Monday, December 01, 2014

Sick, and tired

It is that fucking time of the year. I have a head cold. I don't know if you remember but last year, at this time, I fell in a heap. Had laryngitis, couldn't teach my final sessions for the year, and it then moved into my chest, then up to the sinuses. I am hoping this head cold just stays in the head then fucks off without spreading anywhere else.

I'm trying to rest as much as possible.

P came back from her beach sojourn yesterday, she had a ball. At one stage there were 19 of them all in a house, having fun cooking together, chatting, playing games, swimming. I remember being young and in a big group and how much fun it was.

On Friday P has laser surgery on her eyes. She's worn glasses since she was about 5 or 6 and contacts since about 11 or so. She is so over them, so on Friday her eyes will be lasered and hopefully she will have good eyesight, at least for a number of years before they start to deteriorate again.

Today is Clokes's daughter's bd, she is 19. Tomorrow is my birthday. I will be older than that. December is filled with family and friends birthdays, it's kind of annoying. But anyway.

I've got the contract from the publisher, have worked my way through making notes. Will talk to agent this week. Things have been slowed of course: for two weeks agent and pub were each expecting the other to send it through. Hah. And then it's just been the Thanksgiving weekend in the US so nothing has happened from that end.

So many delays. I can't imagine how non-patient people cope. I have a friend who also writes, she's a bit behind me in the process. She is so impatient. She is already talking about self-publishing and she hasn't even submitted it to publishers; and has submitted it to maybe two agents and gotten good feedback but ultimate knock backs. She is going to drive herself mental if she can't find some patience and the ability to sit with ambiguity, be still with uncertainty. Also it astounds me how people don't realise that to get published you have to submit, and submit to a shitload of places, and often over a long period of time. We all have stars in our eyes that we will be the one who snaps it in a single go. I'd like to know how often that happens, out of all the traditionally-published authors, how many approached one agent, say, and they took them on. Or one publisher and they said yes. Because if the amount of published novelists (traditionally) sits at 1 in a thousand manuscripts (I've seen publishers say they think that's way too high) then of that amount, what percentage have had a 'smooth run' ie 1 for 1 in terms of pitches.

So my head is hot and I'm going back to bed. My final teaching is tomorrow, two hours in the middle of the day. My voice is holding up so far, I think I'll be okay. And then I'm off for the summer, yay.

Oh, and I wrote 3,000 new words last week, which is pretty good considering I hadn't worked on that project for months. So I'm about 3K off my target for completed first draft. Also need to go back to the first one, and rewrite, but that will be a big project. So want to get this shorter one done first so it's ready to show pub when the time comes. Then if I have two in the pipeline it buys me time to get the third one how I want it.

What are people's plans for the summer? Anyone doing a big Christmas? A small Christmas? A no Christmas?


15 comments:

suze2000 said...

Get well soon. :)

Melba said...

Thanks suze sorry for the self indulgence. boring i know.

hope you are good?

Alex said...

Happy birthday, for Tuesday. I hope you're feeling better at this point. What a wretched time to be getting crook. Still, well done on the 3000 words, in spite of it all.

And best wishes for P with her surgery today.

I don't know what's happening for Chrissy. I'm meant to have rellies from WA over here, but thus far, no details have materialised.

Unknown said...

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dan terima kasih banyak kepada AKI atas nomor togel.nya yang AKI
berikan 4 angka 1803 alhamdulillah ternyata itu benar2 tembus AKI.
dan alhamdulillah sekarang saya bisa melunasi semua utan2 saya yang
ada sama tetangga.dan juga BANK BRI dan bukan hanya itu AKI. insya
allah saya akan coba untuk membuka usaha sendiri demi mencukupi
kebutuhan keluarga saya sehari-hari itu semua berkat bantuan AKI..
sekali lagi makasih banyak ya AKI… bagi saudara yang suka main togel
yang ingin merubah nasib seperti saya silahkan hubungi AKI SOLEH,,di no (((082-313-336-747)))
insya allah anda bisa seperti saya…menang togel 275
juta, wassalam.


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tapi tidak ada satupun yang berhasil..







Solusi yang tepat jangan anda putus asah....AKI SOLEH akan membantu
anda semua dengan Angka ritwal/GHOIB:
butuh angka togel 2D 3D 4D SGP / HKG / MALAYSIA / TOTO MAGNUM / dijamin
100% jebol
Apabila ada waktu
silahkan Hub: AKI SOLEH DI NO: (((082-313-336-747)))




atau klik langsung di KLIK DSINI BOCORAN TOGEL



angka GHOIB: singapur 2D/3D/4D/



angka GHOIB: hongkong 2D/3D/4D/



angka GHOIB; malaysia



angka GHOIB; toto magnum 4D/5D/6D/



angka GHOIB; laos


Unknown said...

