So I wrote something about how people who get scared off of searching for agents because of the economy are stupid…

I’m stupid.

It’s not all the economy. I mean, that started the rollercoaster of discouragement (again, another example of why I HATE listening to other writers — negative, negative, negative! — and it always gets to me!).

That planted the seed of “Then why am I bothering?”

Then I started wondering whether or not my main character is at all compelling. Then I thought up revisions I wanted to make on my second book. Then I thought “Well, if this one doesn’t get picked up (because it won’t because the economy is bad), maybe I can start with the one that comes before it chronologically.” And then I thought “Why am I searching for an agent for this one if I actually want that one to come first? Do I even want it to come first? I have no idea.”

You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success — but only if you persist. ~Isaac Asimov

To fix this unpleasant state, I’m learning to drive so that I can get some small job to get me out of the house and perhaps get me to the library. In fact, a small job at the library would be lovely, but we’ll see what I can find. Currently, it costs money to park there — parking meters and all — and I can’t make myself work at home. I’m hopeless.

In a Bible study a year or so ago, we went around the room and said the top three big things we wanted that we couldn’t get right away.

My list went like this:

1. Second Cat
2. House
3. World of Warcraft Phoenix Mount

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The Symposium

I hope to be reviewed there some day. Only problem? Need to get PUBLISHED first!!! Argh.

Technicalities, technicalities.

Seriously, though, Miss Snark, the literary agent, had some advice that sounds similar to what I keep telling myself: “Your job is to write. Unplug the damn internet and get to work. If you need to buy another computer that doesn’t actually hook up to the net, do it. . . . There’s a lot to be said for sitting down with your ownself and writing. Nothing, literally NOTHING replaces that. Focus. You’re wasting time.”

Lucky for me, I’ll have a new laptop within two weeks (was supposed to be next week, but they got snippy about us using a slightly different road than the one on our credit card, even though it’s the exact same road but just has two names). And I won’t leave this laptop anywhere near that hairball of a cat.

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Now let’s get down to a little work. The Symposium is running a contest that I don’t really care about winning (second place looks nice . . . it’d help me buy Meg Cabot’s latest . . .), but looks like a lot of fun to enter. I just have to review the site and two of its reviews. And I’m kind of fond of the site already, because it joined my button rotation on my other domain and it’s not a sparkly, hurts-my-eyes, “Look what I made in a doll-editing program and adopted from other sites” pixel doll site. (Seriously, some of those are just plain creepy.)

I always thought I’d like reviewing books, but don’t have the dedication. I mean, I can read three books in one day if they’re by the right author. But I’m too cheap to buy them from the bookstore, and I’m too lazy to interlibrary loan from the library (working my laziness up for a massive influx of Julia Quinn, who my library only carries in e-books, all of which I’ve read).

Anyway, whether or not my fondness is properly placed, I’m entering the contest in order to get more acquainted with the site itself, because I’d like to be, and because book reviews are good things for people to write and read — yes, they’re good for you! That means you, kids.

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