A Meal Alone

I wake up each morning fully intending to work on the DAKAR synopsis or write more on Persnickety. Today, I filled out yet another form from CitiMortgage (aka one more hoop to jump through) and took it to UPS. Mind you, I've been "hoop jumping" for a year now in my quest to get my mortgage reduced thanks to President Obama's "mortgage reduction plan."

I also intended to go shopping for Thursday's Thanksgiving feast, but I hadn't had breakfast, and now it was lunch time... and Cracker Barrel was right down the road (can you hear me giving in to my internal whining?). Before I knew it, I was seated by the window trying to decide if I wanted breakfast or lunch. Wonderful aromas wafted around the room. Breakfast won. I don't mind sitting alone in a restaurant like this. I people watch, take in my surroundings, eavesdrop a little, read whatever is on the wall, and today I played CB's table game where you jump one peg over another trying to end up with as few as possible before you can no longer jump. Today I got it down to two pegs. While I was there I noticed that I was the only "party of one" in the entire room. But, you know what? Lots of people weren't even talking to each other... they might as well have been alone. One table had three people; they were all texting to somebody not with them. What happened to the art of conversation? the gift of laughter? Friendship? Honor? Respect? Sensitivity? Etiquette?

One precious little boy at the table next to me pointed toward me and asked his mommy why I was alone. "Because," she said, "her friends aren't able to be with her today." I was shocked when I heard him whisper "Could we ask her to be with us? We could be friends." She smiled at me and gestured toward the empty chair.

I gathered my things and stopped at their table as I was leaving. Samuel's face lit up as he waited for me to sit. "Thank you so much for the invitation, Samuel, but it's time for me to leave now. I would love to join you the next time I see you, though... OK?"

"We'll be looking forward to it," the dad said.

Needless to say, I drove right past the grocery store. .I was being thankful that I had had breakfast alone and Samuel had noticed. Mr. Gobble Gobble will have to wait.

REJECTION!!!!!

Hope you're not opposed to the color "orange." I chose it for Autumn, pumpkin pie and turkey!

Here it is November already and we're on a fast approach for Thanksgiving Day. Happy turkey day, y'all! I've decided to have a quiet day this year -- just Jeremy and me... and the bird. No additional family or extended family. In year's past when everyone left, I have made a silent, but solemn promise to myself that "next year I'm NOT hosting Thanksgiving; I'll be going to Fiji!" So far, that hasn't happened. Fiji, that is.

In my last post, I had just hit "send" of my query to two possibilities. That was a Friday. On Sunday afternoon, I received my first REJECTION letter. Wow! It zinged me between my eyes, and my stomach dropped to my toes. I was... ummm... "out of sorts" for the rest of the evening.

On Monday morning I was able to pick myself up, dry myself off, and start all over again. In case you don't know it, those are words to a song. It's a lilting melody. But, I digress, or at least stall. So, the first rejection is over. There will be more, I'm sure. We all face rejections in our lives and we deal with them. Maybe the next one won't pack such a wallop.

In my agent/publisher research, I have discovered that many agents/publishers want a synopsis with the query. Some will accept by email; some want snail mail. All their guidelines are different. Oy vey! I get bleary-eyed just trying to find out what they all want. Writing my story was EASY compared to this.

The First Query is Sent

I wrote a query and sent it to my editor. He made a couple of additions and changes which only enhanced it and I thought it was wonderful. It certainly caught MY eye. How could an agent/publisher resist?

I had found two "promising" publishing avenues. I know that there are gobs more, but, hey. This is a start. One was an agent, the other an actual publisher. I sat at my computer fully intending to email my query, but instead, I froze. I just sat here staring at the computer screen. I was so frightened about sending it incorrectly, or omitting something important that the receiver required, that I sat here for a long while. A meltdown of sorts happened. Tears flowed out of my eyes. I couldn't do it. I scolded myself for working SO hard on my manuscript and then not moving forward. I finally gave up and like Tara in Gone With the Wind, decided I'd think about that tomorrow. Well, la-dee-dah.

