The Next Circle of Hell

C.T. Richmond said:

Oh no...

Just got an update from my agent and he says that we've received a few rejections on my book. *Sob!* He's still very enthusiastic about my work but I guess my genre may be a tougher sell (MG SF/space opera).

Where's the booze? I need a few shots!

Well, I will try to stay optimistic!

Click to expand...

Yes, they suck epic amounts of monkey balls. Drinking, chocolate....they all help. Course, my main vice has been drowning my pub woes in chocolate. EESH

Good luck, Roly!

Welcome Susann

Lisa, glad you're taken care of & here's to Nathan's continued success.

(((CT))))

Yay Roly!

Despair.

tutter said:

Despair.

Click to expand...

Why despair, tutter?

Congrats, Roly! I hate weekends too. It seems like I never looked forward to Mondays before this. It's sick, sick, sick.

Yes, I have the whole weekend-hate thing going on, too. It's quite strange, haha. I've always loved the weekend before.

tutter said:

Despair.

Click to expand...

That's hell for ya. And, welcome.

So there with the weekend hating!

Only, even worse, I have JURY DUTY on Monday...which means NO ACCESS TO PHONE OR EMAIL ALL DAY!!!! AHHHH!!! I am addicted to my iphone! I do not know know how I will survive!!! What if agent emails? Calls? Has news?!?!? I will not know all day, and will spend all that time wondering, anticipating...and I know I'll reunite with my message-less, email-less phone and want to cry to the heavens in despair.

Yeah, I'm...uh...writing right now, which gets the juices flowing. Apologies for the melodrama. ;-)

Yikes Tracy. I feel for you. I think this should be a valid reason to be excused - lack of ability to concentrate on the case at hand. But I understand civic duty, too. I find myself stalking my e-mail account, waiting for any news - good, bad, other - that will let me know my work hasn't died out there somewhere and been left a dusty corpse in an editorial ditch.

I see your melodrama and raise you an adjective. (hee hee hee) I'm revising a wip trying to get back into the flow. Does that count as writing? It sure doesn't feel like it since my word count is staying in the same general ballpark. Ugh.

Yes, they suck epic amounts of monkey balls. Drinking, chocolate....they all help. Course, my main vice has been drowning my pub woes in chocolate. EESH

Click to expand...

Thanks June and Houndrat for the support! *Sigh* The rejections still sting but I'm drowning myself in my NaNo project. (And drowning myself with chocolate and booze!)

Tutter, I hope everything is okay.

Wow, I guess I'm a total anomaly, then. I forget for long stretches that I'm even on sub, and I rarely check my mail thinking I'll have something from my agent.

I guess pessimism has its perks? Lol. Though part of it's probably just that I've been crazy busy and therefore unable to write for awhile. Apparently, being out of the writing experience = less neurotic email checking.

Though I think I feel a stretch coming on for next week....

Well, I am at the stage where it has been so long since I heard anything that I have stopped hating weekends.

So there's that to look forward to, I guess.

houndrat said:

Wow, I guess I'm a total anomaly, then. I forget for long stretches that I'm even on sub, and I rarely check my mail thinking I'll have something from my agent.

I guess pessimism has its perks? Lol. Though part of it's probably just that I've been crazy busy and therefore unable to write for awhile. Apparently, being out of the writing experience = less neurotic email checking.

Though I think I feel a stretch coming on for next week....

Click to expand...

Snort, I'm so neurotically high strung that even for the July to October stretch I wasn't on sub I still worried, angsted, pined, etc for when we went on sub, lol.

Besides teaching, I don't have an outlet.....I'd kill for a hubby and some kidlets(obviously for more than just a writing distracton, lol)....anything to take my mind off of things.

Tutter, you need a hug - here ya go... {{{{{{tutter}}}}

CT, thank God you are my sub-sister right now. Agent-mate support is getting me thru a lot of this madness.

Ahhh - weekend angst. I thought it was just me. Thanks for the validation that weekends can bring major suckage.

I find that I have big issues with concentration. I try to attack a project to take my mind off things, but just can't focus in my usual way. Today I have mountains of 'vacation-is-over' laundry to do, so that will help. My NaNo writing is starving for my attention, but that will have to wait until all suitcases are unpacked and the sand is vaccuumed out of of our van.

Oh, and I returned from the beach with an ear infection...nice souvenir, eh?

