At least that is what I surmise from my recent extremely pleasant email exchange with my teacher/editor, which is an amazing thing, because generally email comes in two categories. 1. So cold and matter of fact that an insecure person* might interpret it as ‘annoyed.’ 2.Filled with exclamation points and smiley faces to make sure it doesn’t sound that way. But she is a writer so she has mastered the art of nuance!!!! Smiley face, smiley face, smiley face.

*meaning practically everybody

Friday I found myself wondering, “Am I the only one who will ever care about this story?” “Do people, especially my writing teacher and the nice lady organizing the writers conference, find me needy and annoying?” “Am I too old to wear logo t-shirts?” Then I realized it was just an upset stomach. I know…TMI

I made the brave decision to stop marketing NOW THIS! for awhile, due to a long delayed realization that I’m better at the ‘Show’ than ‘Biz’ aspect of my work,  and suddenly the queries/bookings started coming in. Alas, I doubt this technique works with agents. “Finally…a writer who has never queried or met us at a conference. Let’s sign her!” BTW, you may have noticed that ‘queries’ was misspelled in the original post. It was a ‘Damn you autocorrect’ moment. Trust me, I know how to spell queries.

Just spent the bulk of my inheritance, which I have yet to inherit, because, as mentioned in my last post, Chicago girls are tough (joke, Mom, joke).* Where was I? Oh yes, I have just spent all the money I could ever hope to make on royalties, on three writers conferences, so I’d get a chance to make royalties.

*I doubt Mom will read this. At the moment she thinks she lives on a boat.

Definition of an excellent 24 hours: killing it (pun only sort of intended) with our mystery in Lincroft, pizza in Freehold (sorry NYC, but NJ pizza is way better. Chicago pizza is the best, of course*). Then an email from my excellent teacher/editor saying there were ‘no major problems’ with the last 3,000 words I sent her. Almost as good as saying, “It was brilliant, shimmering prose.”

*Do not argue with me on this one. Never argue with a Chicago girl. We are tough.

Especially when it’s so you can watch the Nats clinch the Eastern Division title.

*That was figurative, you silly. I stopped using cursive even before nobody knew what ‘cursive’ meant.

So I’m now in the editing process with a second novel, and I keep thinking “Wow, this is way better than the other (finished) one! Why didn’t I finish this one first?” Can hardly wait until I start editing the third one…OY

Are five blog posts a week too many? No, don’t answer, unless, of course, you mean that I’m putting too much stress on myself.*

*Trust me, it’s not stressful, it’s self-indulgent.

I once went out with John Travolta, but it was only because he needed a date for an opening night party. Also, he wasn’t famous yet, and he was very young and didn’t know better.

OK, I admit it. There is absolutely nothing about dominoes in this post, but I was correct in assuming that the word ‘dominoes’ does bring visitors to my humble site, visitors who probably now deeply resent me. 

On to the actual content. Yesterday morning I was going through one of those “My writing sucks and if it does get published, it will be posthumously” phases. Then my teacher/editor said she ‘likes the voice’ in the first three chapters of my second novel, and I was suddenly overcome with joy. I am so easy.*

* Not that way, you silly. I am extremely square that way.