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shalannaYay!
Today I got a nice (if mass-mailed) e-mail from the judge in the St. Martin's contest. She apologizes for having told some of us that she'd know results (i. e., whose manuscript gets passed on to the editors) around this time in Nov.; I sent my entry in three weeks early, but she ultimately got a stack of fifty (fifty!!) entries, most on the last possible postmark-deadline date, and she is committed to reading each of them carefully. These are ENTIRE manuscripts. She told us she has a family and children to take care of and works full-time, so she can only read one a day (then she said she was kidding--she couldn't get a whole one read every evening. Only a reading-nerd like me who neglects her housework quite sinfully could do that.) She kept apologizing for that, which was not necessary. I certainly wouldn't expect her to read any faster. Wow, fifty! Can't believe they didn't have more volunteer judges. Now you see what we're up against.
(Already you can tell she's in a whole 'nother class from that clod I had last year. However, perhaps the reason she is stuck with so MANY to read--and she's a volunteer, unpaid--is that the clod didn't do it this year. The classy one thus has to overwork. Sheesh.)
She says that she already has chosen a few for the short list, and she'll re-read those before deciding. And that the final date is in mid-February of 2005, so the longer it is before we hear from her, the better chance we have that it's our book moving up.
Gah! But this is good news. I'd figured on a long wait . . . *grin*
Maybe Nice Work is on the short list. I really like the sisters who told me that story through the Muse. If I had only had a sister . . . yeah, right. (sigh) Hubby assures me that if I had, we would not be the superfriends that these two kind of are. Mama says that if she'd had another kid, with our luck he/she would be a basket case that we had to carry on our backs and constantly reassure because of all its neuroses and so forth, so it's just as well that there's only me. (I'm bad enough!) Still, it's fun to imagine that there somewhere exist friendly sisters who enjoyed growing up together, for the most part.
My other series features quite dysfunctional sisters. *evil grin* That's the one what got so cruelly treated by the Nasty Judge last year in this same contest. Still, I think THAT series is also good, and I'll eventually try to send it out somewhere. It doesn't seem to appeal to agents too much, though. It's the one that's gone out in snailmail to the other author (y'know, where I won the three critiques, yadda yadda). That author is a famed romantic suspense writer, and so perhaps the comments will be helpful. Cool.
In other news . . . I thought the little TV piece with the Prez pardoning the turkey was kinda cute. That white turkey was really pretty. Wish he had pardoned them all! I really am not a big fan of meat at all . . . now that I know what it is. (Figured it out around fifth grade. Perhaps I was a bit in denial there.) Despite myself, I was giggling. George and the turkey were both looking a bit haggard, though. My mother says she thinks the Prez looks bad, worried, a little overstressed. I imagine that's not far from the truth, considering the job. Don't know why anyone would want that job, matter of fact. I am far too lazy to work all the time, and I hate meetings. Plus I don't moderate my talk the way you have to do to avoid global wars.
Also saw a clip of those nutty types who held a public "Pray-In" to protest Arlen Specter simply saying that he didn't think a certain kind of candidate had a good chance of getting in. They were all shouting the Lord's Prayer at a microphone, but I did not get the feeling that He was going to be terribly pleased with their little act, because it smacked of a publicity stunt and wasn't at all like public prayers led in church or meant sincerely. For the first time, I actually can picture the Pharisees back in Christ's day, standing up there out in public reciting some prayer loudly for the benefit of the people watching. Sigh!! Give me a break!!
Today I got a nice (if mass-mailed) e-mail from the judge in the St. Martin's contest. She apologizes for having told some of us that she'd know results (i. e., whose manuscript gets passed on to the editors) around this time in Nov.; I sent my entry in three weeks early, but she ultimately got a stack of fifty (fifty!!) entries, most on the last possible postmark-deadline date, and she is committed to reading each of them carefully. These are ENTIRE manuscripts. She told us she has a family and children to take care of and works full-time, so she can only read one a day (then she said she was kidding--she couldn't get a whole one read every evening. Only a reading-nerd like me who neglects her housework quite sinfully could do that.) She kept apologizing for that, which was not necessary. I certainly wouldn't expect her to read any faster. Wow, fifty! Can't believe they didn't have more volunteer judges. Now you see what we're up against.
(Already you can tell she's in a whole 'nother class from that clod I had last year. However, perhaps the reason she is stuck with so MANY to read--and she's a volunteer, unpaid--is that the clod didn't do it this year. The classy one thus has to overwork. Sheesh.)
She says that she already has chosen a few for the short list, and she'll re-read those before deciding. And that the final date is in mid-February of 2005, so the longer it is before we hear from her, the better chance we have that it's our book moving up.
Gah! But this is good news. I'd figured on a long wait . . . *grin*
Maybe Nice Work is on the short list. I really like the sisters who told me that story through the Muse. If I had only had a sister . . . yeah, right. (sigh) Hubby assures me that if I had, we would not be the superfriends that these two kind of are. Mama says that if she'd had another kid, with our luck he/she would be a basket case that we had to carry on our backs and constantly reassure because of all its neuroses and so forth, so it's just as well that there's only me. (I'm bad enough!) Still, it's fun to imagine that there somewhere exist friendly sisters who enjoyed growing up together, for the most part.
My other series features quite dysfunctional sisters. *evil grin* That's the one what got so cruelly treated by the Nasty Judge last year in this same contest. Still, I think THAT series is also good, and I'll eventually try to send it out somewhere. It doesn't seem to appeal to agents too much, though. It's the one that's gone out in snailmail to the other author (y'know, where I won the three critiques, yadda yadda). That author is a famed romantic suspense writer, and so perhaps the comments will be helpful. Cool.
In other news . . . I thought the little TV piece with the Prez pardoning the turkey was kinda cute. That white turkey was really pretty. Wish he had pardoned them all! I really am not a big fan of meat at all . . . now that I know what it is. (Figured it out around fifth grade. Perhaps I was a bit in denial there.) Despite myself, I was giggling. George and the turkey were both looking a bit haggard, though. My mother says she thinks the Prez looks bad, worried, a little overstressed. I imagine that's not far from the truth, considering the job. Don't know why anyone would want that job, matter of fact. I am far too lazy to work all the time, and I hate meetings. Plus I don't moderate my talk the way you have to do to avoid global wars.
Also saw a clip of those nutty types who held a public "Pray-In" to protest Arlen Specter simply saying that he didn't think a certain kind of candidate had a good chance of getting in. They were all shouting the Lord's Prayer at a microphone, but I did not get the feeling that He was going to be terribly pleased with their little act, because it smacked of a publicity stunt and wasn't at all like public prayers led in church or meant sincerely. For the first time, I actually can picture the Pharisees back in Christ's day, standing up there out in public reciting some prayer loudly for the benefit of the people watching. Sigh!! Give me a break!!
