Song of the day: “Si tu no vuelves” by Miguel Bose and Shakira. Beautiful song, but with the way my voice is acting these days, ya really don’t want to hear me try to hit the high notes. I don’t what the heck is going on, but these days I sound like that woman from that “Bette Davis eyes” song, Kim Carnes, I believe. Rather annoying since, back in the day, I used to be able to do Sarah Brightman. I’ve a feeling that this has been happening since I started speaking English so much; it has completely altered my voice. Weird.
So let’s get to the interesting bit, as to why I have very little to report project-wise and why I have been eating, sleeping and drinking Word for the past couple of days. A TP requested to see my “Saving Nina” and just wrote me an email right out of the blue (I know, what nerve to just hit me like that! Hah) asking to see more than the query letter I wrote.
I punched big brother, seriously, I kid you not, I did! I had to. I opened my mail, saw the subject line of the title and opened it. Next thing I know I punched big brother in the shoulder (he was after all sitting right beside me, and wasn’t responding to my wheezing “hey, hey, looklooklook…look gorrammit”…well, my choice of words was a little less colourful, but you get my drift.) and was pointing frantically at the screen by the time he tore away from the conversation he was having with grandpa, and blinked at me stupidly. *breathes in deeply*
Sorry for the long sentence there. Hah.
But anyway, we had promised ourselves not to read through Saving Nina again in the event someone showed an interest, but of course couldn’t hold ourselves with the wonderful opportunity to coming along. I think both our OCD tendencies combined into a massive force, and before you know it…right after all the necessary shores, such as watering the plants…
We were stuck behind the computer reading through the first chapters that were requested.
While watering, I had this massive text going through my head, so I was basically screaming for big brother to take down pen and paper while I was standing there with the hose. The adjoining letter was in my head and I had to get it jotted down before it escaped again. I slammed the water pistol into his hands, snatched pen and paper and flopped down on the slope to start. Through out the watering session this procedure was repeated three times, giving me a letter of exactly three smart, funny and informative paragraphs (or at least, I think they are, hah) that should whet the editor’s appetite, if nothing more. If not…well, then I guess I made a mistake in picking this one. What with all the positive responses in the past year, I have come to the conclusion that apart from the errors that I, as the writer, am unable to detect, it all depends on taste now.
I mean, let’s face it, I didn’t send the dratted manuscript out to known snarky agents just to test their responses. I am sure that at least three of them would have totally trashed it if it had been grammatically incorrect, plot-wise miserable, and typo-ridden. Since all responded with stuff like, not entirely “right for me” but fascinating premises, I’ve decided to go for a-matter-of-taste. We’re all human after all, and tastes diversify. One person’s cake is the other’s poison and all that.
But anywaysssss…we managed to go through the elected chapters (which was vastly reassuring, I tell you. We didn’t get stuck anywhere and found only three typos, yay), write the follow up letter, cut paper (what’s with US letter size, by the way? Why can’t I just send A4, it’s a world-wide accepted size, isn’t it?) check everything fifteen times, and then hand the envelope over to grandpa who put it in the mail 36 hours after the request for more. Can I just say that I was properly impressed with our expediency? I mean, seriously, we didn’t even forget to feed the dogs or water the plants, hah.
Gawd, I hope this editor is not going to hold the lack of a SASE against me, ‘cause it is literally impossible to get it done from here. I’ve been trying to get it done somehow for at least seven years, but have had no luck whatsoever. There’re those international coupons, naturally, but a vast amount of publishers find them to be a nuisance, and, since all the terrorism stuff, the US postal service no longer offers service of offshore postage. Frustrating, I tell you. If I could I would just by a hundred stamps somewhere and have them send over, but how I would get that done I still don’t know. Ah well, let’s hope the editor takes pity on me in that regard; life’s about taking risks after all.
I still can’t believe this one is interested, I mean seriously, this one actually has authors I positively love…not just like, but LOVE with capital letters. *sigh* Moving past it, because, let’s face it, the book has to do the work from now on, and it is completely out of my hands. No amount of wishing, hoping and stressing is going to get this thing done faster or in a most satisfying fashion. Until there is news, either good or bad, life will continue on as usual.
Tenant is doing well. She had her doctor’s appointment today and all her stats were great. She was cheerful about that we walked all the way down to the greenhouse terrace, chatting pleasantly. Even now she’s sitting in the sun just a few yards away, enjoying her latest book.
Tallis (crossbreed) is doing well, we removed the tube from his cheek yesterday, and in a few days we will be able to remove the remainder of his stitches. He’s happy as you please, too, so all in all there was little lasting damage from the entire debacle.
Knight II is really enjoying the extra bit of attention whenever he goes along in the car and gets to run free for a bit. I have the idea that he is a little calmer during the evenings, which is definitely a plus because, let’s face it, he’s a menace; just the other day he came barging towards me at top speed and decided to rear up by the time he reached me, and planted his front paws right into my ribs…JEEEEEEEZ! Talk about cracking nuts. I literally felt my ribs protest and had to lean on the table a bit to catch my breath. I’ve really got to work on his obedience a bit.
Other than that, there’s the normal yard work, of course, digging out some more of the future water works, and just normal stuff. Really nothing too interesting, so I’m going to leave it at this and get back to work on the old projects.
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