WE'RE STILL HERE!

Seven things we've done since our last post:

• Went to BEA


• Spent a week in the Great Northwest


• Went to a clown party in Seattle with Patch Adams (really!)


• Visited a ranch near the Cascade Mountains where kids with addiction problems work with horses


• Spent time visiting awesome tide pools on Oregon coast with son Joel--pink starfish


• Attended Robert's "graduation" from pre-K (believe it or not)


• Took on a cool new memoir (more about this later)


• Continued to read queries, partials, manuscripts--terribly behind again, but working to get caught up!

Something we've NOT done:

• Posted new blog entries

Stay tuned. We're back.

DREAMING OF THE TROPICS

"It was the end of the world as she knew it,
and Kate Carmichael felt something short of
fine."
-- Alissa, First Lines Contest

We took off our agent hats and our publicist hats, put on sunglasses and SPF 15 and took off for Florida earlier this month. Jon's mother owns a little place down there and it was time to check on the property. Her home is in a "backwater" region of Florida with limited email access and, though I am the proud owner of a new HP Netbook, I did not use the great little machine to post a blog entry.

The weather was perfect for winter-weary souls--60s and 70s, most days. (The Floridians say it's "cold.") We spent most of our time cleaning, throwing out items and boxing up others that Mom can use up here. We were able, however to make side trips and enjoy the weather.

We flew back in a tropical rainstorm and arrived in Philly just in time to participate in a massive Nor'easter. "At least it's not snowing," grumbled Jon as he glared through the soaked windshield as we floated down Rt. 95.

Since we've been back we've been working hard to get caught up. We've requested several partials and a manuscript or two. Again, your patience is much appreciated as we plow through the projects.

I made an executive decision while we were gone. From now on I'll request emailed partials and manuscripts. I can load them on a memory stick and read them nicely on the Netbook. Saves paper and shelf space.

QUIET FRIDAY

At the midpoint of our morning walk today Jon remarked that it was "quiet, too quiet." Our favorite dogs, Annie and Mazie were not outside to greet us, the school buses were absent, no kids on the corner, no crazed commuters. Duh! For most of the world this is a holiday. For us, it's business as usual, but the down time does give us an opportunity to try to catch up.

To complicate things this week--we are breaking in a new email system. Our old system, Lotus Notes, has been great, but it's time to move on. So our friends/clients Rob and Jane Kirkland spent all day last Sunday installing the new Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager on to our computers. Notes is still there as well until we get all the kinks worked out. Jon's Outlook seems to be working like charm; mine is not, so things are moving much slower than usual. Rob and Jane will be here again this weekend to work out the glitches and finish the installation. Watching those two work, one on one computer, one on the other is awe-inspiring. They are both IBM/computer geniuses and I swear, for them it's a competition to see who can correct the glitches first. (I hear strains of "Dueling Banjos" in the background when they work.)

We'll feed Rob and Jane a nice Easter dinner and celebrate Rob's birthday when they finish their work and we should be up and running full-speed next week.

For those of you who have queried, your queries will be answered. Jon is afraid that he's missed a batch of queries in the transition and encourages you to query again if you've not recieved an answer. We usually answer queries within a month. And for those of you who've been good enough to send requested partials and manuscripts, we thank you for your patience. We are moving forward and we will someday get to the bottom of the piles!

We wish you all a lovely holiday weekend!

WHY WE CAN'T GET TO OUR PARTIALS

I've whined before about how behind we are in our reading. NOW you know why.

CHECKING IN

We have not been abducted by aliens. We aren't vacationing in the Carribean. And we haven't retired.

We're just too busy and the blog has taken the hit. Jon continues to shuttle back and forth to Florida to tend to aging parents, leaving me to pick up the slack with our two businesses.

Random thoughts:

• I await the contract for our three-book deal for a cozy mystery series. As soon as the paperwork is finalized, I'll go into more detail.
• My trip to NYC last week was cancelled due to illness--not mine, someone else.
• Queries continue to flood in. I've requested about 4 partials in the past week; Jon has asked for a few more.
• For some reason the queries for "wizard and dragon" fantasies are on the rise. We're not interested, so don't send them to us.
• It's still bloody COLD here--sunny, but cold.
• I'm reading Beautiful Boy, a stunning memoir by a gifted journalist.
• I'm also reading The Glass Castle, another memoir--unbelievable, but true, story.
• I just added Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace to my stack of "must reads" after reading about the author in this week's New Yorker magazine.
• The cats are so full of static that you risk "electrocution by petting" if you get near them.
• Our bird feeders are full of pine siskins.

......and our desks are full of queries, partials and manuscripts. Hope the winter's treating all of you well!

SLEEPING ON IT

Something is happening with the agency. The partials and manuscripts we requested last spring and summer are of a consistently better quality than those we requested in the "early years." That's the good news AND the bad news. Now it's much harder to make a final "go or no-go" decision. Jon employs the "sleep on it" technique. If he's having trouble deciding on a partial or manuscript, he'll put it aside for at least a day or two. When he comes back to it, his head has cleared and he can make a decision based on:

1. His passion for the plot and the writing


2. His belief that others (in other words EDITORS) will share his enthusiasm


3. The joy the work brings him; how it rattles in his head long after he's read it

If the work stands up to those judgements, he'll move forward. If not, he'll reluctantly pass. It seems to be a good method and I'm trying to employ it myself. I have two such projects on my desk today. At this point, they are both calling to me. I think I'll sleep on it.