olmue | (no subject)

Good morning, everybody! It's Monday morning, the beginning of disaster week--the kids have the whole week off from school. So far, it's like 10:30, and everyone is still in pajamas (except for DH, who walked to work today since he does still have class). Because it's a holiday, naturally the kids got up early, and by the time I made it to the kitchen (hey, I still woke up at seven), the floor was strewn with the remains of last night's cake. *Think Cosby on breakfast cake. Think Cosby on breakfast cake.* Fortunately, the novelty of not being in school today has not yet worn off, and I've managed to shunt scenes into my outline. Yay! Now I can take it in small doses and work on scenes and chapters. It's just extremely hard to keep an entire book in your head amid constant interruptions. I'm sure I'll be fine-tuning the outline as we go, but at least it's broken up into manageable bits. So I am feeling good on the writerly aspects.

The ying (or is it the yang?) of this is reading people's conference reports where they report editors having bought all they're planning to buy in 2008 because of the economy, and weeks go by and there is only silence on the submission front, and then I have bad visions of Interested Agent deciding not to take on any more new people because no one will buy from debut authors during the economic crunch. (Yes, I realize that writing quality is the biggest factor here, but since I'm doing all I can on that front...) I need to either dive deeper into the new writing, or just stop thinking about it for the rest of the year. I once got a rejection on Christmas Eve--yeah, that was a fun one. But maybe if I'm thinking about something else I will just skate over such things and not even notice. Goal: finish a rough draft by the end of this year (contingent on holiday/kids-out-of-school obligations).

Other things to do today: go to multiple stores with all five kids, and find a babysitter for three hours. (Must see Twilight still!) It's been a while since I was in the US, and I've usually done a babysitting swap when I've needed something like this. Anyone know what the going rate is for babysitting these days? Mostly the kids are old enough to just need a responsible person around in case of emergencies--they are just a little too young to leave on their own--and it's only the baby who needs someone actually doing stuff. But there are a lot of them. How much do you pay for babysitting? Just want a figure in mind when I go looking...

Okay, I'm off to the store. Have a great day!

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Because we live near family, we have yet to pay a babysitter...mostly we schedule things that need doing around family's willingness to watch the kiddos. (Sorry, I'm no help!)

Yeah, knowing about the slowing of the already glacial pace of buying/signing authors and their books is too out-of-my-control to think about. I have six agents reading and 2 editors (and another editor who requested something, but I can't get it together enough to send it)...I'm jittery. And I'm starting something new -- hopefully that will occupy my mind for a while!

Man, I sure envy the near relatives! We have almost never lived near relatives, and we are usually on the student budget, which means our outings alone are few and far between. (My parents are in the same state now, but three hours is a bit far to drive for babysitting...)

Sounds like you at least have some great prospects, what with all the folks reading. I am crossing my fingers so hard for you!

I never appreciated how much extra work it took for my mom to have us all at home over the holidays until I was about 16. Good luck getting writing in.

I think I've now done all the writing that is going to happen this week. But my goal was just to get things in order. It's fun, but yeah, it's a bit insane with this many people looking for something to do (somehow the answer, "you can always clean your room" is not what people want to hear when they say they're bored.)

Tuesday is my kid's last day of school for the week. The thing with this economy has a good point. If we don't land an agent then we can point at the economy and not feel overwhelmed by the "what the heck did I do wrong this time?".

Just a thought for looking on the upside. ;-)

You're totally right--it's all about the economy, not the writing. :)

Enjoy your holiday!

I hope everybody survived the trip to the store:).

Well, I guess they will be starting to buy for 2009 pretty soon, then.

We survived--I don't know about the other customers.