The Bouncy Castle

[Britwriter]

Originally Posted by JoyMC

Not feeling so bouncy here - actually kind of crushed. I already heard back from one of the agents who requested my full a week ago. And while I don't mean to complain about great feedback, she said she loved the characters and the premise and said I "absolutely nailed the voice." But, le sigh, she wasn't "as engaged in the mystery" as she'd hoped to be. Everyone always says voice is the hardest thing, but nailing it doesn't seem to get me anywhere. (I got similar feedback on my last manuscript.)

Bummer, I'm sorry.

I felt similarly on feedback on my full last month, where there was nothing but praise for my voice. But on reflection, I'd rather hear that voice is excellent, but fix something else, than the other way around. I always feel that voice is much harder to nail, or even to get help with.

Maybe it's just that agent. That's awesome that you're getting so many requests.

I'm going through a frustrating no-response spell on my MG query, although I did get a rejection today with some feedback that helped enormously. I'm going to tone down some of the humor, much as I personally think it works. I figure I can always add it back in later. But when I send just a partial, it seems too much for some agents.

I love getting that bit of feedback, even with a rejection, rather than wondering why, why, why?

It also makes me want to query that agent again in the future, when they take that bit of time to share their thoughts.

[Kitty Pryde]

mware, so sorry for your loss.

Joy, that is so frustrating! I'm sure things will be looking up soon on that front.


An update as promised:
The ants all escaped in the night through a tiny gap in the seal of the lid. Into my lead teacher's classroom closet. She was not mad but I felt pretty guilty. I thought my little student would go crazy and break stuff when I told him, but he took the news very well--progress! We talked about our feelings about the ants. Tomorrow morning I have to find more compost ants and then hot glue all the way around the lid. I will not be defeated by those devious little *&$%#. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a scathing amazon review to write!

[sissybaby]

well, I've been away for a couple of days.

So sorry Mike, about Casey. That made me cry.

Kitty - you made me laugh, as you almost always do. Such naughty kids! How fun to have a job where you have to try not to laugh all day.

Joy - hang in there.

Heza - glad your dad's doing better.

Hope I didn't miss anyone.

[MsJudy]

mware, so sorry about your dog. I know how quickly the fluffy ones become true family members.

kitty, you are a much nicer person than I would ever be. I draw the line at ants. Though I did stay up late last night, cooking 6 batches of Sculpey beads my kids had made.

Joy, chin up. You're getting good requests and good feedback, so you know you're doing lots of things right. It's only a matter of time now, baby.

Let's see... I got to spend a few hours on the phone calling parents after a group of my first graders decided to tell a girl that one of my kinder boys loved her and wanted to have sex with her...! Nobody totally flipped out, so far. I reassured everyone that I knew their precious darling had no idea what he was saying and was probably just repeating something they'd heard older kids say, but could they please have a little chat about what was appropriate?

Yeah. *squick*

And then our beloved office manager who has run this school for about 30 years fell this morning (out walking the dog in the pouring rain) and broke her hip.

And last week the father of one of our students was gunned down while mowing a neighbor's lawn. Nobody knows why... mistaken identity? Huge shock to the community.

So all around, it's been one of those weeks that make you say, Let's all rewind and start over, 'kay?

[Smish]

Judy! What an awful day. I'm so sorry.

Hugs for Joy, too. Don't give up. If you've nailed the voice, the odds are definitely in your favor!

Originally Posted by Kitty Pryde

An update as promised:
The ants all escaped in the night through a tiny gap in the seal of the lid. Into my lead teacher's classroom closet. She was not mad but I felt pretty guilty. I thought my little student would go crazy and break stuff when I told him, but he took the news very well--progress! We talked about our feelings about the ants. Tomorrow morning I have to find more compost ants and then hot glue all the way around the lid. I will not be defeated by those devious little *&$%#. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a scathing amazon review to write!

I'm looking forward to the next edition of Kitty Versus the Army Ants.

[MJWare]

Thanks for all the warm thoughts and support! Fortunately my girls took it well (better than me ;-)

Hopefully, everyone has an uneventful Friday the 13th, especially Judy!

[MsJudy]

Well, not quite uneventful... About 11:30 last night, we got hit by a thunderstorm the likes of which you never see in California. Huge rolling booms, lasted for hours. My dog just sat on my pillow and shivered...

Then this afternoon we got driving rain and hail. Most of my kids had never seen it rain ice before!

So, yeah. Not much teaching happened today. But it was exciting! And it counts as science, since kinder and first are all about Weather.

[Smish]

I'm jealous, Judy. I love thunderstorms. And I love hail, when it's small. The sound of hail falling is like nothing else, and it's awesome seeing bits of ice covering the ground.

Now, when hail is baseball sized and busts out the windows of my house, I'm not happy. But that's only happened to me once.

Tornadoes do freak me out, though, especially now that I don't have a basement. Although, strangely enough, the one time I was near enough to a tornado to see it up close, I wasn't scared. I was fascinated. It was a beautiful rope tornado - and adrenaline is an amazing thing.

[Kitty Pryde]

I don't even want to talk about the ants!

