Writing Wrongs

July 19, 2004

I did it. Yesterday, I woke up with this strange urge to print partials and do up submissions. Hey, you gotta take these things as they come.

And the printer upstairs makes a huge difference. So I did up one extra straight query and five partials. That gives me twelve submissions out there for Cold Comfort. There�s an author on the Short Mystery Fiction Society email list who swears by the Rule of Twelve: always have twelve articles/stories/whatever �out there� in circulation.

Of course the mail hasn�t been delivered yet, so who knows how many submissions I�ll have in circulation this afternoon.

I have that giddy feeling in my stomach. There�s nothing I can do about what I just sent. Heck, it won�t even reach New York until Wednesday or Thursday. Fretting over it does no good. And yet, I do.

I�m also stewing because I�m waiting on the vehicle inspection guy. Like that makes him show up any faster. Why can�t I edit while I wait? I don�t know, but it seems physically impossible.

We celebrated Andrew�s birthday yesterday. We discovered late that we had no birthday wrapping paper, so Bob wrapped Andrew�s presents with inside out Christmas paper, and then wrote a mock label for each box: wood chips, box of worms, Barbie shoes, rocks and dirt. Andrew thought it was very funny. Most memorable quote: I just love the smell of new Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

Writing Progress: Well, that whole deal with the partials, of course. I still have my synopsis in first person. Time will tell if this is submission suicide or not. As soon as the car inspection guy leaves, I�ll try to edit the next few chapters of Cold Comfort. I also worked up what might be a scene for my next YA.

What I�m reading: Still hanging in there with Ella Enchanted and The Shipping News. Also added The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. A friend recently finished it and that reminded me I wanted to read it before I revised Accidental Cheerleader.

Charity Tahmaseb wrote at 2:07 p.m.

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