Two-faced Transition

wikipedia

2012 is supposed to be a year of transition. I didn't come up with this idea - the Mayan calendar says so: "End of Great Cycle". I'd like to thank them for the heads up because, personally, I think beginnings are scarier than endings. I know because I write them. -- I'm 100% sure my writer friends agree with this assessment.

You don't have to be a writer or a Mayan to understand. I'm thinking Janus is a pretty good example of what I mean.

Thankfully, Wikipedia is up today, free and unfettered:

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. The concepts of January and janitor are both based on aspects of Janus.

So here we are, January of transition year 2012. What am I doing? Transitioning.

I've got one manuscript to the point where I will not touch it again without an agent looking at it first. I've got another just coming out of the gate, with plenty of room for improvement.
The problem: I've got an SCBWI conference this week and I don't know which to submit.

One is a YA fantasy designed for girls. The other is an MG Sci-fi designed for boys. Two very different sides of me, both important. One is a huge part of my past, with plenty of connections to my time as a young woman in Turkey. The other is my present and future, with teen/tween testosterone-filled adventure crammed into the work. I'm writing under the influence of my boys.

I love both manuscripts, and I'm starting to feel like Janus. Look back? Or look forward? Can't I have both?

My flawed plan: I have the first 500 of each polished to a high shine - read: best of my ability. I'll know what to do when I walk through the ballroom doorway because Fate will decide which editor/agent sits across from me. I'll ask them which they'd prefer to see.

Only one itty bitty problem -- I won't be able to sleep until its over.


Janitors are so underappreciated, btw.