Purgatory's Pit of Doom

Sorry for the sciatica, Ink.

I woke up early and got some revisions in. Sent my PB to a beta so I can't query it. Of course she will tell me it's too long because she writes novelty books, but if she can help me get another 20 words off, that would be fabulous. It's 850 words and I'd love 750. It's really hard to fit in both plot and character arc in that space.

Mornin pit and *Smiley's avatar beams Soul in eyes* AAAHhhh!!!! *flails around blindly until mole-like eyes adjust to sudden brightness*. Welcome Smiley, sorry to see you down here.

Cricket DO TELL THE NEWS!! And hugs on the cc, that sucks

((Mario))

WHAT Cat??? OMG Pink eye is HIGHLY contagious! HIGHLY! (((((Cat))))

Inky I had to endure another session of yard work this weekend too...stoopid dandelions. But wow sciatica sounds awful

Mornin', Pit

{{{Cat}}} Eye poop sucks

mario_c said:

So some of you know I was hired for a music gig in NYC - turns out the client booked the wrong date. I ended up playing on the sidewalk and got $2. And my camcorder battery lost juice so no footage yet.
I mean, I do get reimbursed per the agency I got hired through, but honest to G-d, doesn't anyone have any professional courtesy out there? Well, why should they, right? But no whining - I got to play my heart out for lots of people tonight, and most of them were appreciative. That's what I wanted, not money.

Click to expand...

I love that you stuck around and played on the sidewalk. That's awesome.

ink wench said:

Did yard work all weekend, and got no revisions done. The yard needed it, but alas, so did my revisions. And unlike revisions would have, the yard work has set off my sciatica. Going to be a fun week.

Click to expand...

You know the magic stretch to relieve sciatic pain, right?

SteveCordero said:

Eye poop sucks

Click to expand...

Sage words for this Tuesday morning.

My weekend was a craptasm. But lucky me, it was a three-day weekend, so I got three days of crap! Wheeeee!

soulcascade said:

Mornin pit and *Smiley's avatar beams Soul in eyes* AAAHhhh!!!! *flails around blindly until mole-like eyes adjust to sudden brightness*. Welcome Smiley, sorry to see you down here.

Hahahaha -- I thought the SAME thing! I was like, Whoa there!

WHAT Cat??? OMG Pink eye is HIGHLY contagious! HIGHLY! (((((Cat))))

The dr looked at my son's eyes and said it was Allergic Conjunctivitis, probably from the pool. If I knew how to insert a smiley shrugging here, I would.

Inky I had to endure another session of yard work this weekend too...stoopid dandelions. But wow sciatica sounds awful

Click to expand...

I had sciatica when I was pregnant. It's no fun. {{Ink}}

{{mario}} sigh, being able to do that kind of stuff is what I miss about NY.

kell -- what's a novelty book?

RedScylla said:

You know the magic stretch to relieve sciatic pain, right?

Click to expand...

I've yet to meet such a stretch, though I've had docs, PTs, and yoga teachers all claim to share it with me. My magic stretch is called ibuprofen.

Maryn said:

Hot. Hot-hot-hot-humid-hot.

Maryn, therefore whiny

Click to expand...

I will trade you hot and humid for cold and rainy.

ink wench said:

I've yet to meet such a stretch, though I've had docs, PTs, and yoga teachers all claim to share it with me. My magic stretch is called ibuprofen.

I will trade you hot and humid for cold and rainy.

Click to expand...

Hmmm... I've had sciatica ever since I ruptured my hip socket, but the old cross-legged piraformis stretch pretty much keeps me mobile on a daily basis.

As for weather, I think it explains my current emotional state. I'm totally depressed. Just utterly sunk, and yet my body is kinda cheerful, because the weather is Kansas spring perfect--high, clear blue skies, sunny, light breeze, 78 degrees. This is probably a bad mix. I think I'ma kill somebody.

In the kidlit world, a novelty book is usually for really little kids, like a board book shaped like a train, with sound, lights, googly eyes, or maybe like a lift-the-flap or pop-up book. It's not usually character- or plot-driven. My friend is primarily an illustrator who designs them -- now she is writing young picture books too.

Sciatica is sort of the perfect Pit disease though.

JK says he gets 7 million blog hits a year, and sometimes 30,000 in a single day.

He says they tend to be writers or people concerned with publishing, not readers.

Really? There are that many?


I think I have pneumonia. Going to the doc in one hour.

Sore throat, aching lungs, fever.

