I've heard conflicting advice on this one. If he were REALLY my editor--if he'd bought the book--I'd have deadlines, and if anything unforeseen came up that made meeting those deadlines impossible, I'd tell him right away, with ample apologies and explanations. But in this case, well, it's a requested partial from a conference, one step up from the slush pile. What I need to do is A) prove to him that I can write a damn good book, and B) prove I'd be good to work with. In an ideal world I should've admitted at the pitch session that the ms isn't quite ready, but I was winging it under pressure and didn't think to do so.

Anyway, I'm not sending this out until I'm sure it meets criteria A, which means I'm not sending him the partial now. The first 75 pages are OK, but I'm planning changes, and there's enough MAJOR rewriting needed in the rest of the book that there's no way I'm taking the risk of him getting to the partial right away and requesting the full.

So I've just got to figure out if being "good to work with" in this case means not pestering him with trivia about the length of my editing process or keeping him up-to-date.

Plus, what if Real Life intercedes and you can't the manuscript to them by the date you promised?

I'd thought of that. I mean, to look the ugliest of my realities in the face, my mother has cancer, and it's not going to go into remission. At some point, and I don't know when, I'm going to need to take time off from everything in my life.

You seriously don't want to become That Author, who appears to be emailing for the sake of emailing. Because that has a tendency to make editors, at least the ones of my acquaintance, very cranky.

Yeah, that was my concern. I think I'll hold off, put his business card somewhere I'm sure I won't lose it, and use the need to submit before too ridiculously much time has passed as a goad to the Muse.

I've been terrified of sending my stuff to Agent Kate. Since we have a meeting today, I emailed her what we have so far and she said:

OMG I love this.

What happens!? What happens!!!??? I can't wait to read more.

YAY ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!!!

What happens!? What happens!!!??? I can't wait to read more.

I just got off the phone with Agent Kate and I said I knew I needed to let her go because she had to talk to you today and she mentioned just HOW FREAKIN' GOOD the MG is and how excited she is by it.

Just thought I'd throw that out there. *g*

Oh that's so nice to hear. I'm so freaked by fiction. And by writing for kids. And by hopefulness.

If I recall correctly, you were rather freaked by writing your personal experience and opinion, that nobody would be interested or would want to read it, before you submitted Vampire People, correct?

This is your process. It's okay. Just keep going. You will always have an audience eager to read what you write; your voice is unique, whether you're talking about baby bats or beagles.

Feedback from Agent Kate was AWESOME. She loves the voice. She was optimistic. She thinks it's got great shot.

Ya see??

I came away seriously heartened too-- we have a plan of action and for Virgo Girl, nothing so warms the cockles of my little heart than a plan.

She also liked my ideas for a revision to a proposal I'm working on right now, which made me really happy because I think it achieves what we both want.

She likes my ideas and we have a plan. I am Quite Pleased.

Woohoo for Allyson and Barb, and the clearly awesome Agent Kate!

For the polish challenge:

Having him paint her fingernails seemed like an incredible intimacy, even after all their time together. But with her hand in a splint, she didn’t have much choice. He seemed excited by it, too, as if he’d gotten a new coloring book, although he wrinkled his nose at the harsh chemical odor.She had to admit that his artist’s hands were pretty steady, although he still picked his favorite fire-engine red polish, instead of the more conference-friendly buff. “Wow,” she teased, “why so bright? It’s a conference, not Las Vegas.”

“You have beautiful hands,” he insisted. “Why hide them?’