This morning I had the absolute joy of carefully reading each word in the contract, printing it out, then signing it and sending it off to the publisher. Whee! They say you never forget your first time…I can swear I won’t forget mine.
Back to writing!
I have just received a contract for two books!!! That’s all I’m saying for right now…but I’m THRILLED and will put out more info as soon as I can (i.e. as soon as I actually SIGN said contracts!!!).
In the meantime, let the champagne and the wine flow…!!!
No, I’m not talking about the now-defunct soap opera. I’m talking about my passions in life – first and foremost is my husband, of course. But next is my undying passion for writing.
I love writing. Even when I hate it, I love it. The hate thing usually comes about from me getting in the way of the story. The love thing comes about whenever I sit down to write and time flies because I am so absorbed in the story.
Plus, the ability to work anywhere, any time, is a huge perk. Yesterday, as a friend worked on recording songs for her 4th grade play, I worked on paragraphs to wrap up the books in my series. So that was really nifty. Having a pen and paper really helps, though playing plots in my head is fun, too.
I guess I’m lucky.
Cooking is another passion. Cooking for people with special dietary needs is a challenge. I am cooking for a family tonight, only one of whom is a vegan – but I’ve got the perfect recipes for us, so I’m excited about dinner. Sounds funny, but there you go.
My gardening passion kind of dried up this summer. I hope to resurrect the garden in time to plant for winter crops – easy to grow in So Cal, but we’ll see if the cash and the time is there.
Passions. Life without them would be an unrelenting gray, I think.
Now listen up, folks. This is a lesson for everyone who uses email for important communications. What I am about to tell you is imperative for you to assimilate and REMEMBER. The remembering part is the really important part.
Are you ready to be enlightened? Okay, here we go…ahem.
When you are doing any kind of business via email, it is imperative to double check to WHOM you are sending said email. Otherwise, such business could a) go to the entire company; b) go to everyone but the person you had expected it to go to; c) go to YOURSELF because you were stupid enough to have replied to your own email.
So. Guess which one happened to me, when I sent the REQUESTED FULL to the editor who was anxiously waiting to receive it? Yes. I sent it to myself. MYSELF. (Palm to forehead sound here.) Thank goodness said editor is lovely and patient and sweetly enquired today if I were still interested in sending it to her, or if I had planned to shop it around instead?
So I, completely boggled, sent it immediately to her (thank goodness I remembered the flash drive with the novel on it!) and told her I’d send her another follow-up email, just in case my messages weren’t connecting for some reason. So I sent it off and did my research of my “send” box.
I was so embarrassed to find I’d sent the novel to myself. In my defense, I will say I was up at 4am that morning and had been doing taxes (and that’s another story and not my fault), because I didn’t want it to seem like I was nerdy and needy and anxious to get the file to her. And because I wasn’t fully awake (only on my second cup of coffee, for goodness’ sakes), I sent the stupid novel to myself and have been biting my fingernails (figuratively – I had a manicure last week) ever since, waiting for her reaction.
So then I had to follow up with a, gee, I goofed, I sent it to myself email. I just hope she believes me because, darn it, it’s the truth, as stupid as it may be.
Now I think I will go to sleep. When I took off my eye makeup, that stuff got in my eyes and they’re all blurry now…
…and that’s the end of the lesson.
So I passed the first chapter test with the editor, and she wants me to send the full! It is nice when someone else likes what you’ve written. Much nicer by far than the more-typical “doesn’t do anything for me” or “doesn’t quite fit what I represent” , which I’ve seen a lot this year.
That’s okay. Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes. After looking over the second book in the series, I know I’ve got a lot of rewriting to do (yeah, been lazy on that one) but it’s all there. I just need to align it with the changes I made in the first book and expand, expand, expand. Easily done, and in a world I’m truly in love with, so there’s that. Not a hardship, at all!
Then there’s Kellan’s story, which I haven’t even started on – and I think that one should come before Mephisto’s story, in the grand scheme of things. Of course, I’ve got the short story that kicks the whole thing off, but that too could use major rewrites. Or even, maybe, a full novel…we’ll see.
There I go, dreaming again…as long as I’m dreaming, I may as well dream with my fingers on the keyboard, yes?
I am no longer over the moon when I get a request from an agent or an editor, as I’ve been rejected a lot this year and the bloom is off that particular rose. However, it does put a tiny spring into my step for the rest of the day.
One of the professional organizations I belong to had a blog pitch session with an editor of a highly regarded publishing company. While I didn’t totally wow said editor, I did manage to impress enough that I was asked for a partial. Rather than rush to send the partial last night, I did some thinking, rewrote the query letter, sent it to a friend who has not read the book, and finally got the okay on the query. So this morning (after another read-through of that all-important first chapter) the partial will be sent. Officially off my plate and out of my memory. On to the next project.
So for a hard slog of a year, it’s not all rejection, all the time. Which is enough to put a smile on my face.