Tag: Query Letters

We talk about this whole stupid world and still come out laughing (Ha!)

Sara Mazariegos

The 14th is this Saturday. Luis and I always do something a little special since we first started dating—and got married—on a 14th. I wanted to come to D.C. this time and explore the redesigned Air & Space Museum. But the Mall is going to be full of people and all kinds of militaristic stuff I don’t want to be around. 😞 So we’ll save that for another time (possibly another 14th) and go get pizza and books instead.

We went with his family to another fun escape room in D.C. last weekend. My main mode when I do those things is finding all of the useful parts and giving them to others to actually solve, haha. When a room is open, I look all around for puzzle pieces, flashlights, etc that will aid in getting out of the room. I’m pretty good at doing it quickly. The other day, I opened a combination on a door flap. That felt special.

Luis and I are working on designing a Haunted Mansion escape room in our house. I’m so excited, because—as you know by now, I’m sure—The Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney anything. He’s been asking for my input and we’ve been using a lot of our stuff to create a fun story. Last year’s Batman escape room was a real hit, so hopefully this one will be, too. Luis even creates videos for them! One of our friends asked who made the Batman one and was amazed that he did. We could start a small business, performing home escape rooms, but it would be complicated because we’d have to go to people’s houses, like birthday clowns or magicians or something. I wonder if that’s already a thing.

Since I’m working on retooling my Nerdfighter novel, I’ve been paying more attention to similar books again. One tough thing in the whole query-writing saga is finding good comp titles. They’re supposed to not be too old or too famous, and they don’t have to be extremely similar to your plot or your characters. They’re mainly meant to have some similar themes or even just evoke similar feelings when you read them, so they give literary agents some good examples of how your book would do in the market.

I read the other day that a comp title can be older than five years as long as the author is still releasing books. I think I’m going to hold the internet to that, because I found a great comp that’s from 2021 and the author has released several books since then. The story in this one just happens to fit my novel the best.

Luis and I will be looking at books on Saturday, though, so who knows? I may come home with a brand new perfect comp title instead.

I had never seen a set of eyes more hazelerer.

Sara Mazariegos

I was going to write about not giving up on story even when it starts to bore me or when I’d rather write something else. But then I got bit by the inspiration bug and spent the whole weekend awash in plotting and outlining my ideas for my retooling of my Nerdfighters-inspired novel. So my other novel is going on the back-burner. It helps that it has a strong outline. I won’t forget to finish it.

Luis is meanwhile enjoying coming up with great ideas for our next escape room at our house this Halloween. I told him I wanted to do a Haunted Mansion one, and he’s been on a roll. I’m so excited to see what he creates. We help each other with our different, but similar, creative projects. I love it. 💖

On Sunday, I sent in my It’s A Wonderful Life novel’s query letter for The Shit No One Tells You About Writing to critique. We’ll see if it catches their attention. If they don’t select it for their podcast, maybe that means it’s already good enough. I’m trying to be positive. I’m not going to rush out the queries like I did in the past. Especially because I’m still having a few beta readers look it over.

So far, a beta reader is enjoying my novel. She said it’s polished. I hope it doesn’t nosedive as she gets further into it. I feel better about that story. I think taking time with it has served me well. Hopefully I can keep bringing that energy and that attitude to my novels going forward.

I can feel the improvement, which is a reward in and of itself.

In other news, I’m still impressed by season two of The Rehearsal. I told my dad to check it out, since he’s an airplane enthusiast. He told me he watched Nathan Fielder on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, and I thought, “Nooo!” 🤣 Because it was pretty spoilery. I was surprised by how much. Anyway, that season is really good. I liked it more than the first season, and I liked the first season quite a bit too.

Until next time,

Lay a whisper on my pillow.

Sara Mazariegos

It’s been a rainier May than usual. What happened to “April showers bring May flowers?” Now it’s more like, “April showers bring more showers.”

The weather forecasts have become less reliable, too, which makes it worse. I’m about to start bringing an umbrella to work every day just in case. This is no doubt caused by the government’s slew of unnecessary changes and upheavals. Don’t even get me started on the USPS.

Anyway, this blog isn’t about that stuff.

I’m reading Superfudge on the Metro ride home from work each day. It’s cute, and not what I expected. I didn’t realize Fudge is the main character’s (annoying) little brother. I’m also beta reading someone’s Halloween novel, because it intrigued me. It’s nice to beta read for other people even when I’m not doing a critique exchange, especially if the novel appeals to me.

We’ve started watching The Rehearsal and Taskmaster again because they’re back! This season of The Rehearsal has a really interesting, and kind of heartbreaking, theme about pilots being lonely and unable to speak to each other at pivotal moments… or at all. Nathan Fielder is a weirdo, but he makes some actually good points. It’s not all just silly. Though the episode about Sully was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.

