#PIMPMYBIO

A little bit late to the game, but now that my sub is in, I have a little bit more time to…

(Does anyone still use glitter text? No? Oh, okay then.)

A Little Bit About Me.

Anyway, HI! My name is Britney Shae and I’m so happy you stumbled on this page!

First, just a little bit about me. I guess I’ll start with the boring stuff and tell you that I’m an attorney. I work in a medium-sized firm with a lot of lovely people (honestly!) and I do civil litigation, but really I mostly do personal injury. But in my head…

But that’s my boring day job. By night, I’m a superhero.

Okay, okay, so I just wish I was a superhero. In reality I’m a Minnesota transplant living in Ohio. Like all good Minnesotans, I love the lake and hockey. I live and breathe hockey. I grew up a Detroit Red Wings fan but in 2010 I was an intern for the Philadelphia Flyers during their cup run. To this day, it was the most amazing time of my life. I wrote a weird novel during that time… it was about vampires so I’ve tucked that away, waiting for the Twilight hangover to end. Assuming it ends.

Anyway, my other interests include quoting The Great Gatsby, drinking tea, and browsing the local humane society for a cat to adopt. I’m not sure I’m responsible yet to care for a living thing, though. But I like to dream.

My Writing Journey.

When I’m not working, drinking tea, browsing through available cats, or quoting Gatsby, I spend my evenings (and some of my lunch breaks) writing. [Insert cliche about how I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember.] But honestly! I started typing my first “novel” when I was in the fourth grade, a multi-perspective YA novel and no, I do not remember what it was about. Throughout elementary school (and middle school and fine, high school too) I wrote down stories in a notebook when I was supposed to be paying attention in class.

For most of my life, I wrote because I loved it and I always felt compelled to. I wrote because I couldn’t not write. And for a long time, I told myself that was enough.

I’m not really sure when that changed – when I started wanting more. I started researching literary agents as long ago as my senior year in high school, which was 10 years ago (I skipped my 10-year anniversary just last week, if anyone was wondering). I kept writing. I kept researching. I kept writing. But I never dodged the bullet and tried to get published, although I always knew I wanted to go the traditional route.

This past year, I started actually trying. I had a finished manuscript and the first step was taking the plunge and exchanging with critique partners. After some success in finding some GREAT critique partners, I took another plunge and participated in #PitMad. This garnished some interest, which forced me to get my query letter and manuscript in order. I queried. I got a few requests. And I ultimately got rejections. But the experience was really great, because it showed me that I can do this.

And now, here I am, hoping to be a Pitch Wars mentee.

But here, have a brief(ish) timeline of my manuscript, Fearless, and what it’s gone through:

Timeline:

Summer 2014 – Started drafting Fearless while simultaneously studying for the Bar Exam. I set a timer to study for two hours, and then allowed myself 15-20 minutes to write, and continued this nearly every day during June. When July rolled around, I had to bookshelf Fearless, because, well… that Bar Exam was pretty hefty.

November 2014 – After a long break* and a failed NaNoWriMo project, I picked back up on Fearless. I beat out the writer’s block and made some substantial progress on my first draft.

Summer 2015 – Finished first draft of Fearless.

Early 2016 – Began editing Fearless. Had the manuscript printed and bound at Staples, and proceeded to carry it around with me everywhere. This was a rollercoaster time filled with lots of self-doubt. I even tossed it into the waste basket at one point.

Summer 2016 – Finalized pen and paper edits and began transferring edits into the actual Word document.

December 2016 – After “winning” NaNoWriMo, I got a discounted membership on Scribophile. Began uploading chapters of Fearless for critique.

Early-March 2017 – Participated in #PitMad and received two “favorites” from agents.

Late-March 2017 – Began querying agents. Sent five queries total and received “full manuscript” requests from two agents.

Early-April 2017 – Received the kindest, most thoughtful rejection from an agent who had requested the full manuscript. While she did pass, she provided fantastic suggestions to make Fearless better.

Spring 2017 – Stopped the query process and began making hefty revisions following the agent’s wonderful advice and suggestions. Swapped revised chapters with critique partners.

Summer 2017 – Began readying my manuscript for #PitchWars!

*A long break from Fearless. I have two other manuscripts I have worked on throughout this entire time. 🙂

And that’s about it! So far my experience with Pitch Wars has been AMAZING. I’ve been talking nonstop about it to every writer friend I have. I have made SO MANY fantastic connections through the community and have some new CPs and I’m just so excited about everybody’s work and everybody is excited about mine and I could just gush forever.