Bits and Pieces

Cape Cod Weather today: Cold and getting colder. But *they* say it won't snow again until Wednesday....
My oldest son made honor roll at his middle school again today... my youngest daughter played in her first "home game" with her basketball team (and her team won)... my middle child's karate teacher just didn't show up to open the studio today, (no note on the door, no nothing) which is fine because he was still worn out from his rock concert yesterday (playing in it not attending it).... and I found a piece of sky blue seaglass in amongst the slipper snail shells as I walked the dogs along the beach at lunchtime.

blue magic...

So I took myself home and sat down at the computer with the various lists of information I collected last week, and sent off another query letter to one of the agents I found in my research. Yea, me! *Keep fingers crossed!*

I don't like writing queries, but I guess it's part of the job of being an author. I've read some funny blogs about query letters in my morning procrastinations, including Editorial Anonymous who has a funny post today about whether a query really needs to be typed... even I know that. The answer, if you don't know already, is YES. Everything needs to be typed. This isn't meant to be exclusive or mean, but if you think about it, those poor agents and editorial assistants and interns spend all day reading queries and partials. The least we can do is type our submissions, unless of course we want to be paying for their vision plan. I don't even Have a "vision plan" with our current insurance... (umm, President Obama? Can we have Universal Vision with our Universal Health?)

Send positive vibes my way, that I'll soon be an agented author....

Try try again...

Cape Cod Weather today: Warmer than it's been, but still not warm enough for me....

I received the first rejection on my middle grade fantasy yesterday... which hit me harder than I thought it would. I love this story, and really thought everyone else would love it too. Now granted, I guess the agent I sent my query to doesn't have a lot of fantasy in her roster.

And that's probably most of my problem.

I need to do a better job of investigating before I hit the send button. It doesn't matter that I've been reading this agent's blog, and love the way she writes about life and publishing. She's not that into fantasy. So I spent today - all day - doing research. There are lots and lots of agents out there. Lots.

And some of them even enjoy middle-grade fantasy books.

So I'll just have to try to hook one of them.

A Moment in History

My neighbor and best friend Nicola Burnell is down in Washington D.C. for the festivities.
You can read her blog and see her photos from Sunday's concert at http://forums.capecodonline.com/inauguration1?entry=9

The eyes of the world are on D.C. right now. Let's hope everything goes well, everyone stays safe, and everyone is renewed with hope for the future of our country, and our world.

Waiting...

Cape Cod Weather today: Cold and cloudy, but not the bitter cold we've had. It was relatively *warm* at 32 degrees... but grey and wet. Now it's late, so it's dark grey, to the point of black.

At the beach this afternoon, the gulls were funny. All along the shoreline, they were sitting on the rock jetties. Not swimming, not whirling and reeling overhead. Just sitting. Waiting.

Waiting for what?

Waiting for summer? Waiting for the tourists to return with their picnic lunches and bags of easy-to-steal potato chips? Waiting for the fishermen to return to the river jetty with their bait containers left open for the pickings? Waiting for tomorrow, when we as a country will witness a historic moment as Barack Obama takes the oath of office???

Or... Maybe they are as tired of this cold weather as I am. As we all are. The Arctic blast has chilled me to the bone, and I am so ready for it to be gone from the East coast. It's not that I'm ready for summer, or even spring. Certainly not ready yet for the rush of the tourist season...

I enjoy the quiet solitude of the winter season at the beach. The emptiness of the sandy stretch of land near my home. The quiet paths through the conservation lands in town. The nearly empty roadways and parking lots everywhere you go. And I enjoy bundling up in sweaters, and turtlenecks, breaking out the L.L.Bean gear and brewing hot chocolate for the kids in the mornings, to brace ourselves for the wait at the bus stop.

But it's been too cold this month. I am so done with January. Done, I tell you. Bring on the Thaw.