Life Throws Weird Shit At Me

As I wait for the library to inform me that the book I've requested has come in, I write reviews and have delved into the world of Anne Rice (no Sandra, Sarah, not the A. N. Roquelaure version of her). Ashley bought a huge chunk of a book a while back - it contains Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned all in one shot. I'd been thinking at dinner a few nights ago, "I need a good vampire story," and like an idiot started thinking I should ask the book leaders of Epinions when it dawned on me that Ashley had Anne Rice sitting in her closet. So that should keep me in line for a while.

Aside from that, I've been thinking, "Crap, if we move soon..." I'm still waiting on responses from 10 different places about work I've sent. I suppose I'd have to send another letter to them just to be sure all rejections (oh all right, I'll say it just to be positive, acceptances) get to the right place. That would suck. But I suppse it's something I'll have to face (possibly - the longest I'll have to wait is around 4 months...hopefully. Might be up to 6).

Then there's the review thing. Been cranking those out pretty steadily, from anime to the books I've been reading (still haven't reviewed Wicked yet - not sure if I want to review it before or after I read Wizard of Oz), from V for Vendetta to Black Adder, just a medley of stuff really. But it's Epinions that brings me to my odd yet interesting news about writing.

About a week or so ago I got an email from a fellow Epinioner about a book he was working on about challenges people face and the various coping mechanisms they use to deal with them. Things of that nature. All giddy for a fellow writer, I obliged, of course, and wished him all sorts of luck. He'd mentioned working in publishing for quite some time, so the man knows his stuff. I made a joke and mentioned how I write too, though since I'm into the fantasy genre, I'll be the one most likely to starve. He wrote back and told me he worked for Houghton Mifflin and if I had anything they might publish, let him take a gander at it and he'd pass it on to the appropriate editor. Houghton Mifflin. Houghton Mifflin. Do you know how kick ass that is? They're the ones putting out copies of Lord of the Rings. I have their version sitting on my freaking shelf. They only take agented submissions. Let me reiterate - I don't have an agent. Now granted, he mentioned that since they are the ones cranking out Lord of the Rings, it's not exactly high priority for them to take on any other fantasy work. After all, Lord of the Rings is like the Bible for all fantasy, let's face it. And we all know the Bible is always the top selling book in America.

*dies*

Opportunities like this don't come every day. Hell, they hardly ever come...ever. But I'm not fooling myself either. Oh, I can dissolve into dreams of glamour of just how awesome it would be for them to pick up little ole me. Good lord how I would owe that guy everything I freaking owned. But truthfully, I was hesitant to send him anything. I'm not trying to put myself down, but I don't think it will fly. I don't think Houghton Mifflin is interested in publishing any more fantasy - it certainly isn't listened on their website or in Writer's Market. So instead of wasting the man's time with the whole shebang, I just sent him the first three chapters and the prologue. I told him all of this. He did say that if I thought they'd be interested to send it along, but I'm leaning towards "Probably not" so I took the middle road and just sent him a piece. After all, as I said to him in the email, he knows more about the company than I do. So I'm letting him make the final call. I refuse to get my hopes too high (or high at all for that matter), but like I said, I can't help but think, "Oh, what if..."

Man that would so rule.

Naturally, I put him on my WOT.

On an additional note, I got a reply from Edwardsville this time. I got plenty of help from Carbondale, though never a specific reason why I didn't get chosen. However, the Edwardsville reply basically said what I knew all along. HAH! Now I have my proof; less genre writing, more literary fiction, less on novels, more on short stories. Fack, if I don't have my work cut out for me. I can never think of a good short story, much less a literary one. *rolls up sleeves* Well, if they want it, then they're gonna get it. I'm sure I've got a literary short story in me somewhere that I can crank out!

Currently: Haha!