When people hear that The Foothills is told through six distinct perspectives and each character only gets one section, I usually get one of two reactions:

• “Oh, that’s so cool!”

• “Oh wow, how does that work?”

Both are valid, so let me explain why I chose to write it this way.

I loved the structure it created.

There is a particular kind of despair that comes from refreshing your email for the forty-seventh time in a day, knowing that the silence you're met with is also, technically, an answer.

That's querying.

And if you've never done it, let me paint you a picture.