EXCITING NEWS!!

Many of you know I've written a book and have been trying to get it published, which is not an easy process. I sent out query letters in June and received 100% rejections. But that was probably a good thing because it got me to do some more research (which I should've done in the first place! Hey, live and learn, right?) and I completely revamped my query letter so that it was kick-butt awesome compared to the last one I did and last Tuesday I submitted it to about seven more agencies.

I was having internet problems and finally Friday morning I asked Mom to check that email account for me and she sent me this.....

"Thank you for submitting your query to $%^&@. We read it with great interest and would like to see the full novel as well as a 3-5 page synopsis describing the book."

An agency in New York wanted my full manuscript!!! I nearly fell over! I did a lot of screaming and a weird kind of surreal, happy crying and I called Duane to read what she'd sent (she sent me their actual words) and I was so muddled he could hardly understand me, but it was an exciting day!

Usually agencies only ask for a few sample chapters, so I was a little blown away that they wanted the full thing up front, and they said they read my query with "great interest." WAH!! Anywho, I finally got everything exactly as I wanted it and sent the manuscript and a synopsis Sunday night. So now it's just a waiting game. They said it'll take up to 12 weeks to review my work, and that I was welcome to check with them after 8 weeks. What am I going to do for 8 weeks? JK

Needless to say, I've been very excited. I know it doesn't mean I'll get my book published. It is possible that they won't like what they read and I'll get the rejection later, but it's a step in the right direction in any case!

Watch out world, here I come!

Busy Busy Busy!

Okay, so Zach attack has been having tons of fun lately. It was his second birthday on the tenth and we had a little party for him. He couldn't quite figure out what to do with the lit candles on his cupcake, so he picked it up and tried to shake the flames off! It was hilarious.

He also carved his first pumpkin and that was fun. He has to go out onto the front porch to say, "Hi pumpkin," and take its "hat" off (the lid).

And last night we had a Halloween party at my mom's house and Zach got to wear his costume. He made such a cute little caveman. I suggested we all play the caveman game where you grunt instead of talk (I just made it up, can you tell?) Anna's kids loved it, but it got a little out of hand. Still, Zach was a cute caveman. We looked everywhere to find a little bone or something for him, but didn't have much luck, so I squished a piece of aluminum foil and spray painted it white. It didn't last long, Zach kept wanting to play with it.

Okay, sorry, caveman pictures to come later. As I've said before, I'm not a pro at blogging!

Leaves

Long time no blog! We moved down the street to our real estate house and not only is the space great, but we have an awesome backyard. Zach has a book where the skeleton rakes leaves and then I saw a little rake at the dollar store, so he was ready for the leaves to begin to fall. And we went out into the backyard and made little piles, he with his tiny rake and me with the regular one. And he loved to run and flop himself down onto the little piles. It was so cute.