I'll toast that.

Big congrats to Victor and Thessaly!

Last-minute entry for the "escape" challenge.

----- She dreams of someplace clean, bright, and spare. Pale walls, wide windows left uncurtained, a soft rug. A worn, comfortable chair. A broad expanse of polished pine, her computer set squarely in its center, manuscript pages anchored with a heavy stone, worried into smoothness long ago.

There would be tea makings, and a bowl for grapes. Chocolate stashed on the bookshelf, which would lend the room its color, each row crowded with orange, black, red, blue, cream.

A place to write without Nickelodeon squawking in the background, or laundry in a nearby pile. A room of her own. An escape.

AmyLiz--did you get the email I sent you, oh, a week or two ago in response to a comment on my LiveJournal about a book I wasn't overly impressed with?

Amy, I love that, and said so in your journal. I also left something for you to read in my LJ, along the same line.

Many congratulations to Thessaly and Victor! Well-earned, I've no doubt.

And yes, I do pretty well at line-editing other people's stuff, but I'm like Jesse. I know what my stuff is supposed to say, so I don't see the goofs.

(And I can very much relate to that drabble, Amy!)

Allyson, I'll just echo everyone and tell you not to mull over the "why" right now. Just write, because the "why" will work itself out when you least expect it. It's like trying to figure out how the movie's going to end without even having seen it.

Congrats, victor and thessaly! That's rockin'.

Glimmer Train wrote me back:

Dear Sunil,

Although we won't be publishing this particular piece, we do thank you for sending "Shopping". It was a good read. We're not able to give specific feedback, but please take a look at Editors' Input for some ideas. Again, we appreciate the opportunity to read your work!

--------------------------- Good writing. Thank you.

After a marathon conversation with Kristen, and an odd conversation with Fury. I gave up on "why." Just continuing to write and write, and hopefully, "why" will be evident to the reader.

Fury says "why" is because i was funny. He put a bit of trust out, i didn't mangle it, he put a bit more out, and over time, it became apparent that i was A-OK. But it seems to be the funny. So I figure as long as what I write is also funny, the reader will think, "yeah, I'd trust her, too." Hopefully.

P-C, that's the kind of rejection editors send when they think the piece is saleable, only not at their magazine. Given that they must get hundreds if not thousands of stories a month, that they took the time over yours shows how seriously they took it.

Allyson, sometimes the author is the last person you should ask for the "why." :-)

Wheee! to Victor and Thessaly.

P-C, I still have a story of yours to read, but as others here know (hanging head in shame) I am a little overextended. I'm looking forward to it, but trying to find time to read it when kids aren't pulling on me and dinner isn't cooking, et cetera et cetera...

Susan, I did get that email! Sorry I didn't reply. She's not one of my favorites. She's not not, if that makes sense, but some of her stuff seems oversimplified for my taste. (And see above to P-C -- I'm enjoying the book very much, and I will email comments soon, I promise. I tend to say yes to too many things, very often things I really want to do, but with the number of things I have to do lately, I have to learn to leave myself more time to, well, sleep. Eat. Breathe. That stuff.)

Bev, I replied in LJ. Lovely, lovely poem!

And last, go Allyson on the essay-writing for a book! If any of them are anything like the other stuff I've read of yours, I'll be standing in line to buy a copy. I'm not as well-versed with the non-fiction publishing experience as I am with fiction (from both editorial and authorial perspectives), but I'd be happy to share whatever I know if you have questions. Profile email is good.