Let the waiting begin

Living through construction is tough. It disrupts your life in more ways than you imagine.  We were assured that all our new flooring would be installed in a week and made sure we would be out of the house.

My husband's boss generously lent us her vacation house for the week.  We jam packed all of our belongings into the garage and bathrooms leaving every bit of floor space bare. Then we headed off for our week of vacation.

We were supposed to return to our beautiful new hardwood floors, but sadly we returned to exposed sub-floor and no progress on laying the new floor, which still had not arrived! UGH!

We had no clothes, no electronics, no WiFi or printer, everything was shoved into the garage and bathrooms.

Two weeks in there were finally a few rooms done allowing us to unload our clothes and a few other essentials. One of those being the WiFi, my kids were jonesing for video games and You tube.

After an exhausting day of moving heavy items back into our newly floored bedrooms I collapsed onto the couch and checked my personal email, something I hadn't done for three weeks.

That is when I found the email announcing a CBW-LA writing seminar hosted by agent, Steven Hutson of WordWise Media Services with a chance to pitch your story to him!  I excitedly looked for the date hoping I would be available. Oh, tomorrow. Tomorrow!  This was too good an opportunity to pass up so I dragged my exhausted husband off the couch with me to find the printer and get that hooked up so I could print the query page we had to bring.  An hour later the printer was hooked up and finally working. I signed up for the seminar and got to work writing the query.

Now this was only my second attempt at writing a pitch for this book so I expected to spend hours trying to get something I liked.  It came together surprisingly fast. I was in the zone.

Why not try to write one for my other completed manuscript?

I was definitely in the zone. I had completed two queries. Not just completed but produced two queries I was happy with. I felt ready to go to the seminar tomorrow and pitch for the first time.

Sadly, I hit terrible traffic and walked into the seminar late. Not a good way to make a first impression.  I meekly took my seat and started taking notes.  Steven Hutson had a lot of good information, was an engaging speaker and I had written two pages of valuable information.

There were only 17 people there and with everyone getting a chance to pitch I figured I was going to be here a long while after the seminar ended.  I was shocked when almost half the people opted out of pitching!

When you get a chance to meet a professional in the industry you wish to become a professional in you take it!  Even if you had pitched your book 100 times you should do it again. Practice makes perfect and this could have been the chance meeting that made all the difference in your career.

We queued up and I waited patiently for my turn.  We were all reviewing our queries and running through our pitches in our head.

During class when he asked me to introduce myself and my work I was inexplicably nervous and screwed it up.  I was determined to present myself much better this time.

I must have done a great job of presenting myself and my work because he asked to see BOTH yes both full, yes I said FULL, manuscripts!

If you are a writer or trying to become a published writer you know this is the holy grail of responses when you pitch your work to an agent or publisher.  I was over the moon.  Still am a bit.

But now the waiting.

Tomorrow will be a week since I submitted my manuscripts and I am still waiting.  I know not to pester him.  They are both good size books 70,000 and 77,000 words. I know he was going to give them to someone else to read first and then he would read them so what is that a week maybe two before he sees both my books; that is assuming that person tells him to read them.  They could be dead in the water with the first assistant.  Maybe they have a back log of books and they won't get to mine for two weeks.

I am trying to check my email only twice a day.  I keep telling myself that even if he doesn't chose to sign me I had practice pitching my books, wrote my first two query letters and I may get some great advice back from him.
Then the little voice in my head says yeah and the next eight times when you pitch this book and get no response you'll be even more let down after such an amazing response to my first pitch.  I quickly shut the door on that little voice.  If this is meant to be it will be.  If not then when it does work out it will be even better.

I will keep you all posted.  Crossed fingers and prayers are happily accepted.

Happy Writing!

Seriously, this is an actual thing?

I tend to spend my time on the internet very selectively. I pay attention to and visit the sites my kids go to ('cause they are young and I have to), anything having to do with writing, and then my favorite, The Awkward Yeti (www.theawkwardyeti.com).

But it is the holidays and I live on the other side of the country from all of my family and many loved ones; that means internet shopping so the shipping is done for me.

I have run across some odd things in my hunt for unique gifts but this one took the cake:


Seriously, this is an actual thing?


Clip-On Man Bun
https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-instant-man-bun?deal_option=d75b6c88-78d2-11e5-89ac-002590980a5a&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=US_DT_SEA_GGL_TIM_TTT_PADS_CBP_CHP_NBR_g*gg-instant-man-bun_c*81522506101_k*_m*_d*Goods-Product-Ads_keyword*_target*_adposition*1o1_prodtarget*136840567501_adtype*pla&mr:referralID=89cf91ce-9eb6-11e5-b0f7-0050569451e5&gclid=CPTahfnTz8kCFQoVfgodkOQJDA


It looks like that was just photo shopped on to the person's head. The description on the Groupon website was hysterical. You may want to check it out for a laugh.

I'd love to see what wacky things you have come across!

Happy holiday shopping everyone!

Focusing on what is really important

We had a car break down and it was expensive to fix, we came home to find that the dogs had left us a very wet, smelly spot on our rug (there is hardwood all over but, no, they preferred the rug), but we all came home from work and school alive and unhurt. My heart goes out to everyone effected by the the shooting in Oregon.

My cousin was in a very serious accident and is expected to be in the hospital and a rehabilitation facility for a year or more.

My friends are fighting cancer. And I have co-workers who are fighting cancer, lupus, kidney failure, loss of lung function. I could go on, but I don't want to make any less of the issues these wonderful people are saddled with and fighting.

This litney of tradgedies has been tearing at my heart and making me feel useless and left me wondering over and over what more I can do to help.  Then it occurred to me that I should be remembering the advice to live every day as if it is our last.

There are so many things that vie for our attention but so few of them are really what is important. I am working to keep that in perspective and spend more time with my loved ones.

I did not clean the house this weekend. We saw friends, went out to eat, and made sure we spent time together as a family.  We all discussed, planned and booked a weekend away as well.  I hope we continue to make time together a priority.

I hope that this post will inspire others to take a moment to remember who is important in their lives and spend more qaulity time with them too.