Yay! It's here!
My countersigned agency agreement arrived in the mail yesterday along with a friendly little note from Mr. Agent Man. It says he's thrilled to be working together and his notes for me should be ready shortly.
So, no one has to worry anymore. I do have an agent after all. ;-)
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be all complaining or sound high maintenance here. Not at all. I just needed to, you know, freak out a little.
I've been having occasional bouts of paranoia during the past few days. Mainly, I've been wondering: Do I really have an agent?
The reason this particular worry has come over me is because I mailed my signed agency agreement on January 13th, but it hasn't come back to me yet. I know he received it at his office because he told me so!
So, I'm thinking thoughts like: Did I imagine the whole him-offering-to-represent-me thing? I don't have anything in writing; it was only discussed over the phone. So, maybe I misheard him! Hmm. But there's this agency agreement in my email account. I didn't conjure that up on my own. And he wouldn't have sent it to me to look through if he didn't really want to be my agent, right? Right. So, I must not have imagined it. Oh, no!!!!!! But what if he changed his mind after we had those discussions?
My revision notes haven't arrived which is contributing to my fear. He told me upfront it would take "about three to four weeks" for him to get those over to me. As of today, it's been three weeks plus three days. So, we're still totally in the time frame. And even if it takes a little bit longer, well, he did say "about." It's good. It's cool. He has things going on, lots of clients, and sales he's making, etc. I just can't stop thinking about it because this is all I have going on at the moment.
Also. Also! Someone from NYC has been visiting this journal a lot lately. Nearly daily. And three times just today! Is it him? Do I want it to be him? And what about Facebook? He has one. Should I ask to be his Facebook friend? Or... no? Probably no. He's friends with some of his other clients, but maybe he wouldn't want to be mine. Maybe it would be weird? Because I don't know for sure if he's really my agent!
Okay. Done for now. Phew.
With the exception of a small revision to Seth's story in December, I haven't been writing fiction since the end of November. Instead, I've been reading. And doing manuscript critiques. And -- painful truth be told -- totally dicking around.
I have been pondering further revisions for Sat8B during this time. And I've been coming up with lots of new ideas for 17 BY 17. However, all that pondering has been going on in my head and certainly not on paper or the computer.
I know that I could have been working on 17 BY 17 while waiting for my agent's revision notes (which I'm hopeful will arrive by the middle of this month). That's what I should have done. But I didn't. I just... haven't wanted to. I think it's because it's the thing I was deep into when the majority of the Seth rejections were coming in. To reassure me, people were saying things like, "Well, the one you're working on now has the stronger hook. Keep going with it. It will probably be the one to get you an agent!"
And somehow I got it in my head that Kae's story was My Only Hope at Ever Getting an Agent. So, I obsessed over it. I had to make it better. I had to make it perfect or else this writing thing was never, ever, ever, ever going to happen for me. All the pressure I was putting on myself resulted in major burn out. And a longer-than-expected break from writing.
But, today. Today, I woke up wanting to work on Kae's story for the first time in more than two months! Over three weeks after landing an agent with Seth's story, I think it's finally sunk in that Kae wasn't My Only Hope after all. And now I can chill out and just write her story.
So, I've spent some time today reorganizing all the files I've saved for 17 By 17. I took a quick peek at the most recent version of the outline and was beyond horrified to see that the progression of the main plot doesn't at all match how it's evolved in my mind lately.
I'm a little overwhelmed thinking about all the work ahead of me to incorporate my many changes and getting back to the draft. But I'm ready to again be a writer who, you know, writes. Finally ready.
1. I love it when guys wear too much cologne. Like, really love it. 2. I graduated from high school in 1995--almost fourteen years ago--but looking through my old yearbooks still makes me furiously angry.
3. I have a crush on Anakin Skywalker from THE CLONES WARS cartoon. Yes, a cartoon character. I sometimes joke that seeing him for portions of a 30-minute episode every Friday night (or Saturday morning) is the best part of my week. I'm not entirely joking, though. (Not that my weeks are awful. Just that seeing him is that great!)
4. My husband and I have lived in our house for seven years. Prior to this, I moved seventeen times in twenty-four years. The longest I'd ever lived in the same house was three years. The longest I'd ever lived in a town was six years.
5. I got my first car when I was sixteen going on seventeen. It was a burgundy 1990 Chevrolet Corsica Lt that I wrecked four times that year (not all of them were my fault). Consequently, I don't like driving and would be happy to be driven everywhere if it were at all feasible.
6. My dad died when I was four and he was twenty-four. It weirds me out every year that I keep getting older and he stays the same age. I'm now seven years older than my dad.
