All Caught Up

@just4him I looked and didn't see it. I'll look again during the week. I'm sorry you are still so ill. It may take several days to recover. I'm always so darn busy. Just got home from being out all morning and have a dinner date with our best friends tonight.

@DianneN You need to put in my full name, Valerie Jean Routhieaux, it's there. I just got home too from doing laundry.

Thank you. Yes, it's on Amazon. I hope so too. I thought for a fleeting second I had shaken it when I woke up this morning. No such luck. I could easily sing baritone this morning. You were a busy lady. I hope you had a wonderful date night.

@just4him i wish ya still 'd 't, too, hon. brilliant he's climbed the ladder'n 'tis still there. sadly mine 's passed, 'bout 10 yrs 'go. we need those kind'a thingies to get's trackin' proper so such can be successful. the man's still not left...the aunt's currently'n a hover pattern. he cares not if'n he disrupts e'erybody elses routines. she's 'greed that if'n i wish to be 'lone, she'll go back home'n he'll be none the wiser.

@crazyhorseladycx That's good she's agreed to go home. I hope he's left by now. Yes, good editors are hard to come by. It was quite by accident I went to him in the first place. I was ready to go to the Christian Writer's conference in Wheaton, Illinois, just down the road from Elgin where I lived. I wondered who I would approach at the conference and the Lord told me Tyndale House. I told the Lord it better be a woman. Back then I didn't think men understood women writers. Yeah, I know that's funny now, I was in my early 20s back then. When I got there, I eyed the editor panel and found out the woman's name was Ken Peterson. I was determined not to talk to him about my book. However, that also didn't happen because I have this penchant for talking and I did quite a bit at the conference banquet the night before. I was in line for the juice and cookie break afterward and the woman I talked to at the banquet was behind me poking me in the back and he turned around. She kindly said this is the person I was telling you about. I wanted the floor to open up and drop me through, I was so embarrassed. I had also looked at his appointment sheet and it was full, so that answered that as far as I was concerned. You know God had other plans. He told me he would meet with me at a certain time. He looked over what I brought and the first thing he said was, "Have you considered this as a series?" Say what? I had just barely finished this one I wasn't thinking series or anything else. Tyndale is located in Wheaton which is why I could hand-deliver it. He told me to get him the full manuscript, that took two years with all I had to do with typing it, working, and raising kids. And as Paul Harvey would say, is the rest of the story. I'm so grateful to him for that letter. I wouldn't be the author or writer I am today otherwise.

That was my very first rejection. I had hand-delivered it to the editor of the publishing house. I didn't want to send it through the mail. We talked for a while, and he sent the manuscript back in a few days and it was evident he read it as he gave me a two-page critique. Not your standard two-paragraph reject letter. I wish I still had that letter. It helped me immensely with Scarred and my writing and helped me on my way to be the writer I am today. The last I heard he was the senior acquisitions editor for the publishing house. I'll always be grateful for that letter. I hope you get your freedom. I'm sorry you need to put up with your aunt. Too bad, you can't bundle her off to someplace as you did before.

@just4him like you with your historical fiction, I need to do so much research before I can write - but I dn't really mind. My memoir group and writing to penfriends also keeps me happy writing.

I hope you get back to it. It's the most relaxing thing I have in my life and it keeps the creative juices flowing.

@valmnz I research everything not only for historical fiction. You know a good author because their facts are right.

@just4him Wasn't a graded exercise, just a creative writing class as a hobby. Being a ponderous kind of person who daydreams a lot and is possessed of an over-active imagination I found eschewing adjectives infuriating. No way of conveying all the colour exploding in my mind. Then I remembered Hemingway who can (could) paint pictures with just a few well-chosen words and I understood.

@xFiacre That's good you could do it. I'm sure it was a fun class.

I know a lot of publishers today don't want to see many adjectives, however, I must not have had enough. I know adjectives help bring life to the story. How did it work out with that assignment? Did you get a good grade on it?

I hope you had a good night's sleep.

@amitkokiladitya I'm glad you did.

@just4him it is evening here now. But I slept well.last night

Thank you. Though being the next day, I have over a hundred again. It's going well so far, I even have the cover for it now.

@MommyOfEli2013 Thank you.

@just4him I understand that, if I have a good day here, I well get around that many too. And that is good to hear, I am glad!

Yes, it is. It doesn't take me long before I start working on another book, and with all those on my whiteboard, I'll also get back to writing and getting another book finished.

Thank you. It's such a beautiful place to visit.

Thank you. I'm glad you had a good day.

I can't take the flu shot. That was determined when I was in boot camp because of my allergy to chicken. This is a cold and it's in the chest, not the head, though I'm still blowing.

I hope work went well and all your students did well with their work. Did you find any deals when you went grocery shopping?

Thank you. The edit and revision are coming along well.

@nela13 I little but not much.

@just4him Are you feeling better now?

Thank you. I'll be keeping up from now on. I don't have anything pressing right now.

Yes, there is a lot of work involved in a book. Thank you.

I have done so. I am four chapters in with editing and revision and it's going well. I even have the cover.