Trunked
I'm a bit more okay with this than I thought I would be. Okay, maybe not. I dealt with this via vices. Booze and sugar. But, am feeling pretty okay now, so my official position on this is 'okay'.
I'm trunking Compulsion. Pretty much all (of the any) agent feedback I've got is that a) they really don't want to see vampires for a long, long, time and b) they're expecting something OMGSHIT amazing to even consider a vampire story, and sadly, Compulsion isn't at that level yet.
It's not completely dead. Either after this semester, or after next semester, I'm considering doing revisions so that the story is much more slanted into horror. After all, a much older man + much younger girl (should, to any plausible, rational person) = a romance that strongly stimulates one's upchuck reflex. Right now, I'm peripherally trying to consider how to make this take appropriate for YA.
I'm not bringing something to life that doesn't already exist in the story already... but after desperately trying to think about what makes Compulsion unique... it's that. Sadly, it's always after getting rejected that I see what I'm doing wrong. And there seems to be an endless list of things I'm doing wrong in querying that I find out about too late. I can't keep going around in circles. I really have to move on.
I'm moving onto my new project, BEST GIRL. I really do think I have a unique idea, but honestly, I think it is such an 'oh, so obvious' idea, I'm scared that there will be a book coming out about it soon. Which is why I'll be very hush-hush about it until I have something solid worked out. I can say that it is set in the future, it is a 'origins of a superhero' story (kind of like a prequel, but this is definitely a 'first book' thing), and that it is based on Oscar Wilde's 'The Happy Prince'.
In a way, I think this new turn of events is a great thing. :)