But today was a great day at work. My other little student worked on her science fair project with me today--dissecting a squid. She was so super excited, and very knowledgeable. She remembered everything I had taught her about squid, so she made me look really good for my boss (and my boss's boss's boss!). She kept saying, "Ohhh, it's so cool! Awesome! Oh my god!" We had big fun!



I also told my boss and principal about me going back to school. My boss said she would be flexible with my schedule and whatever I needed to do, and my principal said she insisted on me doing my student teaching there

[Smish]

Ewwwwww. When I was in high school, I was in an advanced human anatomy class, and we had to go to the university and examine actual human cadavers. I could do that, and I thought holding organs was very cool. But I don't think I could have dissected that squid.

Sounds like you have tons of support at the school, Kitty. I'm not at all surprised, though. You're awesome.

[Kitty Pryde]

It's like, just a thing from the grocery store that people buy to cook. Fresh and tasty! If my partner got her hands on it, she'd deep fry it, om nom nom. It wasn't a hideous preserved specimen or anything. It smelled deliciously of the ocean.

[Smish]

I just don't do well with fish. Slimy, smelly, yuck.

(This probably stems from the time I went fishing with my dad, brother, and the boy my twelve-year-old self was in love with -- and fell in the pond. And then got stuck on a barbed wire fence. And then yelled at my crush. However, he ended up being my first kiss later that year. )

[sissybaby]

Oh, yuckers! No squid for me, please. Which is weird, since I can eat mountain oysters. Go figure.

We need lots of good thoughts from everyone for the next day or so. We are directly in the path of a weather system that they've been warning about since early this morning, and it isn't due to hit our area until tomorrow afternoon late. They're talking about the possibility of numerous tornadoes that could travel for large distances on the ground. Softball sized hail (I can't even imagine) and I don't know what else. I kind of shut down after the tornado part.

They're already having them in Oklahoma, and we're just above them. I'm sending hubby to get grandbaby in the morning because we have a storm room in our basement, and her sitter doesn't even have a basement.

Tornadoes are fascinating, but I've been too close too often, so I have a healthy respect for them.

[Smish]

Saying a prayer for you, sissy. Be safe.

[SheilaJG]

Sounds scary, sissy. I'm glad you have a storm room in your basement. I'm sending my good thoughts your way!

I could handle the squid if it smelled like ocean. It's the smell of formaldehyde that makes me dizzy during dissections. I only ever did a frog and a pig, I don't think I could even be in a room with a dead person. I was talking to a friend from college that was in medical school, and he said, "Oh, I have to take my head to the sink now." That image, of him carrying a human head to the sink, gave me shivers for a long time. Eeew.

[heza]

Dissecting a squid sounds too much like cleaning a squid, which I will not do. I will happily eat them, though, after someone else has done all the work!

Joy: Sorry to hear about the R. Here's hoping someone else does engage.

Mike: I'm so sorry about Casey. I'm sending comforting thoughts.

Sissy: Be careful! I'll be praying. Stay safe!

(ETA: Dad is also doing just fine. MRI came back clean!)

[MsJudy]

squid are squicky. but science is cool.

sissy, hope you all stay safe and secure. I will stop whining about our 700 lightning strikes in one night.

[RuthD]

700 lightning strikes! That's ... more than one per minute for 7 hours. Or something.

Sissy, I hope you weathered the storms okay. We had a lot of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning last night. There are limbs down in the neighborhood, but our house and yard are fine.

[Smish]

Originally Posted by heza

(ETA: Dad is also doing just fine. MRI came back clean!)

[sissybaby]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and prayers. Storms are popping us all around us - tornadoes, hail, winds, all of it - but so far we're good. Of course, they say the worst should show up between 8 and midnight, when you can't very well see the rotating clouds, so that's getting a little scary.

I hope the softball sized hail skips our house, though. That's just crazy!

I baked my cake, but haven't cooked the burgers yet. Sure hope the power stays on until the kids are fed, or we'll have grouchy and scared to deal with. At least I remembered to buy ice cream!

Hope everyone else stays safe. And I sure hope we don't get THAT much lightning. Wow. My house got hit last week and we lost a phone line and the fax machine. Don't need any more of that.

[RuthD]

Originally Posted by heza

(ETA: Dad is also doing just fine. MRI came back clean!)

Glad to hear that, Heza!

[MsJudy]

Re: 700+ lightning strikes: ever since I read that in the paper, I've been trying to figure out how they actually know a thing like that. I'm picturing the lucky scientist who gets to sit outside on the roof with his little metal counter/clicker and a clipboard...

[MJWare]

Heza,
So glad about your dad!

Sissy,
I'm still crossing my fingers for you!

Judy,
I think they can track it via radar now, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Kitty Pryde]

I didn't think it was possible, but the kids at school have officially read too many fantasy novels. Three 4th grade girls formed some sort of secret society and decided that they could see into the future and one of them is The Chosen One (for...something. It's not clear.). This drama became the source of extremely heated conflict and somehow ended with over an hour of piteous sobbing. I don't even quite understand why. The moral of the story is don't form pretend secret societies upon which the fate of the world rests. The pressure is way too high.

[Smish]

It must be really hard being The Chosen One.