing, my focus was picture books, and as I’ve written before, I had no clue what I was doing. But even that was a joy. I found that I liked every facet of writing (except the rejections, obviously) and I thrived in the hours and hours I spent learning about the industry and how to improve my craft. I’m still learning every day and I love the work of being a writer.
But the writing has to go somewhere, right? After a few years of writing picture books and entering contests and never really getting to that next level, I decided to try my hand at middle grade. I’d always enjoyed reading in that genre so it felt like a natural next step. So I wrote a 48,000 word middle grade novel about middle school and social media and time travel. It feels a little like a fever dream now, but I do remember getting a lot of writing done at night when the house was sleeping, or during nap time in the spring of 2020, listening to our bigger kids playing outside. After initially querying (too early, of course) in 2021, I kept editing and pushing to make my manuscript better and better. My first full request came in December of 2022 and even though it ended in a rejection, I got incredible feedback that helped me move forward in a big way. Two more fulls came from pitch contests in 2023 and 2024, both ultimately “no”s. I will not pretend like those weren’t hard, because they were SO hard. But I also think I knew my manuscript wasn’t quite there yet and hearing what didn’t work for those agents was invaluable.
Then in August 2025, when our youngest entered Kindergarten, I put everything into editing and querying and really finding a way to progress to being a fulltime writer. I looked at my manuscript with fresh eyes and honed my query letter. Creating a social media presence helped me reconnect with the community I struggled to find after the Twitter migration and I found myself learning and growing again. Two fulls came within days of each other and a month later I found myself scheduling “the call” with Rebecca.
Now when I tell you that was one of the best experiences of my professional life, I am not exaggerating. Having someone in the industry tell you what they loved about your book, the promise they see in it, and call characters that you created by name is just something else. Maybe that’s just another sign that I am supposed to be a writer. But it was wonderful, I loved the vision that Rebecca had for my manuscript, and I’m confident I’m in the right hands.
I am beyond excited for this new chapter, working through more edits, and getting ready to go on sub in the new year. Stay tuned all, because I promise, this is just the beginning.
“Look, I made a hat - where there was never a hat.” -Stephen Sondheim