7. When I was fifteen, there was a discussion in one of my classes (I wish I could remember which!) about extroverts and introverts. We had to vote for whether we thought each of our classmates was an extrovert or introvert. Then when the results were tallied, we each had to say whether we agreed with the consensus. For everyone else, it was pretty obvious which category they fell in. But I ended up receiving exactly the same number of votes for both. (BTW, I said I was an introvert, which was really shocking to most of my friends who were extroverts and had thought that I was one, too.)
8. Even having taken many years of swimming lessons and P.E. classes, I've never showered or gotten fully naked in front of anyone who wasn't my lovah. I can do topless if I must, but I cannot handle the rest.
9. Starting in 6th grade,I played video games non-stop. (Original NES.) I don't know what happened, but I quit around 11th grade. (I think it was because our TV broke. We had to hit it hard repeatedly to turn it on, and sometimes it was just too exhausting.)
10. My fingernails will grow really long and crazy if I let them. (Which I usually do... until they break. Much to my husband's dismay.) But for the past month I've been filing them weekly and doing upkeep on my colored nail polish every few days. They look so good, a few people have thought I'd gotten acrylic nails.
11. Despite being short (5'1" back then; 5'4" now), I was good at basketball when I was in high school. I had two P.E. teachers suggest that everyone check out my defense to learn how to do it properly.
12. My one and only sports trophy was for eighth-grade volleyball. I was "Most Improved Player." Incidentally, that was the one and only team for which I ever played.
13. Barack Obama is my agency brother because our literary agents are with the same agency!!!! (Or are we actually agency cousins since we have different agents? Hmm.)
14. I love Coke and Cherry Coke, but I rarely drink either because I avoid caffeine.
15. I am a lazy perfectionist.
16. I don't think I'll ever want to have kids, but that doesn't stop me from having a boy's first and middle name picked out, as well as a first name for a second boy and a girl's middle name.
17. When I played Barbies or My Little Ponies with my younger sister as a kid, I'd always plan things out. I'd make sure there was a goal and a storyline decided upon before I'd be willing to start playing. Then I'd feed my sister dialogue for her Barbies/Ponies so she wouldn't try to let our play session veer out of control. I must say, it never went well.
18. When I was in 6th through 8th grade, my sister and I used to make things (earrings, flower petal arrangements in paper cups), and I'd send her door to door to sell them.
19. I didn't even believe in dinosaurs when I was a kid. I didn't understand why we had to learn about them in science class since, to me, they were obviously something someone had made up.
20. All of my biggest arguments and/or fallings-out with friends have happened while I've been extremely tired. Now, I try to avoid getting that tired whenever possible. And if I ever do get that tired, I try to avoid being around people so I won't say things I'll regret.
21. I hate snow except when I'm skiing in it. I love to ski, but I rarely do it because... I hate snow!
22. Confession: I've come to realize in the past several months that I probably have an eating disorder of sorts. Not anorexia nervosa or bulimia or anything. And I don't have body image issues. I don't think I'm overweight and I'm never trying to lose weight. But I go through phases where I don't eat a lot. I find the act of eating so boring and time-consuming. Also, I sometimes avoid exercise because my theory is that if I don't use fuel, I don't have to add fuel. Almost every night when I go to bed, I promise myself that I'll eat more the next day. Almost every day, I fail.
23. I've never learned to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language. I don't know if I ever will. (It's that whole lazy perfectionist thing.)
24. I never make my bed. I say it's because the cats would just mess it up--which is partially true. But also, I never got in the habit. It doesn't even occur to me to do it when I wake up.
25. I have a hard time taking it as a compliment when people say I look good in glasses. It makes me think, "Oh. My face looks better when it's partially obscured by plastic?"
Borrowed from P@. Rules: a) Go to urbandictionary.com and type in your answers to the following questions. b) Post your favorite definition it gives you -- or just post the first one. (or multiple answers if it's just too funny.)
1) Your name? 2) Your age? 3) Your favorite drink? 4) Favorite color? 5) Birthplace? 6) Month of your birth? 7) Where you live now?
My answers:
1. Mindi: The hottest ass girl in your class.
2. 31: A way to express a that something is happening 24/7; the sum of those two numbers. I like this one. I think I want to start using it.
3. Sprite: A rather refreshing drink. I tried "Shirley Temple" and "hot chocolate" first. Most of those definitions made me a little sick to my stomach.
4. Black: A color widely defined as the absence of light.
5. Tacoma: Greatest city in the history of the world. Any person who grew up there will tell you that it's got a small-town feel with big city amenities. It doesn't barely smell at all, and hey, I've never been shot. Cut it a break once in a while. This one makes me laugh really, really hard.
6. October: The name of U2's second album. It is one of their many, many amazing studio creations.
7. Shoreline: Extremely potent strain of marijuana. Unique smell and taste. The dankest sh**, seldom found outside Galveston and Houston areas. Interesting. I had no idea!