So. Tomorrow is now today and I did it. I actually carefully read through the requirements, made sure they were in my query, and hit "SEND."

The waiting game begins.

The Query

I made the last edits to my book and then asked my editor if he would like to see it again. In haggling about cost, he suggested that I send a dessert. Any ideas for a chocolate dessert that would travel well? He also had several comments and I made another round of changes. But, now I'm FINISHED! And I'm happy with it.

Then I started thinking about writing the query. My editor suggested that I not try to write it until the edits were completed. I found some sample letters on Google and I even found an agent to whom I'm planning to send my very first query. And probably others. So today I worked long and hard on writing the query and think I came up with something pretty unique, interesting, and catchy. I'm bracing myself for rejection, but I'm also praying that God has the right agent lined up and that there is HUGE interest in publishing my book.

Wisdom from other writers says that I should already have a following so the publisher is guaranteed money. Hence, this blog. Maybe I should get a website, too. I'm not interested in Twitter. I can barely tolerate Facebook. How will I make myself known?

The story continues...

What the editor said

So I emailed Richard and asked him what grade he would give me in his creative writing class. He wrote back: "I would give you an 'A'." And he asked me if I knew what it took to write a book and have an almost finished story. "You should be patting yourself on the back every five minutes."

My heart jumped up and down. A tear of joy mixed with a wee bit of pride rolled down my cheek. I suspect he is a tough teacher and he liked my stuff. So now I will begin writing the edits which will make my story/book focused and complete. Then the search begins for an agent and or a publisher. Amen.

The Editor Edits

On Friday, I received electronically the final edits of the last two chapters of my book, DAKAR. Richard has been tender, strong, complimentary, educational, and inspirational. He has been perfect and I adore "most" of this comments, suggestions, and deletions. We've had one episode of arguing by email. We compromised. But this last stuff. OMG! It's delicious! He even suggested a same-but-different ending -- and I intend to do it!

So, my work is cut out for me. My friend suggested that I ask Richard what grade he would've given me in his creative writing class. I'm hoping for an "A".

How is God taking care of me? Let me count the ways.

I've been remiss in writing this blog. I think it had me stymied. I didn't know what to write. For whom am I writing? For me? For you? If you're reading, what do you want to know?

I'm not sure whether or not to go back a month and try to fill in the blanks or just start fresh. I'll just start writing and see what we get.

I am very conscious of being unemployed since last November and the various ways that God has taken care of me. Sometimes His care is through His people. Let me list the ways and please forgive me if I inadvertently forget to mention you:

