Friday, April 3, 2009

The many moods of a writer...

Last night my face looked like a page of punctuation marks: pursed lips with a string of exclamation point puckers, eyebrows separated by a deep-frown comma, pair of parentheses on my cheeks, blood boiling, mind roiling with questions. Now what do I do? I'm ready to submit a synopsis for my novel, and the publisher's guidelines states, Only accepting CONTEMPORARY women's fiction. Last time I looked they were seeking period fiction for the mature woman. I tell myself that everything happens for a reason; I do believe this!

So,I peruse the blogs I follow. Becky's pops up with music. The song is Virginia, my deceased mother's name. I try deep breathing and visualize her telling me to calm down. Just as I enter my zone, the phone startles the crap out of me. It's a small press publisher who wants an interview and photo for a feature on ME. Then the mail arrives. I rub the envelope on my cheek. It's my check from HCI,Inc. I rip it open, and it is double the amount. Now what? I look at the invoice; they've bought two stories, woo-hoo! In a matter of minutes, my facial expression returns to normal crinkles and wrinkles; I'm so happy I do the victory dance.

It's that way with writers; we rev up and wind down in a flash. My best news came later when Tammy, who is an early reader of my novel, wrote that she loves what she's read so far. I slept well.

3 comments:

BECKY said...

Linda, I'm so honored that you mentioned my blog! And so pleased that just the right song came on, when you needed something to help you enter "the zone"! Congrats on all the great news!

Julia Gordon-Bramer said...

Wow. If this isn't the most inspiring blog ever! You go, girl!

Lynn said...

Inspiring all right! Congratulations!