Sorry for the misnomer, but I had kind of a shitty day at work today. I've resolved 
to stop listening to other people and start doing synthesis the way I know how to do it, and if that requires a little lithium-halogen exchange, then sobeit. I'd rather work with pyrophorrics than bumblefuck around trying to guess my way through someone's ham-fisted attempts at explaining a procedure to me, be it written on paper or orally submitted. Wow, that was a touch cathartic. Anyway, to cope with my sadness, I'm listening to Reckoning by R.E.M. (yeah, I like R.E.M. Eat it!). Since it's R.E.M., it all sounds like a suicide note anyway. Like my rant, it's cathartic in it's own way. Listening to R.E.M. is like hanging with my friend Steve: no matter how shitty something seems, you can take comfort in the fact that someone else has it shittier than you.
The reason for this oh-so-joyous post is that I sent off my manuscript stuff. Not today, but yesterday. I was going to write about last night, but I got wrapped up in telling everyone about Fair Oaks, IN and so I got a touch sidetracked. When I went to mail everything off, I was careful to keep my papers neatly stashed away in a folder so that the torrential rains wouldn't mar the otherwise pristine copies of my cover letter, outline, prologue and first three chapters. For some reason, I was strangely calm when I sent it off. I wasn't the usual ball-of-nerves that I have been in the past when I send away some of my work. I'm sure that doesn't really mean anything, but I thought I'd share that part of the journey. Now, I sit and wait.
I did want to thank everyone for your kind words in the comments section. I know that it took me a whole week to make the "big" announcement, but I had two sick kids to deal with (they had the croup...yeah...my kids were diagnosed with a disease that contained "the" in the name...yech!) and my wife was reading through the parts that I wanted to submit to make sure there were no big, glaring errors (she did miss that I misspelled the name of one of the countries in my book...shame on her!). Again, thanks to everyone for the congrats. It made me feel good all over again.
Since my wife liked what she read (she told me this, several times...and each time I 
responded with "You're married to me. You have to like it; it's in the contract." This did not amuse her as much as it did me), she went ahead and read the rest of the story, making small grammatical corrections along the way. Which reminds me, she changed "courtesy" to "curtsy", and since I don't want to look like a ham-fisted hack (I've used ham-fisted twice in this post...), I need to change it back. Anyway, apparently the ending made her feel really good. Again, I told her that she had to like the ending and the book because we're married. Anyway. Here is perhaps the highest praise I've gotten so far (keep in mind the source, please):
"I liked the ending. It made me smile. It made me feel good." (beat) "The end of Harry Potter didn't make me feel good. Your book made me feel good."
Deuce.
This means that, with the potential for the Boar War to be published at some point in
the foreseeable future, I had to get back on the writing gig and start working on King of Storms and finish the rereading and smoothing over of both Shadows and Thistles. So, yeah, I've started in with the typing monkey routine again.
Fare thee well, Final Fantasy XII. I hardly knew ye. If you ignore the 108 hours of you I've played...
1 day ago
9 comments:
Go with what you know. If Li-halogen works, do it. I've only tried it twice with failure both times.
Good luck with the book. I hate to be a nervous Nelly (a la Ned Flanders) but what kind of a time line are we looking at? When can we expect to know the fate of your blood, sweat and tears?
It's just making a boronic ester, so it should work. Right? Right? Maybe I need to switch up the palladium source, too. I'm not sure.
I'm also not sure about the timeline. The website of the agency says that they're busy doing some traveling to various conferences throughout April, so it might be a bit before I hear anything. Sorry that I don't have a better answer.
Always a good sign when your significant other praises your work. And you wrote toward a killer ending, sounds like. I hope to read it someday.
That's one of my favourite albums, and I too like to listen to it when I've had an off day. So. Central Rain - one of my favourite songs.
I wrote a book about a backpacking trip I took back in '04, which I've always wanted to get published (doubt it'll ever happen) and none of the girlfriends I've had since then has ever gotten through it. I'm sure that's not a very good sign...
Rider: I hope so, too. I'll let everyone know about what's going on as I continue forth with this process.
Frank: It's a bad sign. You're dating the wrong ladies. Have you ever read "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson? Terribly good read, that. I highly recommend it if you're interested in writing any sort of story like that.
You had me at "shitty day" but lost me on the lithium-thingy-synthesis. Yeah, the bleach on the hair has gone deep.
I can't wait until you publish! I am so excited for you. Plus, I get to say I knew you when....
YES. "Walk in the Woods" was actually my inspiration. I've read just about everything else Bryson has written. I think my problem is that I always end up dating girls who don't like to/can't read.
Yeah, I can definitely see that last part as being a problem.
It's kind of like the girl I was dating who read through one of my books and put down some criticisms/editing. Some of her thoughts were valid; others...you could tell she was completely un familiar with the subject material.
Bill Bryson is awesome.
You have to let us all know as soon as it gets published, OK? I don't have a lot of time to read these days, but I'm SO picking up a copy as soon as it's out. :D
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