Hi there, smart people. Imagine an academic X humorous children's manuscript about the history of earth that has illustrator notes for every page and is 4K words. Is that called a PB manuscript? Or is it children's non-fiction? (Think "Kind of a Big Deal" series by Seluk with a bit more content.)

Last August I got blindsided by heartbreaking news, then 2 weeks later found an offer of rep in my inbox. I signed (duh!), fearing my poor agent would never see new work from me. It took time, and many false starts, but I'm a few chapters from the end of a first draft. This (tragic) life barrels on.

Hi writers, readers, publishing folk, and world! I'm Melissa. I write MG adventure books with heart and guts. One (on sub!) is about a couple kids who crash an Arctic expedition and have to both foil a saboteur and survive the GLOOM that surrounds them. So, tell me, who are you? #writingcommunity