So, the news...

Well...

Without going into too much detail, because I'm not exactly sure when it becomes "official"... and only a few people know the details (my family mostly).

My first novel was picked up. I just signed the contracts and sent them in. I suppose, when they receive it and I receive notification that they have the contracts in their hand, I'll assume it's official.

I'm alternating between complete shock, sheer giddiness, and total panic. I hadn't expected them to actually LIKE the story. I fully expected a polite email back stating they were sorry, the story needed more work, here's some feedback...try again, best wishes. In fact, I think I pretty much thought I'd bomb with my first submission. I agonized over the synopsis and my "not a query letter" letter wasn't much better than the synopsis.

Saturday morning, as I was getting up and getting ready to go trapping (I'm a licensed falconer - second year apprenticeship), I sat down to check my email. You know, receiving that kind of news at 3 am, when one isn't fully awake in the first place, I had to reread the email about five times before it fully sank in. I also checked the heading, the sender's address, signature line, all to be sure it was a real email from them and not some hacker's attempt at a joke. (Yes, disbelief at its best!)

I printed out the email with a grin on my face. Spike was pretty sure I'd lost it. He read the email and then he grinned.

What's amusing about this whole thing is that the night before, we went to dinner at the Mongolian Grill and my fortune cookie said to expect some pleasant surprises coming my way.

Needless to say, that was one spot on fortune!

This past couple of weeks, I've stepped back from "Dead of Night". I keep rereading what I've written but I can't seem to find where things went wrong for me. The story isn't...meshing. Maybe because we're at the middle of the story...? I'm not sure but I do know I need to go back in and start slice and dicing at it to find the source of the trouble.

My thoughts keep whirling around in regards to my NanoWriMo story. I keep trying to think of an opening scene, how I want it to start, but once I get an idea and think it's the one I'm going with, something else pops in. I have the plot outline, so I have a general idea of what's going to happen, but the fine details aren't there yet. 20 some days until NanoWriMo!!