Celebrate the Small Things 11-7-25

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small Things.

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

To be honest, I don't have a huge amount planned for it, but that's not a bad thing.  I'd like to try and get some writing done.  It feels like it's been ages since I did anything but tinker with my new book and I want to try and write some new bits.  I'm just not sure what direction to go in.  So, I might skip past the bit I'm not sure about for now, write the test, and hopefully what needs to happen in that section will become clear.

I got a query critique from an agent on my query for A Stranger to Kindness, and it was super positive.  She just said that with a boy POV, I'm writing for a very limited market and it would take a lot of queries to find the right agent.  So, I'm feeling good about the query.  But with another couple of rejections this week, I'm wondering if maybe it's the pages.  Or if the agent is right, and people don't want boy POVs.  Especially a mute boy's POV...

I find that odd.  I love writing boy POV and it's something I've always been comfortable with.  Maybe because all my best friends growing up were boys and I have two sons.  I also don't think books with a male POV are necessarily for boy readers.  Look how obsessed people - especially girls -  still are with The Outsiders - possibly even more now that before the Broadway musical - and that's a boy POV.  I certainly think all my boy POV books are just as enjoyable for girls, but maybe that's just me.

Had a couple more reviewers reply to me about Standing Too Close, but mostly it's been either declines because they have too many books to read already, or the reviewers want to be paid for reviews.  I don't pay for reviews.  It's not ethical, in my opinion, so if a reviewer asks for money, I just thank them for responding and explain that.  There seem to be an awful lot more asking for payment this time around, though.  Curious if any of you other writers pay for reviews?  And if it's worth it?

What are you celebrating this week?