@Somerlea I couldn't agree more. Writers are a breed all our own, and it's wonderful that we have this little "watering hole" to chat, comment, critique. If I'd discovered it sooner, my submission journey might not have been so crazy. You asked about my agent- I began submitting before the manuscript was ready. Basically, I researched which agents represented YA fiction and looked at their authors... if they matched up well with my writing, I sent them a query letter. I had so many requests to read... and then so many rejections. Thankfully, I was able to acquire some pretty good feedback along the way and finally polish the story. Maybe if I'd known about the writing communities I have now, it wouldn't have been so heartbreaking. (If you ever want the really, really long version, I've talked about it over at my blog. Sob stories, ugh.)
But yes, we do have a tentative date! Of Breakable Things will be released in April of next year! Are you on Goodreads at all?
I will head over and check out chapter six tomorrow morning!