I heard through the grapevine that today, Friday December 11th is 'Unofficially Official Agent Day', where writers are encouraged to 'give back' a little to their agents on this day.

Good deal. I love talking about my agent, because she is awesome. It's hard to know what an agent relationship is going to be like until you're in one. People can tell you how amazing their agent is all day long, but the truth of the matter is that the relationship is different from agent to agent. I've had three agents so far. Neither Agent #1 nor Agent #2 were ideal relationships -- either on their part or on mine, because it's a two way street. They both have clients that adore them and continue to sell books. The fact that I parted ways with both does not make them bad agents -- just not the right agent for me.

Anyhow. After Agent #2 and I parted ways, I was a little...gun shy. I'd had two relationships I wasn't happy with, and I wasn't super thrilled to get into a third. However, I was willing to give agents another shot - if relationship #3 didn't work, I could safely say that *I* was the problem and go about this thing on my own. So when I started querying for agent #3, my query count was really, really small. I think I sent out six total queries, all to agents that had spotless reputations. Agents that had clients gushing over them and had big name lists. Oh, and I sent out to one agent that used to be a big name agent's assistant. She'd changed agencies and had built her own list, but she wasn't a household name. However, I remembered her because back in 2005, I'd queried big name agent, and her assistant -- Holly Root -- had been amazingly friendly, gracious, and prompt. It couldn't hurt, right? So I queried Holly Root at her new agency, not quite sure what to expect. Holly asked for the full, and I sent it.

A month later, I got an excited little email from her - she loved my book! Could we talk? Oh boy! Okay, I admit, as much as I wanted to be all zen about it, I did a happy jig in my chair. She liked it! So we talked and...I pretty much developed a crush. Holly was funny, she was smart, personable, knew her contracts, knew paranormal romance, and answered everything I pushed her way. I tossed a few jokes in there to test the waters. She joked back.

I was in agent love.

So when she said "I'm throwing it out there. You interested?" I wanted to say "YESSSSSS" but I forced myself to be a good little author, and contacted the other agents reading. And when the week was up, I went back to Holly, nervous but excited. I had an agent again!

It was difficult to sit on my hands when we first got together -- I was afraid to contact her and bug her. She assured me I could contact her at any time. I still sat on things and bit my nails, trying to be what I envisioned was a 'good' client. Silent. Hardworking. Silent. Did I mention silent? But then stuff would come up, and I'd send her a tentative email, usually apologizing for contacting her.

Holly would respond within hours -- always the same day -- and fixed my problems. Just like that. And she usually poked at me for apologizing too much. Within a few weeks, she had me organized and straightened out, and I was beginning to feel more comfortable about emailing her. I warned her that I might be a bit high maintenance after two previous agent experiences, and she assured me that I was fine.

From there, it has spiraled out into a relationship that I can only term as: awesomesauce. I know everyone says that you can't be 'friends' with your agent, but I think you have to define 'friends'. I talk with Holly about anything and everything in my writing career. Totally open. We are friendly and casual, but the business angle is still there. I lob ideas at her. She shuts me down if I'm heading down the wrong path, or encourages me to work on something she particularly likes. No problem is too small, no email too needy. I've had weeks where I haven't contacted Holly at all, and days where we've emailed five or six times. She has never, never made me feel like a douchebag.

And did I mention this was all before she got paid? We sold our first contract together late this summer.

As time passes, I can't imagine what I did before Holly. I throw wild ideas at her and she runs with them. I tell her my anxieties and she talks me off of the authorbeast ledge. She is ALWAYS available to talk if I need her. She contacts me with "Hey, what if we did this?" type ideas. And if I have to rewrite a manuscript, let's say, five or six times, Holly is right there reading it, even on round six. She wants to make sure we get it right. She's in, elbows-deep, on the niggly, nitpicky things of my first contract (the one she doesn't get paid on).

I love that. I love working with Holly. I hope she never changes jobs, because the agenting world will be a little less bright without her in it. /sappy