Friday's at the Piedmont Grille

Well good morning my lovelies. It's been a while, I know. With Monster Baby getting ready for kindergarten, it's been a long few weeks.

She goes full time now, which is a blessing for me. Did I cry when I dropped her off the very first day? No-o-o-o-o-o. My mother called me that morning at 9:00 and asked what I was doing, sobbing into my cereal, weeping into my tea. No-o-o-o-o, I was scrubbing the kitchen from top to bottom. The walls, the floor, behind the stove and refrigerator. I went crazy. Next week, I start on the playroom/office. (And it will take a whole week.)

I'd like to say Thank You and Welcome to all my new "friends" here at Piedmont Writer. So many of you, I'm so blessed. Ericka, Kalmdown, MB, Tara, Rose, Charmaine, Beth, Sora, Clarissa, Summer Ross, The English Writer, Chiccoreal, Mesmirix, Larry, Kay Em, Alison, DJ, Valerie and Shalet Jimmy. Thank you all so much for hanging out with me as I try and get a grip on the writing life.

Thanks again to everyone who read my IN THEIR OWN WORDS series. I'm leaving it up so if you missed it, there it is.

Now some of you have been following my story REMEMBERING YOU as I began posting excerpts in the spring. I've been trying to finish it up, my goal for Labor Day, but that is just not going to happen. Too many things going on. But I will tell you, that I have two more excerpts to post, yes, I'm sorry, only two, because I am almost finished with it. Almost. So stayed tuned. Big things are going to happen.

And when I said I was going to revise and be ready to query by the end of September, for those of you who laughed at me, I'm now laughing with you. What was I thinking? Obviously I wasn't. Writing is hard work. I have to keep reminding myself of that when I say stupid things out loud.

I also got the final two partials back from MASQUERADE - rejected - so that little tome is firmly shelved until I decide what to do with it. And let me tell you how subjective agents can be so you'll understand the process. (And these were the only agents out of 67 who gave me any kind of feedback - all the rest were form.)

Agent A said it was well written but the plot lacked...She didn't tell me what it was lacking only that it lacked. (I had 3 beta readers tell me they loved my plot and the mystery surrounding it held steadfast until the very end.)

Agent B said the female protag wasn't strong enough. (She only read the first 50 pages so didn't see the transformation of the female protag throughout, which was what an historical romance professional said the main MC should do.)

Agent C said my main secondary charater shouldn't be involved in the plot at all. (Which is why my female MC was involved in the plot in the first place.)

And Agent D said the writing was strong, the plot was good, the characters were wholly developed but she didn't think she could place it in the market at this time.

So, what I take away from this is - this business is very subjective.

And that's all I have for right now. I'm going to try and stick to my M-W-F posting schedule again. Like I said, the last few weeks have been busy and I haven't been around much.

Happy Labor Day weekend and for those of you on the East Coast, take good care, I hear there's a hurricane moving in.