Greetings All,
I’ve been querying for *cough* years.
I’ve been writing since I was eight years old and wrote a book of poems I carefully hand copied, made an orange construction book jacket, punched holes in the side and tied it with red ribbon. I made ten of them to give away as holiday gifts.
Fast forward to age 15 when I published my first poem about…what else? Cats. I continued to write and publish poems before attempting short stories and at age 17 I wrote a Jane Eyre inspired full length novel.
I kept writing and in 2005 got a Master’s in Children’s Literature where I concentrated on writing young adult novels. For my Master’s thesis I worked with a professor (thank you, Dr. Cross RIP) who helped me edit and revise my book, WITCH HUNTER (available on Amazon/Kindle/B&N).
I published books as an independent author but kept hoping I’d find an agent.
So into the query trenches I went.
Many books later I wrote three young adult gothic horror novels and found my niche! I still write YA fantasy, YA contemporary, YASF, YA historical and even have a MG historical and a couple of picture books! But YA gothic horror is my fave.
After rewriting and heavily revising one of my gothic horror books I started querying it in November 2021.
Stats: number of rewrites: a million?
number of fulls/partials: 3 for this round
number of queries sent: 100+
I queried my current agent in October and got a full request right away! Once she read she offered representation and I accepted!
It’s been a long road to this point but perseverance and determination are in my DNA so I didn’t give up!
Best,
Kathleen
Kathleen S. Allen 
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