In Which I Am the All-Powerful Overlord (Overlady?) of a New World

There's lots of advice out that there in writer-land that, in order to stop yourself from going crazy while querying agents with one manuscript (or while one manuscript is on submission after you get an agent), you should focus your attention on writing a new one. I ignored that advice for a few months after finishing MOUSECRACKER, the book I'm querying right now, but I've finally narrowed down the book I want to work on from among my many ideas.

I won't announce my tentative title since it's so tentative and not that great, but the book is in the steampunk genre, which, in case you don't know, is a subgenre of science fiction. A quick definition of steampunk is that it imagines a present or future in which, instead of the internal combustion engine having been invented, the steam age continued, and produced all kinds of amazing technology. There are nearly always airships present in steampunk (think 19th century sailing ship crossed with a blimp or hot air balloon), and technology powered by a dazzling array of metal gears. As I dug into my main character, I came up with a new aesthetic.

My WIP stars 12yo Harbor Lightkeep, who has grown up at an inn and lighthouse for airships with her twin brother, father, and grandfather. Because imagining a world powered by steam was not enough for me, I'm creating a completely different version of earth - divided into artificial climate zones and controlled by powerful empires, most of which have never existed in our world. 

I shared some of my process with my writing peeps, the #MGWaves, and one friend pointed out that I'm basically the all-powerful overlord (or maybe I should say overlady) of this world I'm creating. It turns out worldbuilding for science fiction is many steps above worldbuilding for the contemporary and contemporary fantasy books I've written so far. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. I mean, really, who but a writer gets to create a brand new world? Here's a sneak peak of my first attempt to divide up the world map in a new way.

I've so far sent about 30 queries out for MOUSECRACKER, and received mostly form rejections in return, despite having changed my query letter and opening pages twice. The only slightly positive response I've gotten was from an agent who took the time to say that the story wasn't for her, but the query and pages were very strong and she was sure someone else would request. I was starting to feel discouraged about my chances of ever finding an agent. I still love and believe in that story and am far from giving up on it, but, for the moment, I'm loving my new story even more and believe it may turn out to be even better. At the very least, it's a great way to occupy my mine while I wait for news.