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TKI malaysia kemarin saya hampir pinsang
atas angka yang diberikan MBAH SERO
kemarin saya menang 200.juta uang indo
atas kemenangan TOGEL putaran
TOTO 6D ini semua bantuan
MBAH SERO baru kali ini
saya merasakan yang namanya
kemenangan hutang2 suami
saya semua pada lunas
saya ada rencana pulang ke indo
untuk buka usaha
sekali lagi terima kasih
banyak MBAH bagi saudarah2
ingin merubah nasib seperti saya
terutama yang punya hutang
sudah lama belum terlunasi
ini solusi yang sangat tepat
jangn buan kesempatan karna
kesempatan tidak akan datang kedua kali
lansung hubungi MBAH SERO
di nomor hp: (-082-321-062-999-)
ini kisah nyata dari saya
tampah rekayasa atau silahkan
anda buktikan sendiri..

BUTUH ANGKA GHOIB HASIL RITUAL
MBAH SERO DI JAMIN 100% TEMBUS

angka:GHOIB: singapura
angka:GHOIB: hongkong
angka:GHOIB; malaysia
angka:GHOIB; toto magnum
angka:GHOIB; laos?
angka:GHOIB; macau
angka:GHOIB; sidney
angka:GHOIB: vietnam
angka:GHOIB: korea
angka:GHOIB: brunei
angka:GHOIB: china
angka:GHOIB: thailand
DAN LAIN-LAINNYA

Alex said...

And to top it all off, now the spammers are going ape-shit on you.

Melba said...

I know. Fucking idiots.

squib said...

Heading south to in-laws. Giving them Amazon gift vouchers after a long history of giving them the wrong things. Two B-I-Ls are conspiracy theorists still living at home with M-I-L. M-I-L is very sweet but I don't speak her language and she doesn't speak mine. She spends the entire time cooking. Another B-I-L will come over with his intensely annoying fiance and they will go on and on about their IT accomplishments and cats and get poopy if no one shows any interest. Oh and his fiance is also kind of racist which is strange because she's highly educated and young. No one has anything worth saying and the silences are filled with whatever shite is on the telly. Oh and it's a 7 hour drive. Can't wait

phoenixmummy said...

Get well soon Melba, I hope you've started to feel a bit better - am a bit late to the posting.

Stupid malay/indonesian spammers - fuck off!

Hope the eye surgery went well for P.

Xmas plans are same as always - my sister's chrissy party on the Eve, mum's on the day and maybe I'll have a bbq at my house for friends. Not really in a festive mood though. I really want this year to finish and next year to start. We have a resort holiday booked for Jan and then it's back to get relax a bit and get ready for school. Have a wonderful summer and Christmas. xx

Alex said...

Squib, when you say you and your mother-in-law don't speak the same language, do you mean that figuratively or literally?

And what kind of conspiracies are the brothers-in-law into?

squib said...

Very literally, Alex! Though we manage hello and I know frio means it's cold and she probably understands little bits I say

B-I-Ls are far gone. They watch the 'real news' - David Icke and all that stuff. They don't talk about it a lot because they know the rest of us are blind to the real truth

*sigh*

Alex said...

Uh-huh.

Y'know, the more I read about politics, economics, intelligence agencies, corporations, the news media, & the military industrial complex; the more I worry I might slip off the edge into paranoid delusion.

So if I ever start raving about alien lizard monsters, I trust you'll do the decent thing and put me out of my misery.

***

You ever considered learning a bit of Spanish, so you'd at least have someone reasonable to talk to on these trips?

squib said...

Will do. When you start telling me Stonehenge was built by the Russians in 1954, I will call the men in white. I know what you mean though. Can't really trust what anyone tells us so no surprise people go a little craaaaazy

Yeah, tried to learn it some time ago. To be honest, other than speaking to my M-I-L, I don't have any real motivating force to be bothered learning a new language at my age. Besides, I'm still learning English :/

Alex said...

Little Squib isn't interested in learning a bit so she can talk to cousins in Spain or anything? I suppose these days, a lot of them probably speak some English, do they? The Chinese bloke I've mentioned earlier, once told me there was virtually no need for anyone to learn Mandarin, for that very reason.

squib said...

MrSquib has never got around to teaching her. A shame