Back to the querying board

Blaargh. I got the Secret Agent's comment, finally, and there's no way I'm going to get even an honorable mention in this contest, not with "partially hooked." Of course, we would have been a bad writer/agent match anyway, since the thing that did hook him/her is, um, a misunderstanding. Taira and Laishek are married, thank you very much. Sigh. I'm glad the agent liked Nara, but if he/she doesn't care much about my protagonist...phooey. She does a lot of growing and changing throughout the book - I had to have her start out rather mousy and uncertain so that she had something better to develop into. Oh well. On Monday, after the results are officially announced, I'll pull out my list of agents again. And perhaps if this one is on the list, I'll cross the name off. Boo.

On the plus side, I've gotten many a useful comment. The ones that showed a misunderstanding about my book were probably the most useful, since they show what I need to clarify it I don't want to confuse or mislead readers. And everyone has been quite polite and considerate, which makes me optimistic about participating in future such things. My wounds will heal, right? ;)