Random Acts of Gratitude 040213

Maggie
March 2013


Three Bits o' Gratitude for Today

1. Thanks to Good Friday and a Tom Thursday, I had a nice four-day weekend. Sleeping late followed by reading on the sunny barn porch made for great mornings. Some garden work did in my lower, but that's to be expected I suppose.

2. Sunday was Easter, and Easter was the day the original five cats were born. Regardless of the date, that's when we've celebrated their birthdays for the past sixteen years. Easters in the past were often celebrated with crab legs -- their all-time favorites. With Maggie being the lone survivor, Bonn baked a chicken and Maggie ate her fill and then slept soundly for the night.

3. Spring is still trying to take over from Winter. Yesterday we had temps in the 70ºs; today it will be in the 60ºs and tomorrow in the 50ºs. Supposedly, we'll get fully into Spring after that. Either way, the weather has given us a string of those rare, perfect days.

Next Steps, Interrupted

Outside Raleighwood
March 2013

Turns out there's been an unexpected hitch in my answer to examorata's "What Happens Next?" question about my manuscript.

Saturday night I received my agent's editorial comments. At the start of the email she wrote that earlier that day she had just read that day's edition of Publisher's Marketplace, an industry newsletter that lists all of the new deals announced by the major publishing houses. Among Saturday's deals was one that, on the surface, shared three key elements with my manuscript. (The setting and characteristics of two of my main characters.) The plot and tone of that book is quite different from mine, but the similarities might be enough to derail my book from getting published anytime soon.

As I've told people, after reading that I was too depressed to even consider drinking. So I just went to bed.

I'm honestly not sure what's going to happen with the book now. I suspect we'll shelve it, but I need to talk to my agent before making any decision.

Over the past few days I've all but resigned myself to this idea. I've put three years into The Book and I'm not eager to see that work collect pixel-dust for what could be five or six years. However, being realistic, I'm grateful that The Book was good enough to get me an agent*. And, as annastan wrote to me, "So much of this business is about timing, which is completely out of our control. The only thing we CAN control is our writing."

I've already started working in my head on another, completely unrelated story. I talked through the basic characters and plot with Bonn last night and she actually liked it, saying she saw lots of opportunities for humor.

So there's that.

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