Regardless in the Mail

January 21, 2009

'Regardless' is in the mail. I can only hope the editor Gods find favor with the story and I get a positive response. But, at least it's out there to be judged. Did I mention that I hate the administrative side of this lovely writing experience. I once told Shirley Wolford, a widely published friend of mine who passed away last fall, that I was looking for someone who would give me an hour a day to work on the administrative necessity to sell/publish what I've written. I told her that I would pay for all the copying and postage. Then, should we hook up with a publisher and make money, I would be willing to share any profits 50/50. She looked at me like I was crazy. "50%," she yelled. "Are you crazy?" I laughed and told her that, in my opinion, 50% of something was a whole lot better than the 100% I get when I don't do any submitting. She just laughed and said she had to agree.

I also found time to send off a short story to The Chick Lit Review and am now working on sending something out to Bent Pin, an ezine. But, that takes away from my time with my writing. I'm still managing to move 'The Woman Between' ahead each day. Today was fun. The brothers are about to rumble. I love working with the dialog that will lead to a few punches.

Had our local writer's meeting on Saturday. Lots of good subs, lots of good crits. I had submitted an excerpt from 'The Woman Between' and it went over well. Most commented that they could 'smell' the cigar smoke. I appreciated hearing that!

We had a lot of discussion at the meeting about doing research. Yep, you don't want a guy in 1860 driving a Ford. But, how much 'fact/teaching' should be included in a ficion novel? I know how annoyed I was in reading 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown. I was bored to death with his 'number of steps', 'bolts in the frame' and such. I only finished it because he was the author of the month in my book club. When I read fiction, I want characters working their way through a story. So, in my opinion, research, but don't insert an educational book into my fiction novel. JMHO.

Heard from Anne Conners today. She's back in town. She says she hasn't been doing much writing, so she's eager to work with the local group. She is such a talented writer in both prose and poetry. I was glad to hear that she is thinking about self-publishing her novel. We talked about Xlibris, which has done well by me. But, Publish America has been very good to JOan Hobernicht, so I told her to check it out.

Tomorrow is our reading night at Hastings. I always look forward to that and to the discussions we get into after the readings are over.

This is not a political sight, but I must mention yesterday. I didn't always agree with George W. Bush, but I respect the sincerity of the man and his duty to country. There was some booing yesterday and it made me sick. Of course, the group I saw booing looked like prison retreads so I guess they wouldn't recognize a good man. I hope that President Obama turns out to be one of our great presidents and that he uses his time in office to help keep America the great country of insured freedoms that we all cherish and want to continue. I want him to protect our borders and keep terrorists from our land. But, I desperately hope that we Americans keep our free choice in medicine, guns, relationships and state's rights. Protect our borders, but leave us our freedoms in our daily lives.

So, I agree with Mark Twain who said, "Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it."

dóchas and saoirse!