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Like a kid in a candy store.

Pardon the cliche, but there is no better way to describe my Coffs Harbour Rotary Bookfest experience this morning. Thousands and thousands of pre-loved books on every conceivable topic.

With my four-step strategy, it was get outta my way everyone:

Step 1. Head to educational reference books and grab anything on writing craft.

Disappointment supreme when there is no Donald Maas, Val Parv et. al. Heart & Craft, Strunk & White LOL. Still did well with a POV book, an ancient grammar book for all those things I should have learned when I was at school, and the lovely man threw in a free Writers Marketplace 2007!!!!!

Step 2. Head to the area sign-posted ROMANCE where boxes of M&B books were on sale 10 for $1.00. I know it’s not good for royalties, but my excuse is, Rotary is a good cause and I have a very poor book budget!!!! (I also stood there with my friend saying VERY LOUDLY, “I know this author. And this one. Oooh, and this one!” LOL.)  Check out the picture for some familiar names: Robyn Grady, Fiona Lowe, Paula Roe, Annie West AND the right on top, centre stage, 1987 Valarie Parv – Man Shy. What a find!

Step 3. Head for alphabet signs: P – for Bron Parry (wishful thinking), W – Janet Woods (damn!), T – Rachel Treasure (double damn!), H – Lisa Heidke (triple dam!) Did manage to find Jennifer Cruise, Erica James, Maeve Binchy and Nicholas Sparks.

Step 4. Give in to allowing some of my book budget to go to Jeannette who drove me to the BookFest and waited patiently as I ploughed through every table – twice!

Okay, so I now know that Step one next year needs to be get there befroe everyone else!
But $50.00 later (well it would have been $50 if I hadn’t gone back in after the Rotary sausage sizzle) I’m a happy camper.

I also learned something about cover design – but that’s for another blog.

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I love a rejection!

Yes I love a rejection—not that I’ve had many (you have to actually submit to get a rejection) but at least when I’ve received the odd thanks-but-no-thanks email reply (automated or personalised) it tells me that my m.s landed in the intended target’s inbox.

What I find harder to take than a rejection is no reply at all.

Okay, so agents are the busiest people on the planet. But since they can also apparently tell if they’re going to love you by your opening line and your query letter, my question is this:

Why, when an agent finally gets around to opening an email submission, can’t they hit the reply button straight away, insert a pre-written rejection note using the signature option in Windows Mail (an excellent device for all sorts of standard stuff if you haven’t already discovered it) and click send.

Possibly, in my case, it’s the tears from all their laughing—or should that be crying—that’s blurring their vision! But at least when I get the rejection email (one rejection equals one submission these days) I can go to my snazzy submission tracking spreadsheet (I call it snazzy because it’s all colour-coded and pretty) and I turn the green submission sent cells to red submission rejected cells. End of story (pardon the pun!)

Instead my spreadsheet is all amber, amber, amber. (That’s what I do to green cells at the three month mark when there’s been no reply. It’s not a big red no – yet – so I make it amber, in anticipation of a no!)

The truth is, I just don’t like amber. There’s no closure in amber and that’s why I love a rejection. At least after a rejection I can red it, rule it out, go to the next green.
The following rejection letter made me laugh, and while it has nothing to do with writing it did make me wonder if I should model a response to my next rejection – LOL
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I’m sixteen again

I feel like I’m sixteen again – and that’s not a good thing for me; at sixteen I was watching all my friends maturing ahead of me.

Knowing I was a late bloomer, as my mother used to call it, was of no comfort at all with my best friend getting everything at fourteen – her waistline, her breasts, her periods – while I still looked like an anxious, Amazonian eight-year-old at sixteen.

I learned then that it’s no good trying to rush things (stuffing bras comes to mind). It wasn’t going to happen until it happened.

Enter me – now!

I’m a long way from sixteen, but I find myself again watching from the sidelines as people around me grow, win publishing contracts and enjoy writing success.

I know my time to bosom – I mean blossom – will come (and padded bras are definitely NOT the answer this time either) but in the mean time I’m feeling…anxious.

The good news is that I know I have grown in many ways.

How do I know this? Because I no longer feel the urge to write mean comments on the toilet door about all the big-busted girls – LOL.

I’m seriously thrilled to pieces for anyone who achieves publishing success (it’s bloody hard to do) and I’m encouraged knowing that it does happens to lovely, everyday people — like me. I know this because I met one of those lovely people today in our newly-formed mid-north coast writers’ group. Karlene Lane has just secured a contract with Allen & Unwin and I’m really looking forward to sharing her journey.

As for me, I just have to be patient. It WILL happen.