Tuesday, December 23, 2008

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Wow, I can't believe that it's been a month since I last posted. How time flies when one is having fun, ya know?

Hmm, where to start...

I guess the biggest news, for me at least, is that the first week of December, I got an e-mail from... No, let me back up a bit. About a year or so ago, I placed my first print-on-demand (POD) book, titled Complications, with an agency who claims that their people will pitch POD books to traditional type publishers, like Random House, etc. (Shameless self-promotion here: Complications is available in most online bookstores as well as at Betty's Books in Baker City. It was published under my pen name, Charlie MacNeil, if one cares to look for it on the Internet.) According to e-mails I got from the agency over the course of the next few months, they were pitchin' but nobody was catchin'. Then, in early December, out of the blue, I got an e-mail from the lady who had been doing the pitchin', saying that a relatively new publisher had contacted them, looking for authors...

The publishing company has an online questionairre they wanted the author, not the agent, to fill out, so I did. I figured, what the hey, the worst they could say was, "You're kidding, right?" Their website stated that they would contact me in a week or so, once they had time to review what I sent them. Three days later, I got an e-mail asking for the full manuscript of my book. Either they liked what they read, or they're really hard up for authors, I don't know which...

I sent them the manuscript, they read some more, said, "We like it but it needs some work", and so now the manuscript is with the lady who did the copyediting for me on Book 2. As soon as she's finished doing her thing, I'll get the rewrites done, shoot it back to the publisher, and see what comes next. I figure the worst they can say is NO, in whatever permutation strikes their fancy...

It's been snowing for about a week. All over the state, almost. We just started feeding hay to the cows the weekend before last. We haven't needed to until now, 'cause there's been plenty of grass available. Of course with a foot of snow on the ground, the grass pretty much is no longer available, hence the hay feeding. The snow is kind of pretty, at least when a person doesn't have to wade through it to do stuff. I keep planning to take some pictures, and I keep not doing it...

Last weekend we helped put on a 50th anniversary bash for some good friends of ours. It was snowing then, too. As the parking lot at the Senior Center was filling up, a new "You might be a redneck if..." thing came to mind: If you go to a Christmas party, and everybody arrives in a four wheel drive of some sort, with it locked in 4 by, you might be a redneck...

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, and I guess we're as ready as we're gonna get for Christmas to get here. Cheryl and I decided that we're not going to shop much for each other this year. Instead, we're going to try to run away from home for a few days of "Us time" some day soon, depending on the weather...