New pet, new MS, and querying fun

I have been sooooo slammed that my blog has taken a very backseat, but I've decided to dive back into it on a regular M,W,F basis. So here goes.

Some of you may remember that my Cocker Spaniel, Bella, passed away in October. See picture below:

We were very sad, but my 2 year old just couldn't process that she was no longer with us. She would stand at my deck door and call for her or ask when she would return from the doctor. It was heart-breaking to say the least. My DH and I knew that we needed another pet to offset the loss and so this weekend we adopted a precious 4.5 month old kitten. Rylie, my daughter, has always called all cats "Kiki" so that is what we named our new baby.

She is absolutely adorable, but what I never anticipated was her immediate attachment to my daughter. Typically kittens and toddlers can be an issue (we were very leery to bring home a kitten on the younger side). My daughter is a VERY mellow toddler so we opted to adopt an equally mellow kitten. Kiki follows Rylie around everywhere and cries if she cannot find her. It is so adorable! We do not allow Rylie to pick her up on her own, but Kiki will often climb into Rylie's lap and fall fast asleep. And b/c it is the Christmas season, we brought her home and placed her in a box with a bow on the outside, saying that Santa had brought Rylie an early present. :) See her reaction below:

(Excuse crazy-just-woke-up-from-nap hair!)

Okay, I promise not to dedicate blog time to the life of our cat! On to writing news, I am pushing through my draft of TWISTED ROOT and will leave a little taste of it on Wednesday. For SECOND SOUL, I am batting about a 25% request rate to see material (if I include the no responses. My oldest query is just over a month old.), but so far no offer of rep. Honestly, I love SECOND SOUL, it is my first complete novel, but I feel that TWISTED ROOT has a stronger high-concept premise. I plan to query 100 agents for SS and if I receive no offers then I will shelf it and go on to TR. Right now I am no where near 100 agents. I've tried to take the process slowly, but I think it's time I try querying in larger waves. I'll let you know how that goes. Wish me luck!

And just for your reading pleasure, here is the query for SS:

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Every human has a soul deep within them, directing their inner most thoughts. Sixteen-year-old John Fallon has two.

John isn’t the kind of guy to seek out danger, unless you consider fastballs or his sassy ex-girlfriend, Ann, dangerous. But that is before his father dies, revealing John as the new Gatekeeper to Heaven. Now three Trainers infiltrate his life, a power stirs within him that causes violent seizures, dark spirits rampage his small town, an evil family has a mark on his head—and none of his family or friends can know about any of it.

But that’s the least of his troubles.

Because just as he and Ann become close again, the Trainers reveal his mission: destroy the leader of the dark spirits. Easy, right? There is just one problem—the only way to destroy a dark spirit is to kill the person it possesses. Now John must make the impossible choice: loyalty to Heaven or the life of someone he loves.

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M.B.