The 10 Quick Steps to Submitting Manuscripts to Publishers

Step #1: Write a novel.

Step #2: Ask a bunch of other writers to read your work and give you notes.

Step #3: Rewrite the novel incorporating the best of the other writer's notes.

Step #4: Ask a friend who is a teacher/professor/editor to proof read your book for grammar and spelling. Fix it!

Step #5: Research publishers and find the ones that currently publishes the kind of book you want to publish.

Step #6: Check the publisher's website and read the biographies of all the editors. Find out if they are currently taking submissions. Find out what their submission requirements are (i.e.. size of font, first three chapters only vs. any three chapters vs. whole manuscript vs. inquiry letter only). 

Step #7: Write an inquiry letter. (There are many books available to assist in how to write a great inquiry letter and what information is required.)

Step #8: Send what the publisher asks (Only! Not a thing less or more!) with your inquiry letter and a stamped self addresses envelope.  

Step #9: Wait 2 weeks to a year. If they reject, start again at Step #5.

Step #10: In the meantime, write your next book and start all over.

Good luck!

The Dust Storm

It's impossible to say, "They are better off without her," and not sound an irrational beast.

How can a child be better off without their mother?

Isn't a mother's love irreplaceable?

The greatest force in all the world?

A mother's love can be all powerful.  In more ways than one.

What if a mother's love was destructive?

What if a mother's love was unequal?

What if a mother's love was conditional upon her mood and convenience?

What if a mother's love was unpredictable?

What if a mother's love was like a dust storm?

With its sand and dirt that grates at their eyes, clouding their sight, irritating their senses and causing involuntary tears.

With its force of power to push and pull and destroy without being tangible or visible.

With its ability to look awesome and heavenly from afar, or in the eye, but every where else within, its a cyclone of chaos.

Twisting. Thrashing. Thrusting.

Powerful.

What if a father's love was level?

What if a father's love was immovable?

What if a father's love was protective?

What if a father's love was rigid?

What if a father's love was like a willow tree?

With its bending and bowing every branch at the will of the dust storm.

With its roots planted firmly in the ground, while the truck takes hits from debris and grit and the leaves get shredded.

With its radius of tranquility, sacrificing its limbs to the wind so as not to disturb those cowering below.

Swaying. Tangling. Sheltering.

Is a child safe in a dust storm?

Do they feel loved knowing not which way it blows at any given time?

Are they not safer at the base of a willow tree during the dust storm, and after its gone?

Wind blown.

Exhausted.

Bewildered.

And clinging to the bark of the willow with finger and nail.

It can now be said again with clarification.

They are better off without The Dust Storm.

The End of Peace and Quiet

With the beginning of summer, here comes the end of a few luxuries (at least, for me).

1) Writing during daytime hours - Telling the children to "go play" and "find something to do for an hour or two" results in about 20 minutes of silence followed by arguments, whining, interruptions and unnecessary questions, lending me to believe in this motto, "Why bother?" From now on, if I have to write, it'll be after the kids go to bed, brain and energy willing. Thank God for coffee!

2) Private telephone conversations - As I always say, "I can't talk now, there are elephant ears about." My kids hear everything!  No more complaining about men, "Aunt Flow" or anything else you'd rather not explain to a 5 year old.  So much for peace of mind.

3) Coffee dates.  It's my favorite pastime.  When I say to somebody, "Let me buy you a cup of coffee." I usually follow through.  But my idea of a coffee date is to sit at the coffee shop and talk politics, family drama, school gossip, the news, the real estate market, neighborhood scuttlebutt and everything else that is petty and really none of my business.  It's also not conversation which is appropriate for little elephant ears, and they aren't the type to sit there quietly for longer than 10 minutes. Sorry folks, all coffee dates must wait until the end of August when school starts. Until then, I'm brewing at home.

4) Uninterrupted showers and bowel movements.  I don't need to explain that one.

5) Watching reruns of "Law & Order" and "General Hospital" while I fold laundry...not age appropriate either.

6) Cussing from 7 am - 8 pm.  Crap!

7) Talk radio in the car.

8) All songs with 'Explicit' lyrics.

But also,

9) Packing lunches...not going to miss that at all.

10) Waking up at 6:30 am to pry my children from their beds to get ready for school, and yet they somehow show up at my bedside at 5:45 am every Saturday...Why is that?!

Baby Steps

Re-wrote another scene from Chapter 8.  It has a ways to go yet. I'm managing my time better, which is a relief.

Now, if only I could manage my mind better, that would be icing on the cake.

Back in the Saddle

Yay for me! I worked today!

I reread up to the end of Chapter 7, fixing and fine tuning as I went. Then, I started switching Chapter 8 from first person to third person. After I get the initial switcheroo finished, it will take some time to rewrite and reorder the scenes.  Sometimes I wonder if this would be going easier if I'd started from scratch.

Oh well.  Too late now.