Most Unintentionally Hilarious Christmas Moment

Yesterday, Grampy to Granny: "Is your vibrator working?"

Much to our credit, I think, neither I or the siblings so much as giggled.

(Context being that the Grandparents have recently purchased two swish reclining chairs, one of which was not tilting up and down properly. It did, however, still vibrate...)

First Rejection Slip -- Fri 22 Dec 06

Impressively prompt response from Marjacq Scripts who got a rejection slip, and the 3 sample chapters, back to me on Friday. They're now sitting in my desk drawer at work, ready for a new cover letter and packet, for the next agent on the list.

I'll keep going till I've done the entire Yearbook. ;-)

Christmas bonus!

Heard yesterday that I (and all the rest of the company) are getting a £100 Christmas bonus. Woo! I'm thinking of offering to take The Family + The Boyfriend out to lunch.

Plus, my line manager mentioned -- unofficially -- that I and the other new starter are likely to be first in line for a bonus, come the pay reviews in January. This was a surprise; I expected to be the last person, having only started in October. It was really encouraging to hear that she's pleased with how I'm getting on. :-)

One more day at work, then I'm back in Oxford with The Family for 10 days, I've been looking forward to my first holiday... I'm missing the student-days of having the whole of December off...

Submissions

I sent off four sets of 3-sample-chapters-and-a-synopsis today. These were to the four agencies in the Yearbook who specifically mentioned fantasy -- I thought they'd be a good first try.

I'm not too hopeful about responses, as I know that agencies are inundated with hopeful manuscripts, and while I think the novel is as good as I can make it right now, I've read far better and I hope I'll one day write better.

Even if it doesn't ever get published, it will have been a good experience. But it would have felt incomplete not to at least give it a shot...

Birthday in the Garrett

This is the first birthday I've not spent at home with The Family. It's been good, though; I had a nice panini for lunch at Caffe Nero, and browsed The Guardian. And took chocolate biscuit cake to work, much to general appreciation. Mum sent a huge box of Thornton's Christmas chocolates, which I've hidden in my desk drawer to get out next week ;-)

We've established that three people can fit into The Garrett simultaneously...

I invited a college friend over for dinner tonight, since it is My Birthday, and it seemed a touch misanthropic to spend it alone. She did indeed come round, bearing gifts (including wine, hurrah!) and we had a good dinner -- thanks to M&S lasagna... ;-)

Even better, though, the Boyfriend came round -- travelled all the way from Basildon just to see me on my birthday, even though he had to get back for work at nine. How heroic is that? I think he has justly earned his status as the best man in the world. Ever. He even brought chocolate and flowers.

I'm not going to stop grinning all night...

(My room was tidy, too, unlike the last time -- Valentine's day -- he appeared unexpectedly. And I looked vaguely presentable. Fantastic!)

All in all, it's been a very good, if rather different, birthday. I feel very blessed in having such a wonderful family, such great friends and of course a perfect Boyfriend.

:-)

First Submission

Sent -- via email -- the first six chapters of my novel to John Jarrold this evening, who sounds like a decent bloke from his website/forums/blog, and who represents SF writers so probably won't chuck fantasy submissions straight down the rabbit-hole...

I don't know what the etiquette on novel submissions is: some say you should only submit one novel to one agent at one time, but that surely means it could take a long time to eventually find someone who'll take it on.

I'm tempted to send out multiple copies at once, to speed the process along, but I will try to first establish how henious this practice is in the eyes of the publishing world.

Writers' News/Writing Magazine have changed their competition format a bit, and so I'm planning on trying to write a short story each month to submit to one or both of them. Spent the (long, dark) walk home from work today musing over some plans for something. It must be a good couple of years since I last wrote a short story, so I'm feeling more than a touch rusty...

The Writerly Life

I had lunch at Chez Gerard today, to get into practise for the inevitable high-flying writing lifestyle ...

... actually, it was my Granny's 80th birthday, and so I joined her, my dad and my cousin-who-works-in-the-City for a very nice lunch. Granny had clearly had a lovely morning -- involving a river cruise and a trip on the Eye -- and it was great to see her for the first time in a few months. Also good to see the cousin, who I've not managed to meet up with for several years (despite intentions to look him up when I'm in London).

I'd booked the afternoon off work so got home almost while it was still light, for once. My evening has been productively spent eating chocolate, drinking tea, reading 'Writing Magazine' and listening to back-episodes of Mur Lafferty's excellent podcast 'I should be Writing'.

I haven't done any actual writing...

All in all, then, a good day's "work" for the aspiring author. ;-)