Humility? In writers? You must be thinking of someone else. . .

I am a naturally confident woman. That is good, but it can also get me into trouble. Yes, in that picture, I would be the cat . . .

November has taught me humility. I cannot do it all. I am not super woman who can type three novels at a time, while promoting a fourth, while plotting a fifth, while editing a sixth, while participating in Nanowrimo, while running my business that pays the bills, while taking care of my farm, while getting in enough sleep not to lose my mind. Amongst other things that I shall not name now for fear you will think me nuts.

I do no like to fail. But, November taught me that if I try to do all the things on my to-do list in one shot, none of those things will be done to the high standards I hold myself to.

If I want to be seen as a writer who puts only good books out (always the goal) I have to realize my limitations. I will always push them, that is just who I am, but I also have to acknowledge when enough is enough.

So, thanks November, for kicking my ass and teaching me that it's okay to let go, to focus on just one project, complete it and then start another. It was a tough lesson, but one I needed to learn, even if it was the hard way.

Declines and Nanowrimo

I didn't want to spoil the beauty of my 100th blog with an update of on my ms submission. So I waited a few days to soften the impact. I had my first official decline from a publishing house through Carolyn. She asked if I was crushed over not getting on with this particular house.

Short answer is "No." Longer answer is "It would be nice to get a Yes right out of the gates and avoid the whole rejection process." The thing I find kind of funny is the fact that the word "decline" is supposed to be less painful than "rejection". Last I heard, they mean the same thing. Though I suppose that rejection has more of a throw away attitude to it. Now the editors are putting my ms in a folder nicely instead of chucking it across the room and into a large paper shredder. Oh come on you can laugh at that. :D You gotta laugh, its the only response to these sorts of things.

For those of you doing NanWrimo, I too am taking the month long challenge and if you'd like to buddy up to me I would be glad to have you there. I got real creative and used my Twitter account name. So you can find me under "queryaddict" and I hope to see a lot of you there.