Wow. On one level, this last week really really made me wish for absolute do-overs. I’m tired (exhausted) and mildly ( actually very) sick of the internet and how it shows me the terrible things being done to people so. . .casually. Like, no big deal. These are just people’s lives. 

/sigh.

It’s times like these I eat chocolate, hug my son so hard he squirms away going “Moooo-oooooooommmyyyyy” and count my small blessings, including my friends and supporters. As I said on Facebook earlier, i think the hardest part of being a (currently unpublished) writer is the long lonely stretch where the only person who believes in the work a writer does is the writer herself (himself, zirself,) and that no one else considers it valuable because it doesn’t spit out money at people. Unless you’re a best selling author, in which case, YAY you, and I have no idea what the hardest part of being a writer is for you. 

And then someone comes along and donates a hundred bucks to your website out of the blue. So that’s a wonderful feeling. Thank you! ( You get to read Book II first, if you want to, just ask)

So yes, I’m grateful for my friends, my family, and those wonderful angels who chip towards my bills. It’s all a very wonderful balm in the face of the (admittedly selfish) navel gazing in the wake of being told my writing is less important than X Y or Z chore. And yes, I get all the chores done, thank you very.

I wrote nearly 1500 words today. Woo! Book II stands at 91,200 words and is clanky-clankering towards a cliff hanger ending. More excitingly, Book III is waiting in the wings, demanding to take the stage next. Beta readers seem to like the Stand Alone novel and Book I of the Space Trilogy.

I thiink I just might do a query letter for the stand alone novel first and send that out. I’m still undecided. But regardless, when book II is first draft-completed, a Query letter Shall go out, and I will brace myself for a barrage of auto-rejections in three-ish months times. 

And maybe, just one or two “Can we see the first Chapter?” emails.

That would be awesome. Just like you. Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Oh, Kimiko Itoh, I love you, marry my ears. Er, wait.