Success Story Interview - Nickey Woods

An Interview with Nickey Woods (dr_nick on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Cindy Uh of Creative Artists Agency.

07/20/2026

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?

Nickey Woods:
What Remains of the Light is a literary novel about a family living in the aftermath of a child’s disappearance and the ways grief, love, and hope shape the people left behind. At its heart, it’s a story about what absence does to a family—and what remains after unimaginable loss. I wanted to explore those questions through the lens of women’s basketball, family, and intergenerational love. As a former college student-athlete whose life was profoundly shaped by sport, I knew basketball could become more than just a game—and I wanted to explore that on the page. The recent rise of women’s basketball wasn’t something I could have anticipated when I began writing the novel in 2020, but it’s been exciting to watch the culture catch up to a story I already wanted to tell.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Nickey Woods:
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember! Let’s just say I graduated from high school in the ’90s, and I enrolled in my first creative writing class as a senior in high school.

QT: How long have you been working on this book?

Nickey Woods:
I started writing What Remains of the Light during the pandemic (Spring 2020). The version my agent read is significantly different from the version I first queried nearly a year ago.

QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?

Nickey Woods:
Oh, absolutely. Querying is a study in resilience! What helped me stay the course is that I had already been discouraged from pursuing writing as a career while I was in college, and I was determined not to allow naysayers or negativity to deter me from pursuing this dream that had already been delayed for so many years. I kept reminding myself that everyone’s journey is different, and for every writer who posts about getting an offer, there are so many of us querying and receiving rejection after rejection. Looking back, I’m grateful I didn’t confuse a delay with a denial.

QT: Is this your first book?

Nickey Woods:
Yes, but I’ve also completed a second manuscript.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Nickey Woods:
I’ve taken creative writing courses throughout high school and college, and I’ve also experienced completing a writing project over a sustained period of time when I completed my doctoral dissertation eleven years ago. While that wasn’t creative writing, it taught me discipline and prepared me to stay with a writing project over an extended period of time.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Nickey Woods:
I work full-time as an associate dean at a law school, so I write whenever I can—during lunch breaks, in the evenings, and on weekends.

QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?

Nickey Woods:
I never started completely from scratch, but I made major revisions over the course of six years. The version Cindy Uh signed is the third major iteration of the novel, and each revision brought me closer to the emotional heart of the story.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Nickey Woods:
No.

QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?

Nickey Woods:
I’m an avid outliner! Before drafting, I create a spreadsheet that tracks both the external plot and subplots, as well as the internal, emotional story. I want every major plot development to create an emotional consequence, and every emotional shift to move the story forward. Outlining helps me do that—although during the writing process, there are times when I uncover a twist or deeper emotional thread that I think may work better, so I run with it.

QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?

Nickey Woods:
I queried What Remains of the Light for almost eight months before signing with Cindy. I also queried my second manuscript for a few months.

QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?

Nickey Woods:
I queried 91 agents for this manuscript. I received 40 rejections, and 19 queries were closed due to no response. I withdrew the remaining 32 after signing with Cindy. Along the way, I received four requests for the full manuscript. The fourth—and final—request came from Cindy.

QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?

Nickey Woods:
I queried agents looking for upmarket fiction, literary fiction, women’s fiction, book club fiction, family sagas, and multicultural stories.

QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?

Nickey Woods:
Generally, no—but ironically, I did for the agent I ultimately signed with!

QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?

Nickey Woods:
Keep going. There are times when querying feels pointless, hopeless, and the waiting can feel agonizing. But to get this far—to take the bold step of putting your writing out into the world—is evidence that you believe in your talent and are passionate about storytelling. After nearly a year of rejection after rejection after rejection, I signed with my agent just nine days after sending her my full manuscript. That never would have happened had I given up. I’d also encourage writers not to compare their journey to everyone else’s online. Every writer’s path is different, and comparison can easily become discouragement. The goal isn’t simply to find an agent—it’s to find the right one.

QT: Would you be willing to share your query with us?

Nickey Woods:
Absolutely! Below is the query letter that ultimately led me to Cindy Uh at Creative Artists Agency.

Query Letter:

Dear Ms. Uh,

Five years after her brother's disappearance, eleven-year-old Kiana Jones is terrified of one thing: forgetting him. Rod vanished when she was six years old, taken from an Oakland motel parking lot while she waited nearby with a bag of McDonald's fries she'd saved for him. What frightens her most is that time is beginning to erase the pieces of him she fought hardest to keep — the sound of his laugh, the weight of his arm around her shoulders. The only thing she has left is the basketball Rod carried the day he disappeared. When Kiana discovers she has inherited her brother's gift for the game, basketball becomes more than an escape from her troubled home life — it becomes a way to keep Rod alive, nurtured under the watchful eye of Mae McCoy, the neighbor who has been quietly holding Kiana's fractured family together.

Her talent eventually catches the attention of Coach Rodney Calhoun, a former professional player who sees something extraordinary in her — but what neither of them knows is that Rodney is Rod's biological father. Years earlier, Rodney and Kiana's mother, Michelle, were separated by a lie that changed the course of both their lives. Believing Rodney gone for good, Michelle buried the truth about Rod's paternity and raised her children with an abusive man named Eldridge Jones – Kiana's father.
Now, as Kiana grows closer to the coach who unknowingly shares her brother's blood, long-hidden secrets begin moving toward the surface. Eldridge has spent five years protecting his role in Rod's disappearance. Rodney has spent years making peace with a loss he never fully understood — unaware that everything he grieved is standing right in front of him. And Kiana finds herself at the center of a collision between the man who knows what happened to Rod and the man who shares his eyes.

Kiana has spent five years preserving her brother's memory. Now she may have a chance to find the brother himself — if she's willing to risk the fragile life she has built around his absence. WHAT REMAINS OF THE LIGHT is a 92,000-word work of upmarket literary fiction set in Oakland, California, and will appeal to readers of THE MOTHERS by Brit Bennett and RED AT THE BONE by Jacqueline Woodson.

I am the Associate Dean for Student Life and Community Engagement and Dean of Students at USC Gould School of Law. A former UCLA women's basketball player, I grew up in Long Beach, California. My writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, peer-reviewed academic journals, a Nickelodeon educational media campaign, and a forthcoming Penn State Dickinson Law publication. WHAT REMAINS OF THE LIGHT is my debut novel. I also have a completed legal thriller, PLACED, set at an elite law school and exploring questions of access, privilege, and belonging within legal education.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dr. Nickey Woods