We have our THIRD #TeamMonicaFTW 2014 SUCCESS STORY!

Guess WHAT??? My team from The Writer's Voice 2014 has had a THIRD success story!! I'm so excited to announce that Claudia Arroyo has signed with RobinMizell of Robin Mizell Ltd! :) 

This is her story in her own words:  

"Hi Monica! Thanks for squeezing me in despite the frenzy surrounding #PitchWars. By the way, good luck to everyone participating. It’s a brave thing to publicly present our work. We face rejection, negative criticism, silent dismissals, and the meanness of our own minds; which personally felt like the most formidable hurdle on my journey toward ultimate representation.

I was nineteen when I started seriously writing. After spending half of university grappling with two okay-ish manuscripts and enumerable no’s, I finally wrote a book that felt special to me on my third year. The result was a self-deprecating boy with the means but unwillingness to be free. And he helped me land the representation of lovely Robin Mizell of Robin Mizell Ltd, who turned a blasé Monday neon pink when she said female readers would “adore” my male protagonist *still beaming.* But I’m going to go back to The Writer’s Voice 2014.

I got really excited when I read that I had made it past the raffle. I was so excited, in fact, that I made the mistake of trying TOO hard; believe me, there is such a thing. I bloated my query with as much fun/quirky/tragic detail as possible and ended up posting a tedious letter. But Monica was interested nonetheless. I spent the rest of the evening internally screaming. Monica, by the way, is the best mentor ever. We shared Spanglish exchanges, she made me laugh, and she was unflinchingly honest. Yes, my query sucked but she helped me polish and make it less dense. I had faith in me.

So how many requests did I get when the agents swooped in, hungrily seeking stellar premises and unique voices? Zip. I didn’t get a single request. For some reason, I wasn’t too heartbroken. The requests were flooding in for my teammates. It was, IS, an exciting experience. Besides, Monica saw something in my story that was worth her efforts. I promised I would keep querying even after Writer’s Voice confetti had been swept away.

I have an agent now. It’s the first step on an unpredictable road to publication but I am celebrating myself and Monica and everyone who believed I could write. It’s all about a good book and patience. I know from personal experience that waiting can drive a person crazy but it’s a graceful thing to finally succeed. We’re writers; we’re in the business of waiting, we create, we have the stories in our heads to keep us busy in the meantime. P.S. It feels so good to not have to refresh my email every thirty minutes."