Dumelang (Hello) &

Dramatic as the year has already been, I hope it will be filled with inner joy and peace amidst the global turmoil that surrounds us all.

Among the things reverberating inside of me as I gaze at the year ahead is the phrase: Quality over Quantity. But why Quality over Quantity? And even the title, Progressive Year?

I wrote the word progressive down first, but then had to check the dictionary for the fullness of its meaning.

Progressive generally means moving forward, developing, or favouring change and improvement rather than keeping things the same. Happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step.

For me, this means staying in the journey/the fight/the wait (in my case, regarding the sale of my debut novel)… the idea of investing in depth and growth, which, as a friend of mine reminded me the other day, doesn’t happen without some level of resistance.

As for Quality over Quantity: I intake a lot of what’s out there, be it reading, listening to podcasts, dabbling in this and that project, which currently is gardening with my sons, etc., etc. One can be caught up in so much, but one of my intentions is to zone in and go deep, rather than be everywhere/do too much and stay shallow. This feels like a special skill given the attention economy we all exist in, but something tells me I won’t regret trying nonetheless.

I am currently working on my second novel, because, as someone wise once said, Write the Wait. Which means, instead of checking the horizon (of the email inbox) to see if the email has finally arrived, writing, and more writing (even deliberately resting) and keeping on with life (because no quality writing can come about without living) is one of the most productive ways to WAIT when on submission (i.e., when a manuscript is submitted to editors at publishing houses).

I touched base with my agent last month because I’ve been researching the different ways, or approaches, to going/being on submission, and it’s all so varied. In my worry, and in my “why is it so quiet out there,” Barbara reminded me that this is all par for the course and nothing needs to change for now. She said this in answer to my question: do we need to submit to more publishing houses than the 8, which are now 6 outstanding after the 2 passes we got?

So, that’s a very long way of saying that we have not received any more responses on the submission since the last email (lol).

Ooh, and I’ll add the stats for the typical wait times for submission, just for FUN, for all of us lovers of numbers here.

My book is submitted as YA (Young Adult). And we are, as of Jan 8, at the 4-month mark since submission.

I will say that writing this email to you is really good for me, because even when I feel down and disappointed that things have not moved as fast as I had hoped, this is my way of saying, "Ntebogeng, you are not giving up hope. You have a story to tell, and you are going to tell it."

Thank you for staying in it with me.

Whatever your goals and intentions are for this year, may you progress...move forward, step by step.

Ntebogeng