Friday Ramblings

A week in between posts again...sigh. It's been a busy week at work, and I've had an ongoing headache since last Saturday that's been completely distracting me. I'm finally going to the doctor today to find out what's up. I'm pretty sure it's sinus-related, because all the pain is in my cheekbones, eyes & eyebrows. The only thing that's really helped at all has been Mucinex-D, but it made me sooooo loopy. Thank god I took it at home and not while at work. I kept telling Dan I felt like "a pat of butter melting on a big ol' stack of flapjacks" (thank you Pineapple Express). I've never been one to get migraines either, so we'll see what the doctor says.

Anywho, then this morning I might have broken my little toe on my right foot while stepping out of the shower. I can feel it all swollen & throbbing away in my shoe right now, but I can at least put weight on it. Meh. What a way to start the weekend!

Let's see, what else? Yesterday I finished Jen Lancaster's fourth book, Pretty in Plaid. It was hilarious, as per yoosh. Jen's first book, Bitter is the New Black, is actually what somewhat inspired me to start writing again. She writes hilarious memoirs, so they're absolutely nothing like the books I want to write. However, she wrote Bitter after getting laid off from a very powerful, high-paying job. I believe she just started writing to pass time in between temp jobs because she realized she was good at it. And it worked out for her. She's now been on the New York Times bestseller list and fully supports herself by writing. How fantastic that things worked out that way.

In my writing world, right now I'm still waiting for feedback from my readers to see if any further revisions should be made (and I'm sure there will be). I started researching literary agents last week and so far I have a list of 8. I need to at least triple that, so more research needs to be done. I also found out that some agents require both your query letter AND a synopsis of your story. Sonofa. So now I have to try to sum up 80,000 words in about 500 or so. OY. I've been procrastinating doing that, but hopefully I'll start it this weekend.

Whenever I get nervous to start querying, I think of something I read on the fabulous Eileen Cook's blog (she's the author of What Would Emma Do? and Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood- which I'm reading now- and her newest book, The Education of Hailey Kendrick, just came out this month and I can't wait to pick it up). Before she was published, she was in a writing class and told her teacher she was afraid to send her writing out. She was terrified of rejection. Her teacher basically told her (and I'm paraphrasing) well, you're already not published, so the worst thing that could happen is that you STILL won't be published. That kinda stuck with me.

I have to try. What's the worst that could happen? So this book doesn't get published. Then I write another one. And another one. Determination can mean everything, right?