Song of the day: “Give me love” by Ed Sheeran. So sad, so pretty.
Well, let’s start with the (semi) good news, shall we. I heard back from a publisher yesterday where they declined to offer for Chicago Hope, but added that if I were willing to change/add five points to the story, they would like to see me resubmit the story for their review.
I was a little stunned, really, because mostly you’re lucky to get a “thanks but no thanks” kind of deal from the publishers, and yet here I got this full page of tips to improve on the story in such a way that they might be able to publish it. The biggest plusses that had me hooked, of course, was the fact that the editor said that the story was engaging and the characters well-crafted. Always nice to have that confirmed by a professional. Hah.
The thing they would like to see added is the world-building (story is set in the 1920s) and the “suffering” of the heroine, which was something I had to keep to a minimum due to the 15.000 word count limit, and the “conflict”, which they want to have more prominent throughout. Some sort of danger, you know. Fine with me, but of course I was still stuck with the 15K word count limit, darn it. I had no choice but to write back and explain that I would be happy to do a revision, but that it would be nigh on impossible to keep it at 15K. Within thirty minutes the editor wrote back that that would be fine, perhaps even better, because then I’d be able to try it for a different line which could have up to 40K words. Wow. Talk about a challenge! Have been playing with ideas in my head all day, meaning that my oral responses have dropped down to Neanderthal mode. *sigh*
Now we have agreed on me getting to work on the story, and the editor looking forward to the changes.
How fun is that, I ask you?
Now don’t get too excited (it’s still a we’ll see stage). Heck, I’m not even going to tell mom and the younger sibs because they’ll just get overly disappointed if this turns out to be nothing. Heck, the same goes for the whole Abna deal. Until there’s actually something awesome to share, it’s little more than a “wow, this is exciting” moment. Very personal, in fact…except for me yapping about it here on the blog of course. Sorry ‘bout that, but for most of you guys this is little more than entertainment. It won’t be like you’ll get your hopes up and end up devastated if it turns out to be nothing, right?
But like I said, this too is a “we’ll see” deal. For the moment big brother and I have suspended the TMSTS rewrite once more, while we go back to Chicago Hope and see what we can do to oblige the editor in her wishes for this revision. I have to say that it will be a challenge. In my head Chicago Hope is pretty well rounded, so to take out the telling (designed to compact the word count) and change it into showing, is going to be a pickle. Not impossible, mind you, but a pickle regardless. Added to that, it is always strange to work on other people’s ideas, rather than your own. But the way I figure it is a good learning experience. Now it will be a matter of seeing if we can get it all done in a reasonable amount of time.
Okay, next subject.
Bad news is that, due to some blood in tenant’s urine, she has been carted to hospital by an ambulance (doctor’s orders, rather than ours) so she can be checked out. She has, of course, another UTI, meaning that caregiver has spent the majority of the day at the hospital, waiting for tenant to go through a battery of tests. Since the other tests showed nothing of interest, she will be home tonight once more, so in that regard all is well after all, thank you very much.
Didn’t sleep well at all yesterday. Once again Spanish stuff kept tumbling through my head, keeping me from dropping off properly. Grrr. Was incredibly tired when it was time to get up, which doesn’t help the day much, does it. Hah.
The normal chores, such as splendid laundry, had to be done in record time while big brother go the visiting dogs and already got started on feeding the pack. Right after we had to hurry on up to tenant’s place, because she was giving Olive and Jane fits by screaming for big brother. Finally managed to calm her down, and have her finish her breakfast with the promise that we would put her back in big brother carry her to her bed…this of course made me late to meet with Pedro.
Pedro is someone the receptionist at the garage set me up with. (No, not that kind of setting up. Hah) He’s a very nice fella, daddy of a teenage girl (yowsa) and easy to talk with. The deal is that he gets to practice his English on my, while I get to practice my budding Spanish on him. Luckily his English is way better than mine, because otherwise we would have had very little to talk about. He works in Norway, apparently, and according to him, Norwegian basically are all able to speak English. Frustratingly for him, they all want to practice their English while he would like to practice his Norwegian. Rather than be annoyed, he decided to learn English. Smart guy. I’ll tell you this. If I ever learn the amount of Spanish, the way he learned English, I’ll be a happy camper.
Was so tired later in the day I went for a nap. Had just about dropped off when mom phoned me. *sigh* Always on the days I decide for a nap, I’ll get a phone call. I don’t know what that is, but it just happens. I had wanted to turn it off, but I was waiting for a call from the garage, so it just wasn’t possible. *double sigh*
Were able to pick up the car yesterday. Set us back a whopping 220, but at least it got done and our baby is back. I do hope that the garage owners will find a new spot soon, because I for one am looking forward to when they’ll give car maintenance lessons. I’ll be the first to sign up, I tell you.
Today was time for our Spanish lesson. Didn’t go bad, despite the fact that I was a tad distracted. Teach is getting to be more relaxed, meaning that we too are getting to be more relaxed, which is a pleasant state of being. Regretfully it rained today, so we had to do the lessons inside. I like the sunshine way more, but it didn’t go bad, thankfully.
Afterward we headed to town for some groceries and an agreed upon donation of “over due” food for the doggies. Good veggies are always a plus for our little darlings. The dogs were absolutely bonkers when I got home. We’ve been out so much lately that they’re spending a lot of time alone.
Got seriously started on revising “Chicago Hope” tonight, after we got home and unloaded the car in the pouring rain. My foot was absolutely killing me today…what am I saying, it was that way yesterday too. Guess I did something wrong with it again. Got so bad I had to grab my insoles again, which gave some relief at least today. I’m going to have to figure something out soon, maybe try out some of my own designs for insoles, or something.
Seriously, in the mornings I can hardly walk at the moment, unless I’m walking on my toes that is. Yikes. Try it yourself some day with a painful spot that feels like it’s the size of a golf ball when you stand on it. *sigh*
Have been rubbing in Arnica gel the past few days and that is doing something at least.
What else…hmmm. I’m not sure. I did some cooking yesterday. A ratatouille that was quite tasteful, followed by a handful of strawberries in yogurt that worked well as a desert. Hah.
Well, that will do for today. I would like to go to bed early so I can do some work on the story tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed, folks. I’m going to need all the help I can get. *wink*
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