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Hope it all goes well for you Lisa and please keep us informed. You will have to start your own web page and bulletin board when you famous like Fiona......

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The world craves this stuff. Escaping to new worlds from the horrow we watch on our TVs each night. Good publishers are ever on the search for bright new material to feed the craving. If Edit or Die reckons you've got it, there's no way to go but up...as one famous poet in lime green once said "To Infinity and Beyond"

I hope you are all as much in love with Buzz Lightyear as me? I have a huge Buzz sitting on my desk who talks to me from time to time when I push his buttons!

Go Lisa, go!

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So, when I fail miserably, can we call it falling with style? Just kidding. ">

Thanks for the support guys. You're all sweeties. If I don't spontaniously combust between now and when it's finished, I shall definitely tell you all how it went, even if it's bad. Either way, I will be vindicated... Honestly, don't mind me, I am an enternal pessimist when it comes to myself.

Thanks... *smooches to all, especially Crusie*

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed."
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Asteroid B-612

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Thanks, guys.

Finishing it was the easy part. Starting, a bit harrowing, but the middle bit and end bit... what a breeze. This waiting bit, well, I think I have made my nervousness clear already. ">

You're all on my signed copy list, of course. But you have to buy it yourself, send it to me with a SAE, I will sign it and send it back. ">

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed."
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Asteroid B-612

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I am going to share something very personal with you here because I think it will resonate very strongly with you, Lisa. It is attached to a humorous tale of how I first came into real contact with Robin Hobb and learned a great lesson that it always pays to tell the truth. That now sounds sinister - it's not - I fibbed about a reason to be in Sydney when my real reason was to walk into Galaxy and look at the person who wrote such towering stories and created such brilliant characters. I just wanted to tell her as much but I failed because my little white lie caught up with me and I had to go rushing home to Adelaide just hours before her signing. I left a hurried, garbled note. Can hardly remember what I scribbled in the store. Anyway, many weeks, probably a month or two later I received a wonderful note from Robin Hobb. Remember I was a complete stranger but she bothered and apart from the disbelief that the writer I admire most in my genre had written to me (I was not an author then), I was also dumbfounded at her perfectly chosen words penned in a card I keep to this day on my desk. I'm sure Robin won't mind if I share with you part of what she says:

Congratulations on submitting your first manuscript. That's a very significant step. Not the least of it is that you have managed to finish a story. So many writers never actually reach that stage. Even if this first effort is met with rejection, at least you know you can actually do it. So don't let anything discourage you now.

There's more but you get the gist. I was at the stage of waiting to hear whether my story was good enough - almost exactly where you are now. Her card was a shiny thing which arrived when I had begun to wonder what was in my head to leave myself so naked, so open to rejection and criticism. Her words settled me, fuelled my determination.

Look what happened. Don't be tough on yourself - be positive and look at what you've already achieved in the few months since you first admitted "well I've been writing this story".... ">

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Lisa

You have more guts than I do. Congrats on actually finishing it and getting up the nerve to actually send it away. Can we be the first ones to get signed copies once your published pleeeease

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Well, as you know, I have a similar tale to that one. I had this book just sitting around, waiting for someone to tell me how great it was and publish it. Of course, that was never going to happen because no one knew about it, and if I kept going the way I was, no one was ever going to know about it. Then a good friend insisted that I read this new book that had just come out and then told me to write to the author.... The rest, as they say, is history.

Without you, Fiona, I would never have gotten to this stage. I had no idea if what I'd written was worth while, nor did I know a thing about how to get it read by the people who needed to read it in order for someone to tell me if it was worth while. You told me it was worth it, and gave me the courage and contacts to get it on its way. Even if this one doesn't make it, at least I will know better for the next one.

What Robbin wrote is inspirational. Thank you for sharing. It has indeed lightened my anxieties (which are diminishing), as has the support from the people here.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed."
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Asteroid B-612

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You already won Lisa.

The only way you can fail is to never try. To have the guts to try you are already a winner.

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You know when Robin was asked if she would read the books, her answer was "Gee, I thought you'd never ask." And I swear when I saw that comment and got all teary over her generosity, I made a silent promise that I'd help any aspiring writer who crossed my path and in need of advice. You were part of my destiny probably and I really feel your story already has the right qualities which will attract the attention of a publisher. And you are so right. Even if this one isn't snapped up, they'll quietly mark you down as one to watch. Everyone's got their fingers crossed for you. Let the fear go. Whatever happens, you've already won a major battle.

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I think I'm over the anxiety now. Just the waiting part left, I guess...

Thank you again for your support (how many times have I said that?? but I always mean it).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed."
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Asteroid B-612