Tuesday, March 01, 2005

The snow is really coming down here in the northeast US, and it's that fine, slippery stuff that I hate to drive on. As a result, I spent the day inside, snuggled on the couch with my laptop propped up on my knees, a cup of hot chocolate at my side...and wrote. And wrote. And wrote some more.

In fact, I wrote so much, I finished not one, but TWO stories today! The first one is an as-yet-untitled full-length novel for Ellora's Cave. I've been working on it off and on since July and today I wrote the last paragraph and sent it off to my editor.

Everytime I send my editor the first draft of any of my works, I get butterflies in my stomach. It takes me forever to gather my courage and click "Send." There's something nerve-wracking about letting someone else see what I've been working on for the very first time. I don't get nervous when I send her a second draft, or a third. Only that first.

And today I sent not only the unnamed novel, but also "Hooked," a short story I'd written before. Since I finished the novel by noon and still had several hours before the family returned home, I decided to give it the rewrite it needed and send that in, too.

Whew! So for the first time in almost 2 years, I don't have a story hanging over my head. I don't quite know what to do with myself! Perhaps I'll do something I haven't done in a long time: take a walk in the snow....