I received TWO rejections yesterday.  The Mary, mother of Christ, series was axed yesterday, which is somewhat heartbreaking.  I’m licking my wounds today, and sending it off to another publisher.  But this is part of the game–you get some published, and you get some bounced back at you.

So what will I do?  I’m going to keep working on my current novel.  This is why I always encourage young writers to submit, and immediately start a new project.  Don’t wait on your one beautiful piece of perfection, because once it’s out there, you just don’t know what will happen.  The best remedy for rejection is to keep working on the next project.

The current book I’m working on is a manuscript that Steeple Hill asked to take a look at.  I’m excited about this story.  It has tonnes of potential, and I’m already hooked on my characters.  It’s a good feeling!

So here’s hoping that THIS book makes it to the book shelves.

In writing news, I finished up the romance novel for one of the publishers I currently work with, and emailed it off.  It’s a good feeling to have a manuscript sent away.  Of course, I had a few agonizing moments of, “Should I have added another sub-plot?  Is it really a horrible, drab bit of drivel?”  Then, the next morning I read through it again (very quickly) and decided that it’s good, and I just need to wait now to see what the publisher thinks of it.  As always, I’m willing to edit once I get some feedback.  I’m not too proud for that!

So yesterday, I plotted out my current romance novel.  This one is for Harlequin, the company I want to get in with so badly that I can taste it.  So this book is an important one.  But I’m happy with my outline.  I think it’ll be a really strong story and I’m already getting exciting about developing my theme.  There is a lot of potential there.

I’ve learned something about plotting romance novels over the last couple of books.  It’s better to plot out only the actual plot, and not try to plan the development of the relationship too much.  If I just let that flow naturally between them as I write, I find that it is much more believable than if I try to keep myself to an outline where I can’t have them declare their love for each other yet because that happens in the next chapter.  So this time, I’ve plotted out everything BUT the relationship, and I’m excited about working with a more fluid outline.

I’ve decided that since I tend to write faster than most (or so I’ve been told), if I take a little bit longer than usual on this book to make sure that my rough draft comes off as solidly as possible, that it shouldn’t hurt me at all.  So if I get really tired, I’m not going to push through, because that generally just means I’ll have a tonne of editing to do afterward.  Really, the stronger the rough draft is, the better the whole book is.  So that’s the aim.

So there you have it…  this is what I’m going to be immersed in for the next few weeks.  I’m really excited about it!  Can you tell?

Alright, this is where I just have to do some bragging….  My two and a half year old son is reading!

That’s right–reading!  I figured out he could do it when he looked down at the back of his potty book, which has the word “boy” written across it.  This is to separate it from the “girl” version you can buy.  Jr looked down at the book thoughtfully, then said, “Boy!”

“What?” I asked.

“Boy!” he said.

So realizing that he could recognize simple words, and since his newest passion is his sign language alphabet (which he learned by accident, but I might as well roll with it), I’ve started spelling simple words for him with sign language, just to see if he’d catch on.  Last night, while he was rolling around in bed, not wanting to sleep, I taught him the word “Bed.”  I said the letters as I signed them, and then showed him how the sounds worked.  He thought about that for a bit, and when I left the room to let him sleep, I signed the word “Bed” for him.

“Bed!” he said.

This morning, I signed both words for him, saying the letters as I signed them, and he identified them both correctly.

This child is reading.  He is 2 and 5 months.  I am the proudest mommy ever!

Sometimes I want something so badly that I can taste it.  That’s pretty much the driving force behind my writing.  This opportunity to be published with the Christian line of Harlequin is one of those things I can taste right now.

Last night, I finished up the edits of the manuscript, printed it off, and later on this morning (when the post office finally opens) I will mail it off.  It’s hard to let the manuscript go when I have so many hopes attached to it.  I keep wondering if I couldn’t improve it just a tiny bit more… and if it’s really good enough to get past the committees it will need to get through.

But there comes a point where you have to let it go.  I’ve made all the requested changes.  I’ve gone through the book thoroughly, twice.  I’m confident that the book is significantly better than it was before.  Now, I’ve got let it go and wait for the response.

Waiting won’t be agony, however, because I already have another project on my plate.  Another Christian publisher has requested me to finish up a romance novel manuscript that I queried a couple of months ago.  I have six to eight weeks to finish the manuscript (which is very doable for me.)  I’m excited!  I’m looking forward to using all the things I learned from the Harlequin editor’s notes in this new book.

It’s a good feeling having a book finished and a brand new book to write in front of me.  I don’t know how to describe it to you…  It’s like being sixteen again and being able to eat anything you want and never gain an ounce or have indigestion afterward.  It’s the feeling of being a hungry sixteen year old at potluck… and no line ups!  Yes, it’s a good feeling.

Yesterday, I received the edited manuscript for my novel Zacchaeus.  This book is due out this year, I believe, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it in print!  I’ll give you a bit of a teaser…

Zacchaeus has a sister-in-law who is nothing short of a shrew.  Every family has one, and Tzofit is theirs.  When Zacchaeus’ brother dies, widowing Tzofit, it falls to Zacchaeus to marry the woman he loathes. It doesn’t help matters that Tzofit hates him just as intensely.

