The Isabelle story is maybe over two-thirds done, and I sent it to some friends and family for feedback. Hopefully, they’ll get back to me. So far, only my brother and Alex have really been reading it (that I know of). That’s out of eight people, including my parents.

You’d think that your own parents would give you feedback on your first publishable piece. But no. That’s too much to ask for. They’ve already given all of their health, happiness, and money, so I guess a little feedback is just over the top.

(Kidding, mom. Kidding, dad. You’ll just say you like it and tell me how smart I am, which isn’t exactly constructive feedback, but it does feed my ego. Then at Christmas you’ll tell Aunt Neicy that “Beth writes beautifully!” and completely ignore poor Jon and his thought-provoking religious scribbles, as is tradition.)

In other news, I need encouragement because Tiger broke the laptop. Yes, now I have to write on my PC, where I have to fight every temptation to play the Sims 2 while I work. Or, rather, instead of working. Because it really is impossible to multitask with the Sims 2 — except, of course, during those horrendously long loading sequences because my lots are too big and my ram is too small. Then I can work on the paper copy, which I printed out on the printer that my parents got me for my birthday.

So. -1 old laptop. +1 new printer. Seems like a fair trade. Maybe.

I also used birthday money to buy the 2007 Writer’s Market, which, as you know, is completely necessary for any writer who wants to get published anywhere. I’m going to try and publish a story that got me second place in my college’s creative writing contest last year. I was beat out by a guy writing about people dying of AIDS in Africa and how nobody cares. So second place wasn’t half shabby.