Oops, four copies of Matty. They normally only buy one copy of most books, two or three of the really popular ones since they're in the Cleveland Public system and are able to borrow from other libraries very easily.

They have a weird interlibrary loan system here. Libraries in the cleveland system borrow from one another as if they're all branches of one another, but can't borrow from libraries in the county system, and vice-versa.

/tangent

Deena, I wondered about that. That's Clevnet, right? BIG honkin' library system.

Yeah, Clevnet rules. I love it. I have most of seasons 1 and 2 on Farscape waiting to be watched because I was able to borrow it through Clevnet, despite every library seeming to have only one DVD of one or two episodes of the show.

The Madison libraries didn't have Matty on order yet, so I requested it. Pointed them to the starred review in Publishers Weekly. Let's hope they order lots of copies.

It would be really nice if my damned braindead publishers got off their limp bottoms and posted the cover up to Amazon and B&N. I've now asked four separate people four separate times.

I'm too tired to keep poking people.

So Susan suggested I check this thread out several weeks ago and I just finished catching up.

Wow.

I have to say, while I was in the middle of reading all of the drabbles and whatnot, I was feeling kind of inadequate about my writing, particulalry with my current WIP. I've chilled out a bit now, but I still have to say I'm in awe of the quality and vividness of much of the writing here.

As for why I'm here, after a long dry spell (in the area of 10 years) I've decided to try my hand at writing again. I wrote the first 3,000 words of my current WIP back in March, then life happened and I didn't write anything until the last few days of July. Picking it back up again, I've got around 34,000 words done as of last night.

The WIP is actually a re-write of a book I wrote when I was 17 and revised when I was 19. When I re-read it now, I still love some of the characters (my internet handle is even derived from one of them) but the storyline is crap and quite a bit of it makes me groan in embarassment. So, the WIP is a completely new storyline, with some of the old characters dusted off, some of them reimagined and a lot of them flat-out axed.

It's a modern fantasy, which I realize way too many people are writing these days, but it's the story that wants out right now. Overall, I feel like dialogue is my strongest point, while scene-setting and description seem to be my weakest.

That's about it about that for now, before I bore you all to death. Overall, I've been enjoying the thread immensely so far and have appreciated the insight into the industry.

Well, it's okay...I write in a form without artistic merit, after all.

Welcome, Kalshane!

Well, it's okay...I write in a form without artistic merit, after all.

So does that mean mine has negative merit? I'm not sure where fantasy sits on the totem pole in regards to detective stories in critical thought, but my impression from critics has always been if you're not Tolkien, you might as well be a monkey flinging its feces at the wall.

Welcome, Kalshane!

Thanks, AmyLiz.

I'm thinking of putting together a little webpage for my book with the synopsis and chapter descriptions. I don't know why, I just sort of need to do something while I wait. And then if no one buys it, I can just release it all on the internets or something.