Patience Obtains

For the past few years, I have had a quotation from St. Teresa taped on my desk: Patience obtains all things. I took it in the way of a hope rather than a promise. Now, with the publication of The Time Door, I have been thinking about patience, and what it obtains.

I began work on The Time Door in July 2013 and completed the manuscript in August 2015. In 2016, I began querying the novel. I submitted a proposal to a number of literary agents, with Steve Laube leading the list. When he asked for the full manuscript, I sent it in very promptly, and then I waited and hoped.

Eventually, the final answer came: They had been interested in the manuscript, but it was not a good time for it.

It was as easy a rejection as a writer can get. Still, it was a rejection. My other queries had the same conclusion, and I felt the process had played out fully. In 2017, I shelved The Time Door.

Life moved on. I got a degree. Moved. Got a new job. Returned to school. Along the way, I wrote a novel that I intended to be a sequel, of sorts, to The Time Door, though both stories could stand alone. I had difficulty writing the sequel, but after revision, I decided that it was presentable after all.

And I procrastinated over presenting it. Querying a novel is a business matter, somewhat like a job search. And no one enjoys searching for a job. The lack of enjoyment is not, in itself, a deterrent from querying. But lack of hope is. I was discouraged, and not inclined to begin a project that seemed no more likely to be successful than enjoyable.

But a small chance is much better than no chance, and sometimes, to know you never tried is worse than to know that you failed. So I got down to work.

I submitted the proposal to Steve Laube in January 2023. I mentioned The Time Door at the end of the query letter, explaining that the two manuscripts were part of the same series and that The Time Door had previously been submitted, though not accepted. I did this to show that the book had series potential, and because I thought it might be a good note in introducing the new manuscript. And though I didn’t want to admit it to myself, I also hoped that they might want The Time Door, too.

Not long after, I got an email from Steve Laube. He remembered The Time Door, and would I like Enclave to consider it along with the sequel?

Yes, of course, and please.

In September 2023, Steve told me that Enclave was interested in acquiring both books. The next month, I signed a contract with Enclave to publish The Time Door in October 2024 and the next book (title unrevealed!) in October 2025.

Now here we are in October 2024, and The Time Door is being released. It has been a long road, and I am excited–and, even more than that, grateful–to see this story finally set free in the world.

And I hope that there is encouragement in this timeline: A manuscript completed in 2015, queried in 2016, and rejected in 2017, is published in 2024. Often No is only Not yet, and while patience may not obtain all things, it obtains much.