As I roused Matilda from bed she snizzled and complained and then cried when JZ left. So I calmed her by pointing out things in the room, and I pointed to the Dave Stewart (old A's pitcher) bobblehead and said, "That's Dave Stewart. He was a great pitcher. See the letter on the hat? That's his team. He's on the A's."

Matilda sniffed and rubbed at her tears and replied "We don't like the blue team." (The Dodgers)

Love!

"We don't like the blue team." (The Dodgers)

As long as you aren't talking about the Royals.

Albert Pujols is on track to hit 324 home runs this season.

Allyson, when you get things sorted, let us know where we can send pre-order money to help with the self-publishing.

Thanks so much, guys. I will so totally put my shoulder to the wheel in a couple of days. Just need to "woe as me" for a day or so.

My bus tour was reviewed on the LA Weekly blog. (Egad, she called me "snow haired." I am ancient mummy dust.)

As long as you aren't talking about the Royals.

You've got to win before you earn our enmity, Gud.

Albert Pujols is on track to hit 324 home runs this season.

He'll do it too!

Also Timmy's going to go 35-0.

Allyson, that work is not down the drain. The thing you created exists, and you'll self publish and people will read it. And you learned how to be a different kind of writer. It's a huge leap going from Vampire people to being a children's writer. Bear in mind, Knut wrote three novels before he got one published.

Rejection is the writer's lot.

I have this argument with myself over the book I'm working on. Should I try to follow advice on how to make a book more publishable or not. In some ways it feels like a fool's errand since the odds of getting published are pretty damn low, on the other hand, the odds are already low so why make them even lower.

Fortunately, the majority of the advice is stuff that simply makes for better writing. While I haven't changed the story in a substantial way, I have modified things to make it more appealing for agents (according to what I've read, often by agents) and found I really liked how it ended up and wouldn't want to change it back. Turns out agents know what they are talking about.

Wordcount is turning out to be a bitch though, while the exercise of trying to pare out all the unnecessary words is a very good one, I worry I'm not putting in enough to give flavor to the world and some of the characters. It's tough with Fantasy books because so many good ones shatter the maximum recommended wordcount or don't really complete a story.

Oops, rambled. I'm not even sure what my point was anymore.

Sorry about that, Allyson. And what David said is right.

Also, you people made me remember the Butterscotch Stallion, which is not what my day needed.

Yes, David is wise, definitely not a waste.

Butterscotch Stallion? Is that what it sounds like?