Oh no, Sweet Tea! I hope your ear infection gets better soon! And yes, I'm definitely glad that we're agent mates and sub sisters! Totally gives me some sanity.

Tracy, good luck with jury duty! I've always wondered what it'd be like to be a juror, but I definitely understand your angst. I'd be worrying too about no email or phone! What if my agent needs to reach me?! Haha.

OK - confession time. Does anyone else take their cell phone to the bathroom with them (while I work, I mean)?

Sweet Tea said:

OK - confession time. Does anyone else take their cell phone to the bathroom with them (while I work, I mean)?

Click to expand...

LOL!! It's always close to hand, but not always that close!

Glad I'm not the only weekend hater. Said to hubby on Friday, "I'm not gonna hear anything Saturday or Sunday, therefore weekends are now officially pointless!" (Rosie, clock watching until Monday morning when Mr. A's gonna call and tell me about the major deal we've scored...)

Wow, I guess I'm a total anomaly, then. I forget for long stretches that I'm even on sub, and I rarely check my mail thinking I'll have something from my agent.

Oh, hell yes on this. I haven't heard anything on second round for the thriller, and the YA fantasy I gave her the go-ahead on for sub has gone unanwered. Gah. This agent is not a hand-holder or communicator, but I guess she gets the job done like one of the secret Incredibles. I shall call her Invisigirl. Okay.

On the publishing front, we had a 105-day jump to get some blurbs from famous writers. I knew some personally. We sent out over a dozen or more copies some time ago and haven't received one sylable from any of them. I knew that this was the way of world in Blurbsville, because I've gone through it before. We're down to 54 days and counting for launch, and we'll have to fit any blurbs into the hardback edition. But I understand--reading a frickin' ARC is low on the priority list for busy A-listers.

My ex-girl gal, lovely sweet baby, has 10 films behind her as an independent producer and is a VP for 20th Century fox. It's time to break out the flowers, candies and one more ARC. She's plan B in case something falls through here. Not that it will...but I'm not putting anything past this merciless industry.

Tri

I just want to say, I'm all about my civic duty, and I do think jury duty could be interesting. If I wasn't on sub, I'd even be excited. But... NO CELL PHONES?? How will I survive?! :-D

Sweet tea: I take my phone EVERYWHERE. Probably I should be in some kind of 12 step program. Seriously.

tracythewriter, I know how you feel! I get that way on long drives, which I occasionally have to take in the service of family duties (can't check e-mail because I don't have an i-anything). It's hell! I'm addicted to electrons! Fortunately, jury duty can be intense, even the selection part. Take it as an opportunity to let the calls and messages accumulate. What fun to get back to your phone after FOUR HOURS of not looking!

Oh, and yeah, I hate weekends. There'd better as hell be something in my inbox on Monday morning. Agent's in New York, I'm in Cali, so they're three hours ahead of me which means I should wake up to something. Grrrrr!

When I was on sub I always relished opportunities to be unplugged. It's not as if an offer will disappear if you don't respond immediately. But I'm too weak not to check messages constantly if I'm able to -- I need an isolation tank every now and then.

Um....I'm so not attached to my cell phone, that when my agent called me and left a message last week, I didn't realize it until she emailed to tell me the next day. D'oh.

In my defense, I was under the weather. But, yeah...I forget to charge my cell all the time, have to leave it at home...then only worry in case the school needs to call about my son.

*is a sub freak*

I've often wondered if it's possible to cyber-stalk myself. I watch my e-mail account for any blip, ping, flutter or other indication of activity, leaving my laptop up and running at all hours just in case some insomniac editor was to decide at 2 a.m. that s/he had to have my manuscript.

Ok, I'm not quite that bad...mostly. I wish I could be more like you, houndrat, and just roll with it. But my slightly obsessive nature just demands I worry it to death on the off chance it will help.

Cell phone? It's always somewhere near, particularly if my laptop isn't.

Oh, I don't know if I'd endorse my reaction to sub as particularly healthy....the fact that you are so attached to your phone and laptop implies a certain amount of optimism. I think that's a good thing.

Tracy, not sure where you are, but we are allowed cell phones for jury duty, mainly because there's a lot of waiting. You do have to turn them off at certain times, but we all still had them.

Moreover, there were places you could plug in your laptop. But I'm in L.A., so maybe it's different.

Good luck all y'all on sub!