Fire shrimp
New tank occupant, I’ll call her Celia because I like that name. Shy and nervous, she spends her days upside down behind a rock. I asked her to make room for me this morning, but she ignored me, didn’t so much as wave her antennae in my direction.
In my mind, I’ve been working on a blog post about Ferguson, the need to keep this conversation going. I thought I would sit and write it today, but then this morning I went over my files for Astonishing, to see if there’s anything/one I should be following up with. Yah. Don’t know if I mentioned it here, but in a moment of I have to try something, I sent a query to a small press a few months ago. This small press promises a fast response, I hadn’t heard anything, so I pulled up my original email/query to them and found…
…a request for a full from the editor. In my “junk” folder. From a month ago.
“You screwed it up, Bobby Terry!” Does anyone else have random quotes from novels that have stayed with them forever? That one is from Stephen King’s The Stand, right before Bobby Terry is flayed and flambeed by Randall Flagg– the Dark Man.
Get a grip, Mrs Fringe. No evil being is waiting to fly across the desert and eat me because I missed an email that was caught in my spam filter. If any one of my writer friends came to me melting down about this, I’d reassure them that it happens, in the world of publishing a month’s lapse is not even a blink, any editor/agent/professional will understand. This is nothing in the days of being a wannabe. This is less than nothing in the face of Ferguson, what the verdict represents and the false focus of so much of our media.
Still, I decided comfort food was in order. How about if I make grilled cheese for dinner, kiddos? This, of course, meant I went to Whole Foods on Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend. Clearly I was punishing myself for not checking that fucking junk mail folder regularly enough. And why buy 10 items when you can buy 11 and stand on the slower line?
I will be drowning my whining in chocolate pudding this evening. Care to join me?
mrsfringe 
My quotes are from tv and movies. Such as “Homie don’t do that.” Of course, there is “Don’t call me Ishmael” and “It was a dark and stormy night” and “It was the best of offices; it was the worst of offices.” Do those count?
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The fly does remind me of the line from “The Fly”. “Help me.”
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😀
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Of course they count! 🙂
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Ferguson is on many minds, mrs fringe. I also changed my Thanksgiving post (in French) because of the grand jury’s decision. As for the email sent in the spam filter, I see it as a good omen. This small press will wait for your entire manuscript and I hope that by the time the pudding was eaten, you had decided to send them your work.
There are many quotes from favorite books that jump to my mind on regular basis.
Considering the recent events I like anything from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. The man knew the human heart pretty well, I think.
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How perfect. Absolutely perfect.
And thank you, Evelyn ❤
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I love THE STAND. It is, hands down, my favorite Stephen King.
Also, the only time I tried to make pudding from scratch, it failed to actually, er, “pud” so I ended up drinking it like cocoa instead.
Congrats on your full request! As you say, they’re sure to understand the foibles of the spam filter (and my understanding is there’s kind of an industry slowdown this time of year anyway).
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The Stand truly is a classic. 😀
I’m happy to say the pudding pudded, and was a success in all ways. 😉
Thanks for the good thoughts, congrats to you for making it through another Nano, and now onward!
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