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I can start this entry off with more promises of blogging more frequently, but I know I’m lying. I love the idea of having a blog, I love the way it looks, and sometimes, great things happen and I want to blog. I just don’t. It’s like lying on the couch with a bag of snacks staring at your treadmill, thinking: I want to use that thing. But do you? Nah. Requires you to stop doing nothing and be productive, lol. We can’t have that, can we?

Ironic that this post is actually about how productive I’ve been these past few months :). Here are some accomplishments:
1. Had my annual review at work– Got a gold star.
2. My novel was 127,000 words– edited it down to 99,000 words.
3. Started my own weekly writers group through Meet-up– It’s been 6 months and still going strong, and sometimes is Wait-list only.
4. Went to the San Francisco Writers Conference 2015 and rubbed elbows with agents– Four out of five agents said send me that novel (or some of it).
5. After weeks of being a perfectionist (editing like crazy, again)– I sent my manuscript off last night (bye, bye Mommy’s baby, have a good first day of school… **sob**)

So, after Number 5, I wait for responses. I opened up my dusty, agent submission log (started in 2011 and not used since then) where I enter in the queries and manuscripts I send out to agents, looked at my long list of submissions (2 agents) and see that one of the agents I’m sending to this time around is the same agent who gave me my first rejection letter.  It was a nice standard issue form letter that came within a few hours of my submission. I told myself (to make me feel better) that I must have committed a formatting treason and got an auto-reject. The agent couldn’t possibly have read my work that fast and hated it, right?  Haha. Well, years later, I find out that it WAS an auto-reject! (Not that she might not have rejected it anyway, but still… HAHA, I was right!).  Anyways, at the conference, when the agent gave me her card, she said: Make sure you put my super secret code in the subject line or else you’ll get an auto-reject. I don’t read unsolicited manuscripts from new authors unless I meet them at a conference.  I swear I heard the “Patty Mayonnaise” music Doug heard whenever puffy-headed Patty entered the room, when I made the connection. (Oh yeah, I revealed my age right there in that comment. Nick-toons were the best in the 90s.)

So, I’ve got 10 pages in the hand of one agent, and an entire manuscript in the hands of another.  I’m excited, nervous and relieved at the same time.  Excited, because I’m finally submitting, for real.  I’m ready for my 100 rejection letters! Nervous, because “Oh no, it’s baby’s first day at school, what if someone is mean to him or steals his lunch money?”  Relieved, because I did it.  The manuscript is out there.  When people ask if I sent it off yet, I can say “Yes!”  So, now I have to keep myself from checking my e-mail every hour, like a mama checking the nanny-cam.  My logical brain knows that I’m not going to hear anything for weeks, and that if I do hear anything back this soon, it’ll be “BWHAHAHAHA, how dare you send us this crap?”  But knowing all that doesn’t stop me from constantly checking.  I’m even annoying myself with it.

To take my mind off of it, I could do something productive, like write something new. Hey, I could work on revising the sequel to the manuscript I sent off.  That’s a great idea… or I can lie on the couch with a bag of snacks staring at my exercise machine or laptop and think: Man, I should be using that thing.  Couch and snacks sound good, but nah.  Been there, done that.  Maybe I should research some more agents that I haven’t met and get some more submissions sent out.  But my question is, should I wait to hear back from the agents I just sent to?  If they don’t like the manuscript, maybe they might offer some good feedback as to why and I might get some useful edits made according to it.  But then again, what if the things they hated about the book another agent loves?  At times like these, I wish I had Jean Grey’s powers to not just to read a mind, but to change a mind: My baby is the cutest, smartest, most awesome baby in the world. You like him.  You want him.  Lol.  About 50 submissions from now, I’ll be laughing at this entry.  I’m such a newbie, but ah well.  Gotta start sometime, and I’m way past due.

Okay, so I just wanted to get an entry in here and let WordPress know I’m not dead… “just floating”, being lazy, procrastinating, so don’t cancel my subscription–especially since you already took my money for it. I can’t promise when I’ll do another one of these. I always enjoy writing blog entries when I finally get around to doing them, it’s just the “getting around to them” part that’s so hard.

Until next time–and hey, maybe by then I’ll have some interesting news, or good news, or a new place to live, or a new man, or…  Ah, whatever.  Take care!

“I’m not dead… just floating”–Pink, I’m Not Dead.
Mann, B. and Pink. (2006). I’m Not Dead. [Recorded by Pink]. I’m Not Dead [CD]. London, England: Zomba Music Group.

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Literally.  Okay, so my new apartment is starting to look like someone lives here.  There are clear walkways, and I have a desk and chair.  I built them this evening.  (Yes, I have a tool box with real tools in them.  Okay, so the tool kit is pink and so are the tools, but hey, they’re awesome! And for your information I paid 10 extra dollars for those tools to be pink 😛 ) Anyway, as I built my complicated Office Max desk, I noticed that the screws and holes they were meant to go into weren’t quite the same size.  Meaning my hand drill vibrated and grunted while the screws said: Haha, sucker, I’m not going any deeper into this hole.  May your desk wobble!  And to top off the screws not all fitting in the holes, there were several screws missing.  I used substitiute screws… and there’s still one mysterious hole with no screw to go in it and no extra joint.  Hmm.   (The finished product looks good, though, and is still standing, even with my computer on it.  Now… it may fall down in the night, but I’m about to knock on wood).  

Tomorrow, I’m building my home entertainment center to put my itty-bitty TV on.  Everyone laughs at my 19 inch TV, but I think he’s cute.  Hmph. 

I’m starting to like it here in Florida.  I think I really just needed the weather to lighten up.  It had rained every day since I moved in on Saturday.  I went on a little walk to the store across the street, careful not to walk in the grass.  I’m still afraid of the Florida critters, and it might be a while before I’m brave enough to walk on the trails. 

Also, the people at my apartment complex might actually come in and fix my foyer light and give me new dishwasher racks (after coming in twice and doing nothing).  I also discovered that a cheap Bissel vaccuum cleaner that I bought for 20 bucks, works better than a Dirt Devil I bought for 49. Grr!

Er… and as for writing… hey, I thought about doing some today :D.  I have been brainstorming like crazy, and I think after my apartment is all put together, and I’m totally moved out of my apartment in Texas (I fly back this weekend to get the rest of my stuff), I’ll start cranking out chapters again.  I was on a writing roll right before I moved.