being a little girl who got into the cookie jar again.

So something magical happened today.  It was a culmination of a lot of things, really.  A lot of work and some dreaming, but mostly it comes from pinning my new writer friend/mentory thingy down and demanding that he tell me everything that he knows about writing, marketing, and publishing.  I want to know about agents and small press and how you know when to bail and what should keep you hanging around.  I want to know what I should be researching when looking for a press, and I’m learning about things like “magic numbers” and if it’s acceptable to submit to a place that doesn’t give advances, and what the etiquette is.  His answers have been invaluable to me, and I am just amazed by the things that I’m finding out.  He is quite gracious, and I feel this sense of urgency to bleed him dry before he realizes that it’s quite irksome to constantly be bombarded with questions. (Which is obviously how I repay graciousness.) But all of this knowledge has led to two things:

1) I’m now quite excited about what comes after the writing as well as enjoying the actual writing

2) For the first time, maybe, I am realizing that I could really get somewhere with this.  It isn’t just an unattainable grand dream.  The whole writing/publishing world is a fantastic, fascinating machine that actually works.  I am firmly convinced that if I work hard enough, and long enough, I’ll succeed.  You know what that is?  That is freedom.  That is joy.   A delightful I-Ate-All-Of-The-Oreos kind of joy.

Pieces out:  42

Goal: Achieved