• Diane is my hair stylist. She has colored my hair, uncolored my hair, washed my hair, cut my hair, and made sure that I was beautiful when I walked out the door of her home. I saw her this morning and yet again she refused to take my money. Cutting my hair (and the hair of others in similar circumstances) is her ministry. God bless you, Diane.
• My next-door-neighbor, Joe had been cutting my grass and shoveling snow from my driveway (in the appropriate season) for a couple of years now. When he learned that I had been laid off, he refused to take my money. He and Kay always ask how I'm doing and tell me that they're still praying. Their house is on the market because they want to move to Arizona!!!! I will miss them enormously when their house sells. Jeremy, the cook extraordinaire of the family, often makes something yummy and eagerly shares with them.
• My friend, Cathy. Wow! What do I say about Cathy? She calls, prays, counsels, takes me out for meals, makes sure that my and Jeremy's! birthdays are celebrated, and when COBRA became available at a reduced rate she announced "I'll take care of that for you." I told her that I wasn't comfortable with her paying for my insurance and she replied, "I'm not comfortable with you not having insurance! Done!" She has faithfully sent a check to my former employer each month.
• When my former employer told me last November that they had to lay me off, we both cried. We had become friends as well as her being my supervisor. We started meeting for lunch and she always paid. We still keep in touch by phone and email and will have lunch again soon. She has been in crisis herself a lot during the summer so I have tried to encourage her and pray for the situations.
• Mary. Mary is sister to my friend, Cathy, and has become my friend, too. She is full of support and encouragement by word and deed. She moved to Texas in March and gave me a bunch of clothes. She treated me to meals. She bought me things I wouldn't have purchased for myself.
• I had my car's oil changed in June and was told that I needed to get four new tires IMMEDIATELY. I didn't know what to get, so I put out an email to my friends. One friend, Sherie, who lives in Nevada and was planning her own wedding, sent me a check for $500. I wondered why on earth she sent me that amount and she told me that "our Dad" told her to send that amount. Duh. I also needed brakes. Tires and brakes were totally covered by Lil B. Don't ask. That's a private nickname for her.
• Oh yeah. Vicki and David were instrumental in helping me get the tires. He went tire shopping with me and we got quite a deal. Thank you, David.
• It's hard not to get depressed when you're not working and there aren't jobs available. One day I was feeling especially sorry for myself and I got a package in the mail. My cousin, Sherry, had sent me a book of encouragement and my spirits were lifted pronto.
• As long as I have COBRA, I thought I might has well use it. So I made an appointment with a dermatologist because I suffer... and I mean suffer... with severe placque psoriasis. I won't go into all the gory details, but the derm basically said that yep, I have it bad. She recommended biologic therapy, injections of Enbrel. We thought my insurance carrier would make us jump through hoops, so we took pictures, I began a regimen of three ointments and a couple of weeks later I got a call from a "specialty" pharmacy. The voice on the other end said that I'd been approved for Enbrel... when could they send it... and my co-pay would be $30. Wow! $30 didn't seem so bad. Then I was told that there was also a "co-pay assistance program" and that my part would be absolutely ZERO! I put this off for quite a while because I thought it would be VERY EXPENSIVE. Jesus to my rescue.

So you see? Big and little things are taken care of. I miss working and I miss being out with people because I'm such an extrovert. But all this time has given me long hours to work on my books and other writing projects. God has the right job for me and it will come along at just the right time.

Introduction

Clever blog name, eh? "GayeWrites." Yes, my name is Gaye and I'm passionate about writing. I am not gay. I'm all for certain gay rights. It's a play on words, Folks.

People have often told me throughout my life: "You're such a good story teller. You should write this and get it published." Or, "You're such a good writer! I can't wait until I get something else from you!" Or, "I love the way you write. I can almost hear your voice." Or, "When I read what you've written, I can see it, touch it, taste it, feel it. I want more."

So, here I am trying to figure out how to blog. It's a puzzlement. I'll just have to try and figure it out as I go along.

I've written a book -- DAKAR -- which is with an editor at this very moment. It's loosely based on some of my experiences in Dakar about a hundred years ago. Well, not exactly a hundred years, but a long time ago. It's a great love story with all sorts of twists and turns. Rich, the editor, is doing a superb job of making my story even better AND he says I've got a good shot at getting published. Hallelujah and pass the pickles!

I'm well into another book, The Persnickety Witch of Fiddyment Creek, which my friends and I fondly refer to as PWOFC. It started out to be a children's book, but in the story telling, it became a story for young adults. I'm anxious to see how it turns out! I say this because I don't know. There's a creek nearby called "Fiddyment Creek" and my son, Jeremy, challenged me to write a story about it. He and I loved saying "Fiddyment Creek" over and over. It sort of rolls off your tongue. I said, "What on earth would I write about?" And he said, "The Persnickety Witch." Voila! A story was born, but was also an empty slate. So I sat down and one sentence led to another and pretty soon I had over a hundred pages and the story was only half told. I'll keep you informed as the blog continues.

I can do all this writing because I was laid off last November. It is now mid-July and I haven't had a speck of interest from a potential employer. So, I've used a lot of the time to write. It keeps me from losing my mind.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog. I'm catching up with technology slowly but surely.