Yes, I do want to cry like a little baby...for about five minutes, then I'm fine.

Michelangelo kitty 99% most likely has what the vet calls Litterbox Aversion, which means something happened to make him not like his litterbox anymore, which means we hew-mons get to play detective to figure out what he does want in a litterbox. Which may be as easy as having one his pesky sister can't get to, or having a different kind of litter, or a lid instead of an open box, etc.  He's fine, but if he could speak English for thirty seconds, the whole process could go a lot faster.  Or if we could speak cat.

Then, I got a very very very good rejection from the first agent who had my full ms.  She loved the book, but had some reservations about marketing, and asked for something else. Which I will be very happy to send her as soon as I finish Simon and Jonnet's book.  I find it ironic that the hard-to-market book is the one I already sold . It is a different sort of a book, but I'm still liking the irony here.

Then there's an email from a friend about a joint venture and miscommunication, yada yada yada.  Short form, I didn't know something had gone a certain way, which gave friend an impression that was false, that resulted in consulting another party I don't know, which blah blah blah...let's cut to the chase and say I don't have time for this sort of stress.  In general, please, please, please check with the other person before assuming.  It can save time and blood pressure.

At least I'm reading a wonderful historical romance by Colleen Faulkner, which definitely reminds me what I'm in the romance fiction business for.  Though it doesn't make up for losing the head skin for a favorite Sims character in the reinstall...site I got it from is gone, head vanished, and can't change the appearance of Townies.  Grumblesigh. 

I'm going to go take my hormonal self to the kitchen, fix some lunch and then write.

Talked to the customer service manager at the local B&N this weekend (he happened to be in when a friend and I stopped by to see what they didn't have (private joke) in the romance section.  Got to tell him about the upcoming book and Arabella story and we talked for a brief while.  A little surreal, but fun anyway.

Other surreal thing this weekend (other than the fact that my dad let me pray for him) was getting a questionnaire to help a favourite author with her branding.  (Associating a particular image with a particular author.) This is something I've been thinking about a lot for my own projects, but to actually have to fill in what food, reality show, etc, is most like this author, required some thought.  Some of the categories, I'm not that familiar with.  I don't go to many movies, though we do live literally a five minute walk from a megaplex; does that say something about our movie tastes?

Got me thinking, though.  Things I would aspire to have the same impact as:

An Elaine Duillo illustration
A MeatLoaf/Jim Stienman song
Billy Joel's music
the Highlander tv series
Anna Griffin's decorative paper products
http://www.stampersanonymous.com/ rubber stamps
A Gregg Gulbronson illustration
The interior designs of Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen

I'll leave writers both ABA and CBA for another entry.

Had one of those days yesterday wherein most of the day was spent smacking head against keyboard and finding excuses to visit one more Sims site (hey, I did lose some nifty and needed items on an uninstall before installing Unleashed) but then, boom.  One of those flashes that in an instant explains everything I'd been fussing over, why I couldn't grab onto the bad guy's character.
 
Oh, I'd gotten his character, his general appearance, gestures, most of his motivation, but something was eluding me, and then, bammo.  It was there, everything fell into place, and when I looked up next, it was six pages later, and my friend Michele had arrived to whisk me off to our nag group.  I hadn't had a chance to read it before reading it aloud to the group, but the scene worked on every level, and though I was one tired puppy, that's one tired and happy puppy.  So yes, definetly in the groove now.  (Which is why I am currently bopping around for some new Sim houses. Plus I need a downtown shower and better beds.)  Of course this flash means I do have to make changes to the family tree it took me forever to get up for the main characters, but right is right.

Husband should be working tonight, so after I take the bottles in for recycling, I can organise the stuff I'm critting and  hopefully be able to dig into my vintage TBR pile for some inspiration.  Last week, I found a copy (oh joy, oh bliss) of Morgan Llwellyn's The Wind From Hastings, which I read for the first time the day before my senior fall semester at college started (I won't say how many years ago that was) and found myself so transported into the medieval world that I didn't care the dorm's electricity wasn't on yet.  Or I hadn't noticed if it were.  I want to write books that absorbing.

Contracts in the envelope, sealed and ready to go. The fact that there have been other human beings breathing my air during my usual work hours keeps me a bit unsettled, but things should clear out soon, and then I am taking a notebook into the bath with me. Gauranteed quiet time, unless the cat busts in. Which she has been known to do.

Nag group tonight in which we celebrate. Family and friends have been amazing in sharing my joy in this week. (Pause while cat busts in to get put in lap) Group still has the ability to physically harm me if I arrive with unmet goals from last week, at least some progress on same. Hopefully they'll help me with some brainstorming to get a better handle on my bad guy from Simon and Jonnet's story; he's not jelling, which means something is off.

Also playing with hauling the half-finished women's fiction prequel to My Outcast Heart -- Dalby's mother's story-- out of mothballs and reworking it into a romance so it can join the family as it were. I know off the top of my head at least one other story that could spin off from that, maybe two. Though Simon and Jonnet are my main focus right now, along with a return to the saga I'm doing with a collaborator.

But first, the important stuff. New awaphue shampoo, so must wash hair.

Very happy but very tired. Awe-Struck ebooks made an offer to publish My Outcast Heart and I accepted. If all goes well, this will be a 2005 or early 2005 release. Next step is contracts. Still doesn't feel entirely real yet, but it's right.