Blah.

hey guys, hope everyone had a good memorial day (I'm canadian so we don't got that here).

thanks for all the hugs last time and ((((pit)))) for all who need it.

omg tae bo + pop pilates is kicking my ass, but I feel so...I dunno, aerobicized now and days. like, I have more energy and I can feel my lungs/muscles working. I feel 'clean' in there, u know?

Was I stupid for hoping my agent would get back to me today? I just thought post-memorial day and all. GAH it's coming to four weeks since I handed in the revisions...don't know if she's ever taken this long.

I'm kind of torn because she sold a series from an agentmate to a major pub (TD is major, right?) and on one hand I'm happy she can make sales but on the other hand I'm like WHY NOT MY CARP...kell, I think you had a similar problem last week right? Or was that ink?

ETA: Teri, maybe it's a handful of repeat scared writers, but yeah, there are a looooooooot of us out there. We're just not allowed to talk about it in public,I guess. The powers that shush and all.

{{{Teri}}}

Teri, I'd say it's repeat traffic. A hit is not the same thing as a visitor -- it doesn't mean anything unless it's defined (like royalties on net!).

Hugs to Teri.

Hugs to Roly on the agent woes and mixed feelings. It was Ink in that situation, but I saw that sale and I thought of you...

Oh, my beta on the PB came back already! Little stuff so I could query tomorrow if I wanted to. Everybody loved this as a chapter book and loves it as a picture book. Means it's doomed, right?

Red, stretching my peraformis can help, but it doesn't always. Just like there are some motions that will cause pain most times, but not always. My sciatic is finicky.

(((Teri))) Hope you feel better soon. And I was gonna say what Kellion said about the hits.

(((Roly))) Yeah, that was me, and yeah it's very conflicting emotions.

Kellion, yay! It would mean you were doomed if you were me. But you're not me, so I will be hopeful for you.

Speaking of which I was all excited to dive into my revisions this morning when the agent got back to me. But now that the work day is almost over and the time nears when I can revise, I seriously don't want to look at that WIP anymore. I have a stupid tease of a muse.

LOL, Inky. I know exactly what you mean. I wait all day, thinking of working on revisions as soon as I get home. Then i get home and think, Ugh, really? I gotta look at this again?

{{{Ink}}} Sciatica, boo.

Mario, that sucks. But hey, at least you played your heart out on the street. That's cool! And $2 bucks is $2 bucks!

{{{Teri}}} Hope it's not as bad as you suspect it is....

{{{Roly}}} Waiting is so hard....

YAY, Kell! I need to learn the difference between all these different kinds of books...I'm the worst.

Maryn. Sorry to see you here.

Another day in paradise, although the agents don't seem to understand! They keep rejecting me, even when I'm here--how dare them! Oh, and an agent said my query was interesting, but he was too busy at the moment so he was passing it on to agent mates and....nada.

Ah, well. Life in the Pit.

Thanks. I never know what those numbers mean, but 30,000 in a day seems insane, even if people go multiple times.

About revisions: My husband, trying to be nice and helpful, said, "I know your writing makes you happy." I practically exploded. Happy????????!!!! I suffer! It's horrible! I ENVY those who don't feel the need. I always know when I'm depressed about my writing because I close my eyes and imagine lifeless planets orbiting a sun, as in, "in a hundred million years, none of it will matter."

Yes, I have pneumonia. I never had it before. Weird illness.

(((Teri))) The Pit is not good for lungs, is it? Get better.

My muse is just like yours, Red and Ink.

Hugs on the R, Cricket, but enjoy the paradise.

{{Teri}} That's terrible! Good thing you caught it in time. It's also a good thing you're taking time off from work. You are, aren't you?

{{Cricket}} but mmmm, pineapple and papaya and Kona coffee and getting leid.

Hugs for all the sick and rejected peops in the house of Doom.

I tried to get a shot of some cool graffiti (only in NY) on the train through the Bronx: a painting of Shakespeare that says, "A Real Writer". An expedition may be necessary, if very ill advised....

(((Cricket))) It's true. The Pit can follow you anywhere. *sigh*

(((Teri))) Hope you feel better soon.

Mario, that does sound very pic-worthy, heh.

Mornin', Pit

{{{Cricket}}}

Ack, sent off PB to the editor. I'd like to hold off sending elsewhere since I might pursue an agent with it. But I don't know if I can stomach that process because even if they like the book, they'll want to poke me with sticks and look at my other projects, and I don't have any that are queryable.

Awesome essay:
Do editors no longer say no because they can no longer say yes?
http://futurebook.net/content/do-editors-not-say-no-because-they-can-no-longer-say-yes