My mother taught us that when you visit someone, take a small thank you gift if at all possible. In today's society, I believe that politeness has fallen by the wayside. I know I recently went to someone's home for dinner and didn't take anything. I felt guilty about it the whole time. In fact, I am going to send something to them today to just say "thank you" for all the time and effort it took to prepare for the visit.
When you visit a blog, do you leave a comment? I am forming that habit and it is opening the door to friendships and learning experiences. It is a brand new way to make connections. Try it! You'll like it!
I posted two new articles, one at Granola Bar Devotionals and an article on The Cypress Times under Life Matters. Neither one are published yet, so I'll come back and post the links when they're live.
I had to share a wacky moment. Saturday two of my sisters and I went out to lunch with my eight year old niece. The place was packed so one sister went in to put our names on the list and came back out. Other groups were standing around so it was a bit crowded. An older woman and her friend walked by and smiled at me. They also entered to put their names on the list and came back out. She walks past me again. This time she says, "I put your name on the list so you didn't have to go in and come back out. When they call 'Susan for one' that's you." (Are you laughing hysterically yet? I'm laughing so hard right now, I can hardly focus to type!) I was so floored, I could barely stammer that I was with a group. I don't even remember if I thanked her for her thoughtfulness. I was just too stunned for words (and believe me, that takes a lot!).
My youngest sister just closes her eyes in disbelief. No matter where I go or what I'm doing, some stranger stops to tell me their life story. For years she's given me a difficult time about it. At first she blamed me, as if I started the conversations. But the more often it happened while she was around, the more she saw I have nothing to do with it. I've joked that I could probably get a suspect to confess just by walking in the room.
Question: Do people talk with you for no reason? Are you the one talking to strangers who stare at you as if you've lost your mind?
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What a week! And it's not over yet! I am still hearing back from agents I queried last week. Nothing more than the typical "thank you for thinking of us, but we're not interested" replies. That's the nature of the business. File it away and move on!
I hired an editor this week for the first 15 pages of The Road to Nowhere. If any of my students from past years ever wished someone would take a red pen to my papers, your wish has been granted. Let's just say "ouch" and leave it at that! I was fully prepared for the slashing, so it wasn't too bad. That's what I expected to happen. It took me a few days to process each of the comments. Some of them I understood immediately. Wrong word choice, Needs stronger verb. Some of them took quite a bit of analyzing. Twice she said that a pair of sentences didn't make sense to her. They made sense to me because I wrote them. It wasn't until I started trying to rewrite them that I saw the problem. Lightbulb moment! I'm still working through them and trying to apply the same corrections to more of my work.
I haven't had a chance to submit articles yet this week. I will be doing that this evening and tomorrow. I'll post the links here but you can also go to any of the sites and look me up. If you do, please leave a comment on the article. It helps them know someone is reading the articles.
Also this weekend I will be fine tuning several contest entries. Many of them are due March 15 or 30. It's going to be a busy weekend!
Here's a rather interesting question. What name do you associate with a "bad guy"? When you're reading a book, does the character's name give you a hint as to whether he's the villain or not?
Is there a name that lets you know he's the hero?
I just realized that my villain's name is way to close to the phonetics in my hero's name. One of them has to change. I like my hero's name, but I'm open to suggestions. Leave your choices as a comment on this article. If I choose the name you suggest, I will be sure to list you as a source for my book.
Thanks for your help!