It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I last posted. Just one of those things of letting time get away from me. "I'll do it today" somehow becomes "I'll do it tomorrow" and then "sometime next week." I've been in a funk. Feeling the crunch of the cash wheel will do it to you (btw: I'll probably won't go to the RWA conference this year). But, no worries, it'll pass, and at least I have my health. Right? :P

Though I have to say that it's pretty strange about my money worries, since I just found this "electronic horoscope" I'd gotten from a gypsy machine (think of the movie Big) in Ocean City when I was 16:

You should be confident in money matters. As long as you do not attempt something that is beyond your reach at the present. You can slowly build yourself into a solid position. Your future goals are attainable and there are indications of an unexpected windfall which could help you solve a problem. It will be possible for you to do considerable traveling in the future.

So most of it is kind of a "duh" thing. But it's always interesting to me when I'm struggling with my life then come across a random tidbit that seems to say "it'll be okay." It's like the universe is trying to tell me something (cue Twilight Zone music).

Another thing I found in the same box as my horoscope was my diary from middle school. Oh, it had so many interesting tidbits, which I had forgotten about my old friends and classmates. Though it was mostly about how much they were annoying me at the time. I was somewhat sensitive back then apparently. :) However, I did write over and over again about the two things that I wanted to do in life when I grew up: travel and write.

Bittersweet Rejection

So I got another rejection today on Dark Earth. It was on the full I'd sent out back in May. The bad part, of course, is the rejection. Though the good part is that she sent back the whole thing with notes on how to improve it and a recommendation of an editor in another line to whom I should send it after I revise it. I haven't read over her notes, yet. Just the letter which details major rewrites. Of course, doing the rewrites doesn't guarantee that the other editor will even like it. But it is very encouraging that she bothered to take the time to make notes and send the entire thing back to me when she could have just sent back a rejection letter. I definitely appreciate her doing that for me, and I should view it as she saw some potential in my writing to give me a critique. She is a top editor at a major house, so her comments carry a lot of weight.

Now I have to mention a weird coincidence.

At lunch today (before I received my manuscript back), I read an article from Romance Writers Report about receiving revisions from editors, even those who have rejected you, and how authors tout again and again to not be married to your manuscript and how receiving revision notes from editors have helped their stories, even if it was painful to rewrite. And most had huge rewrites to do like me.

Kind of coincidental, don't you think?

What to do ... what to do. I've started outlining my next story and written the beginning of it. However, do I want to spin wheels with this old one in the hope that one of the tires will finally grip and send me flying fast forward into publishing stardom? Or move on and put this bad boy aside until I'm finished with my next one?

In the words of the fly-man about to be eaten by the spider, "Help me."