I already love everyone in this new series of Taskmaster, but I think I most want to see Mathew Baynton win. He’s so cute on Ghosts.* He’s doing a good job of balancing being funny with being good at the tasks. And his backwards song was tcefrep.

My writing is going well. I’ve taken to writing my time travel novel at the office, during my nice, longer lunch breaks. I used to only have half an hour for lunch, but now I get an hour. It doesn’t take me an hour to eat a sandwich. It’s easier for me to let loose and just write around lunchtime. I feel less pressure for the words to come out perfectly the first time. Writing during work hours is helping me chisel away at it each day, and it also frees up time for me to edit my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel during the evenings. My goal is to finish editing and then share it with a few beta readers before sending the query to be critiqued by The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. Which they will then probably ignore, but y’know. There’s no harm in trying.

* The original, better Ghosts from England.

And as things fell apart, nobody paid much attention.

Sara Mazariegos

Went to bed last night with the news of the airplane/military helicopter crash at one of our local airports. It’s shocking and bizarre, and I both hope it was just an accident and also have to ask HOW did such a horrible accident happen?

I already kind of hate this year. ☹️

I started out this blog post draft with a writing prompt answer. The mood was a bit different then…

Daily writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.
View all responses

I still haven’t visited Frederick, MD even though I’ve heard good things about it and I know some people who live there. It looks pretty, from photos I’ve seen. We’re going there for a friend’s wedding this spring! I’m looking forward to finally experiencing it. The wedding just so happens to be on a weekend with a 14th, so Luis and I can celebrate that a little, too. ☺️

I’m currently reading a book I think will be a good comp for my next novel, but I asked my favorite literary agent from TSNOTYAW if it’s okay for an American author to use U.K. authors as comps. The lived experiences of the characters are somewhat different, but the feelings and themes are still there.


It’s nice to have reassurance sometimes.

On the revising front, I’m getting near the end of my second read-through round of edits. Then I’m going to take February off to give myself a break from thinking about it (as much as I can.) In March, Luis will be my alpha reader. Because he’s helpful.

I hope you’re doing okay in these scary times. I’ve found reading to be much more solace than social media these days. It always has been, but now it’s even more obvious that social media is not good for you.

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Sara Mazariegos

I used to think this was a Willy Wonka quote. I had no idea he was quoting a poem by Arthur O’Shaughnessy.

We are the music makers,
    And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
    And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
    On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
    Of the world for ever, it seems.

Isn’t it wild to think that people didn’t know things like that before the Internet? Granted, I could’ve looked it up sooner than the other day, but still. We were just out there, learning things as they came to us and assuming things because we didn’t have pocket encyclopedias*.

This has been on my mind lately because John Green has been posting about the negative aspects of the social Internet for (let’s face it) years now. He’s taking a month off from Vlogbrothers in part because of the toxicity of the modern Internet, and I can’t blame him but also 😭

I am a Millennial. I grew up playing outside with friends, watching VHS tapes, and using a complicated Dewey Decimal System (with cards in organized drawers!) I clearly remember being 14 and liking a band and having to buy their CDs if I wanted to hear them. Okay, the bands were from the 60s so it’s not like I was listening to Millennial music, but still. If I wanted to listen to The Who’s discography, I had to buy that sh—

A moment ago, I just listened to a full Monkees album I’d never heard before because I didn’t own it. Am I nostalgic for a time when information wasn’t at my fingertips? NO! I just think it’s unfortunate and not necessary that we as a connected, better-informed society have gone from “I learned a thing! :D” to “everyone who disagrees with me is stupid and doesn’t deserve to go about their day without me telling them how badly I think of them.”

And now to awkwardly pivot a little. On Sunday, a literary agent tweeted this:


This is bad. This is really bad. I would hope that the majority of literary agents would not ever even think of doing something like this. Not only is it embarrassing for the writer she rejected, but it’s basically saying, ‘you gave me this idea, now I can take it and have someone else write it instead of working with you.’

It’s quite disheartening to see this behavior from a literary agent. They are supposed to be the ones writers can trust and turn to for support and advice. I don’t want to write off all agents because I know for a fact that most of them are wonderful, but it certainly doesn’t help their case in the growing traditional vs. indie publishing debates.

What do you think?


*Or maybe some of us did. Nerds.

We are gathered here today to get through this thing called “life.”

Sara Mazariegos


It is finally the end of May. This month has been rough. One of my friends died, then my parents’ young cat died, then my grandfather died.

