Consider my loins girded

The best advice ever on writing, the publication business, and agents from anghara - who knows her stuff, so listen up.

Now, nothing that she's saying sounds at all unfamiliar to me. I've been doing my research on this whole business of publication for about two years. Full well knowing that I'm probably not going to have anything even remotely ready to be submitted until next year. Because I don't want to go in unawares to this game and I knew I wanted to be a published author since about age 13.

So I intend to know my stuff before I make a move.

And I think her best advice is: "EITHER gird your loins and resubmit somewhere else and start again, or you do something new."

But the advice is good, and it never hurts to hear it again - to make sure there's nothing I missed, to keep it in mind, and to run over that nifty little checklist of hers. Notice that submitting is step number #8. On a 10 step checklist.

I hate to say it, but it's a tits or GTFO kinda world out there, and if you didn't come to the party packin' better than a C-cup, you're gonna get nowhere. Even *I* know that and I'm an unpublished, unpaid, unappreciated *nobody*.

But fortunately, increasing your metaphorical bust size is a mental exercise and you can get better.

I don't want to do anything else. I don't want to start over again in life trying to figure out what I am - because the only consistent thing in my life has been writing. I've always been a writer. Always.

So back to the novel.

A moment of Holy Moly.

Note to self: Read publishing/agent advice in *smaller* doses.

Spending a good or hour or two reading articles/blogs describing the bleak, treacherous publishing industry makes me want to cry like a kid who just got their lunch money stolen. It sounds unfun, slippery, heartbreaking, and just plain impossible.

I have to remind myself that there are people who do make a living at this, and that it is possible for me to do it (just not probable). I also have to take deep breaths and make with the back button.

And I have to keep in mind that right now is not the time to worry about it. Right now, I can't do a damn thing about the big, bad, soul-eating world of publishing. Right now, all I can do is write the best damn story I can and cross my fingers. Even if I do get a creeping feeling that this is going to be a bug vs. windshield kind of affair.

I do those crazy wish things (blowing away stray eyelashes, watching the clock for when all the numbers are the same, etc) everyday and I wish with all my might for the ability to get published. Every day. It's as close as I get to praying, 'cause I sorta quit praying a while back. Not for lack of religion, but it felt like repeating myself.

Then I go back to writing, because wishing is useless if you don't actually write the damn novel.

Next lifetime around, I'm going to take up something *easier*. Seriously.