What I'm up to

What I've been up to lately:

Yesterday I wasn't feeling it -- at least not feeling like revising Gaia's Hands or trying to figure out if another old book, Gaia's Eyes, was worth resurrecting (as a short story, novel, birdcage liner, who knows what.) 

So I entered a couple short story contests and a flash essay contest. I always feel more optimistic when I have things in the pipeline, whether they be queries or submissions. I still don't know about DAW. I keep hoping.

I got the dev edit back for Apocalypse, and my work is cut out for me there. But it's so promising now, and I want to get it in the hands of an agent. I'll be proofing that starting today after I give platelets (or instead of platelets if my hemoglobin is low). 
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I have a problem with this blog right now. I keep getting visits from some Eastern European porn site blog. The one time I thought I'd isolated it, it was from Ukraine. The sad thing is, I get random hits now from other Eastern European countries like Moldova and Asian countries like Azerbaijan (sp?). I'm afraid these addresses aren't real and are being spoofed by the porn vendor. Sigh, time for that marketing plan. (Although I'm likely to wait till I have product.)

Querying progress: Not a lot to report

I haven't reported my writing/query progress for a while, so here it is:

My Prodigies query got rejected by Tor/Forge and a lot of agents over the past few months.

My query is now out to three publishers -- one big, the others small and independent.

One of the small presses asked for my whole manuscript, which is progress. We shall see.

The other two presses -- it's early days yet.

Please keep me in your thoughts and even prayers if you think this unabashedly liberal and universalist Quaker deserves them.

Hope Springs Eternal or, Sisyphus Was an Optimist

Hope springs eternal.

I sent a query off to DAW Books, one of those other Big 5 publisher imprints that don't require an agent. If my history with Prodigies is any indication, I should hear nothing from them in 6-8 weeks (they don't send rejections if I understand correctly) and be done with it.

Why do I do it, even though my chances of being chosen for publication are small?

Because if I don't do it, I'll never know.

Because I'm the sort of person who tries, even if I fail.

Because I like to make things happen.

Because I'm an eternal optimist.

Because I think my writing deserves to be read.

Because I don't want to be the one that gave up too soon on a dream.