New WIP manuscript

I've been rather busy this year! I now have 15 published short stories at various publications. I tried my best not to overlap, though I have a few publications in mind I would like to revisit.

While I am still working on shorts (I have 18 works looking for a home) I have slowed writing them. In addition to doing another editing pass on my main series, I have two WIPs for new novels based on short stories I wrote.

The first one (Starstruck and Well-Traveled) is from the 'Wizards, Muses, and Mishaps' series, which were published with NewMyths and Andromeda Spaceways. I've done a lot of character work and worldbuilding, but it's only at about 15k, since I decided to focus on The Weather Watcher first.

The other (The Weather Watcher) comes from two stories that are still looking for a home, primarily because they feel like part of a bigger world. I have 46k written in that manuscript. Set in the clay flats of a second world where metal holds magical properties that can shift with the combinations of other metal alloys.

While I haven't given up on the main series, I realize that the way the story begins doesn't sound unique enough for agents. I can't misrepresent the pitch and I've rewritten it quite a few times. I have paid for feedback, swapped with more than 20 writers/editors at this point. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from the book, though readers who have gone through the series comment that each book is better than the last, meaning the first is the weakest still. I will not give this up, but I have accepted that this may not be my debut novel.

The Weather Watcher and Starstruck and Well-Traveled have pitches that sound different from the start. I may have a better chance selling them. If it happens, I can hopefully revisit the main series with an agent (that I hopefully land, lol).

For those interested, here's the paragraph pitch of The Weather Watcher:

Tomas, a gun-for-hire who can't pull the trigger, agrees to take a teen girl as his apprentice after she insists she wants to become a Weather Watcher like him—someone who can manipulate the weather. The path to becoming one is a scarring experience and Tomas hopes to spare the girl some of the trials and tribulations he suffered. They pick up a contract promising a payload the girl needs to become a Weather Watcher: a rare metal able to grant the spark of life. But their client, an introverted keeper of an ancient buried city, has no intention of paying them. She needs the metal to safeguard her home and its forbidden secrets.