There is a zealot bent on murder.  There is a centurion  bent on adultery.  There is a debtor with no hope of ever climbing out of the pit he’s dug for himself.

And at the wedding dinner of a two people who detest each other, an unexpected guest arrives…

I can’t wait to hold that book in my hands!  Hopefully, you’ll pick one up, too.  This is definitely my best book yet!

Now, onto my other “wee little man.”  Jr has been growing up on me in so many ways!  He’s picking up more and more words every day.  Last night on the phone, he told his Nana that he was shy.  It was the cutest thing!  It’s amazing how quickly they go from pointing out objects they know to identifying feelings.

He’s been learning his numbers lately.  He can count from 1 to 12, and he can identify numbers 1 to 10 in a book.  It’s so cute to watch him learning things.  He’s also just a hair shy of being potty trained.  So many things at once…  It seems like yesterday that my patience was being tested with constant puddles on the carpet…

Yeah, that’s something I probably shouldn’t bring up to him when he graduates high school… “Baby, it seems like just yesterday that you were making puddles on the carpet!” 

This picture taken by the Hubble telescope amazes me.  These are two sister galaxies somewhere far, far away from here.  Maybe there is life there. Maybe there isn’t.  Maybe this is simply an example of one of God’s eon-long creative bursts.

There are a couple of things that got me thinking in this picture.  The first, is that perhaps those who believe in an evolutionary creation have a very interesting perspective.  I’ve always favored the seven day creation, myself, because I love the view of God taking such personal interest in his work.  But looking at this picture, if God took several million years to carefully and lovingly form the end product of our little galaxy before ever even beginning the process of planting life there…  does that diminish God?

Maybe not.  Maybe it just makes God so much bigger than us… so much vaster than us… that when He savors something, it takes longer than we can even comprehend. That turns my view of a literal Genesis on it’s head.  I like the idea of a literal interpretation of Genesis.  It’s simpler.  However, if Genesis isn’t literal, perhaps it takes more faith, instead of less, to embrace a God so much bigger that our only way of fathoming Him is through legend.

I’m not saying that I’m giving up on my long held views just like that, but I’ve got something to grapple with, that’s for sure.

The other thing I noticed in this picture is that even on the most enormous scale of galaxies, each containing millions upon millions of stars, there is interaction.  These two galaxies are interacting with each other.  I’m not sure exactly what is happening between the two, but they are connected.  They rely on each other.

Interaction.  Co-existence.  Created for each other.

This is my personal proof for soul mates.

I received an answer from Harlequin about the novel I had revised for them.  While I still did not get my “Yes, you are a genius” answer that I was hoping for, I did get a positive response.  The editor liked the story, and if I make some more specific changes, she is willing to look at the book AGAIN!

This is exciting!  It would have been incredibly easy for them to say, “Nope, not up to snuff.  Declined.”  However, there must have been enough good in the book for them to be willing to look at the book again.

So my work is cut out for me.

Last night, I finished editing my latest manuscript.  I’d gone through it, let it sit, and went over it again to find that it was good to go.  So I emailed it off, feeling fantastic.

Laying in bed with my husband, I got to thinking about the manuscript. What if I completely removed a section and rewrote it from a different point of view?  Would it improve the book?

So I got out of bed, dashed to the living room and started up my computer.  After doing some fiddling with the manuscript, erasing an entire section and settling in to write, I realized that no, the first way I did was much better.  The scene just didn’t work from the other perspective when you got down to the mechanics of it.

So I closed the document (without saving my numerous, unnecessary changes), turned off my computer, and crawled back into bed next to my husband.

“Did you do it?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said.  “But it was a dumb idea.”

“Ok,” he said, pulled me close, and we went to sleep.

My son (who is barely two–have I mentioned that?)  just learned his alphabet.  It’s the cutest thing!  He has a little wooden board that he can pull the letters out of, and he picks them up one by one and announces them.  I’m just so proud of him!  He’s very bright, just like his daddy.

The last few mornings, Jr would wake up and run past our bedroom, out to the living room where his puzzle was waiting for him.  I’d be getting out of bed listening to him call out “B!  F!  Z!” Such enthusiasm!  The enthusiasm has waned, however.  He knows his letters, and no longer wants to repeat them endlessly, so it’s time to introduce some more fun things to do with letters.  I’ve already been showing him the sounds letters make, but that isn’t quite cool enough for him. So tomorrow I will attempt to interest him in some short words.  You never know, it might be the trick!  All I can do is try and see if he thinks it’s cool or not.

So that has been keeping me busy on the parenting front.  Teaching him things is just so fun, but keeping up with him is a challenge! I was perfectly content to enjoy the alphabet for a month, but apparently he isn’t.  So I’d better catch up, or he’ll lose interest and go find something else to learn.

On the writing front, things are going well.  I’m still sick with this bug, but I’m getting some good work done.  I’m now working on Chapter 16 of the first draft of my current novel, and I’m really enjoying myself.  I’m on the last quarter of the book, and that is where everything starts to pull together and pick up speed towards the end.  This is a fun stage to be at!

Well, I’d better get back to work.  Just wanted to give you a quick update!  (and, you know, brag a bit about my little guy…)