But it’s about to be June! My parents got a new kitten, to be friends with their other cat who was very confused where her brother went. 🥲

Focusing on writing this month hasn’t been the easiest, but I just crossed over 38K words. That’s something! My goal is 40K total by the end of the day. This go around, I’ve been leaning into “the weekend will be catch-up time” mentality. So far, so okay.

My outline is easier to follow this time, so I’m not left sitting there in front of my manuscript thinking, “Now what?” It’s amazing what a clear plot can do. I went into it thinking it would be loosely based on Cinderella. Now I think the “loosely” really needs to be emphasized. I don’t even think it’s worth mentioning in my query letter*.

Here’s to a better and even more productive June!

*I’m not even thinking about sending those out again until this new version has been edited and beta’ed and probably rewritten at least one more time. Isn’t writing FUN?

A humiliating kick in the crotch.

Sara Mazariegos

Writing query letters is tough, especially when you’re not sure where to find good people to critique it. Friends and family rave about it, but a random person can shut it down and make me feel like no one would want to read my novel. It would be nice to find somewhere in between those two extremes. I know it needs work, but that doesn’t mean my novel isn’t good or deserving of being published.

I’m not giving up on it.

Meanwhile, I’ve rewritten an outline for my other novel’s rewrite. Luis (husband) recommends that I write a query letter at this early stage, too, to help guide the novel. So I’m going to be having fun with that as well.

In slightly over two weeks, we’re going on our fun Disney/Guatemala trip, so it’ll be another opportunity to take a break. I just feel as though I’ve been taking a break for a while now. I’m ready to write more! But it’s good to pace myself and not stack my days with too much writing, especially when I know I won’t have enough time to write a new draft until after the beginning weeks of April.

Are all writers like this?

Inspiration Overload.

Sara Mazariegos


It figures that now that I’m taking a (brief) break from writing, I keep coming up with story ideas and plots. My brain doesn’t want to rest! It at least doesn’t know what’s good for it.

I signed up for The Shit No One Tells You About Writing‘s substack and I am full of so much knowledge and encouragement now. I’m willing myself to take my time and not rush into any more querying until my story is ready. I’m also (as I said in the video above) working on shaping two other novels. I have a lot going on with my writing, for someone who’s not writing at the moment.

I also recently started beta reading for another writer. That’s been a fun, eye-opening experience as well. I’m interested in what other people are working on and how they write, the things they struggle with, etc. It’s cathartic. 🙂

What are your sources of creative inspiration?

Crunchwrap supreme.

Sara Mazariegos


I finished my novel*!! 🎉🎉🎉

On Tuesday night, I finished writing the main story. Then I pasted in my pre-written epilogue and called it a night. Yesterday (Wednesday), I read through the epilogue, adding and tightening things and making sure it made sense with my revisions. Then I officially typed “THE END” and sat back.

Last week, I kept going back and forth between thinking I could devote myself to crunchtime and finish by today or possibly have to officially finish by March 1st. Well, after miraculously writing 3,000 words on Monday, I didn’t have to worry about not being able to complete my novel draft this month.

Inspiration struck me more in this final stretch thanks to the big changes I implemented in my draft. I had a sort of epiphany as I was piecing things together and I think I’ve found a more satisfying conclusion to my story. I feel more confident about things this go-around, and I don’t think I’ll have to do another drastic rewrite. Hopefully, I won’t have to make any further big changes. 🤞

Now I find myself in this weird, “Uhhhh. What now??” stage. I’ve asked my husband Luis to be my alpha reader and let me know his thoughts. I’m giving myself two or so weeks to not read it, and then I’ll dive in and clean it up for eventual beta readers. Remember when I said writing is a process?

I may be unable to avoid revising my other novel while I wait. The good thing is each book has its own bubble, so I can by all means work on a different novel while I’m supposed to be taking a break from this one.

It will be a bit weird to work on a novel set during Fall/Winter right as Spring is springing forth, but… Such is life.

*For now. I will have to go through several rounds of edits before it’s officially ready to be queried. I definitely feel better about it now!

Going for the “no.”

Sara Mazariegos

Jessica Faust from BookEnds recommends going for the “no” when submitting query letters, because it helps narrow down the list of potential agents and helps gauge if something needs to change — either the query itself or the novel’s concept.

I admit, I sent out my first thirteen queries without considering this. The nos depressed me, especially the first one. But, eventually, I realized getting a no is better than not getting any kind of response and it takes a lot of nos before eventually getting a “yes.”

I’ve since stopped sending query letters so I can rewrite my novel according to beta feedback and my notes. I’m reshaping things to better fit what actually fits into the market, while still holding true to my novel and what I have to say.

Hopefully, I’ll be much closer to a “yes” when I send my next batch of queries with my fresh manuscript draft.