Poptarts:

Amy, would you be willing to look at a query letter for me?

It's raining on my air show! I can see the sun peeking through. We'll still go downtown as we have a hotel res (and plans of Ras Dashar ethiopian for dinner) but if it keeps raining I dunno what's going to happen to the airplanes.

Thank you for the birthday wishes! (but it's not until tomorrow)

Oops! Damn time differences.

Ok, guys, how does this sound for canceling things and closing things off with creepy boy?

I need to cancel our date on Tuesday. The more I communicate with you, and the more I think about things, the more I realize a couple of things. First, you remind me a lot of my little brother. Second, I think we have very different values and interests.

Please do not contact me again. I’m closing our match. Please do not text message me, call me, or e-mail me.

I wish you much luck in your search.

vw: I'd be insulted by the little brother comment but it would definitely help with the never contacting you again. Sometimes I think I'm too nice to the people I have to "un date."

vw, I think that sounds good. You're letting him down easily, but without any loopholes for him to try to change your mind.

I softened the last paragraph a bit to:

I’m closing our match, so please do not contact me again.

Good grief, vw. Glad you found out he was a hornytoad loser before you wasted time on the date. That sounds like a good way to close it down.

Harvey is a gorgeous dollbaby.

Happy birthday (tomorrow), Fay!

You are an inspiration to me, Susan. I'm about a third of a way through an essay that has been in three different forms and will. not. resolve. itself. It's making me crazy. Usually I can whip out a draft of an essay (2000-3000 words-ish) in a day. This week? Argh, nsm.

Well, this manuscript has been the same way. Earlier this summer I was considering abandoning it as being beyond my abilities. It's a big, plot-heavy story, projected to be a multi-volume saga (I'm thinking four books, but it could be longer or shorter--I'm not big on the pre-planning), and my previous manuscripts were all more focused and self-contained. My CPs were jumping all over me--"too much backstory," "you're just showing off your research," "nothing happens in this scene," "your protagonist is too distant and cold," "your protagonist (a real person) is too nice compared to how he comes across in the historical record," etc. They also kept asking me about the plan for the series, as if I had one. (I do, kinda, but it's more a vague sense of what each book is about and an image of the final scenes at the triumphant ending of Book 4 than anything else. They seemed to think I'd made some kind of detailed outline and knew EVERYTHING that's going to happen.)

Anyway, I finally got an idea of how to improve my opening section--but it involved starting over again when I was 60 pages of blood, sweat, and tears into the damned manuscript! I did it, but I hated it.