Writer Kryptonite

I'm definitely a Marvel girl, but I like the Superman imagery for this post's title. The events I'm about to relate nearly reduced me to a quivering puddle of goo. I swear, I'm not cheating on you my dear X-men and Avengers. No need to come after me with your combined crazy weapons. I swear you're the main focus of this post. *nervous laughter and twitching*

Okay, I don't really take that above paragraph seriously, but I had a strange episode yesterday. It was strange enough, and entertaining enough, for me to put it in writing. You'll see the Marvel connection momentito.

It all started off with a common enough experience: the phone rang. That's not strange all by itself, but I glanced at the caller ID before I answered. It only said "NEW YORK." And my knees turned to jelly.

*Sigh* More backstory: I'm querying right now. I have several manuscripts out to agents. Most of those agents are located in New York. I'm already a little twitchy when the phone rings or the email notice chimes, but seeing the caller is from New York, and it's not my mom or a friend or something, is just about enough to start my eyeballs doing somersaults.

So I shushed the kid, who was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework, and braced myself for anything. I answered the phone. The next 30 seconds went something like this:

ME: Hello?

PHONE: mrrflamlmmmm

ME: Um. Hello?

PHONE: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE* clickity-clickity-click THUNK
     *This was an ear-bleed of a high pitched noise

ME: (after recovering from the ear-bleed) Hello? HELLO?!

Then I hung up. My first thought was, "Oh, great, I just lost any chance I will EVER have of publishing/finding an agent because I just yelled at someone on the phone. They probably think I'm the nutter and there was nothing wrong with the call on their end."

Then I realized I could check and see who actually called. Google to the rescue.

I entered the number from the caller ID, and it looked at little strange. I learned something else fun about the internet, too. The number who called me was registered to Trask Industries, and even Google Maps is in on the joke.

For those not familiar with the Marvel Universe, Trask Industries is explained HERE.

So maybe it wasn't a literary agent calling to beg me to be their client, but after the simultaneous heartbreak and confusion faded, at least I was left with the notion that somewhere out there, maybe Wolverine or Iron Man will have to come to my rescue some day. If Trask is a real thing, then maybe they are too. We can hope.

With that bit of nonsense, it's time to go back to my own imaginary version of New York City, setting of the novel I'm working on at the moment.

Unicorn Pillow I made when I was 10. I sit on it while I write now. FTW.

 I can't resist. Apologies.ERMAHGERD! ERNERCERN PERLO!

NEWSLY NOTES: And for a few fun updates on things I'm participating in within the Series of Tubes:

I am working up several new contest entries this month, some of which are already in the preliminary phases. There is the Hook, Line, and Sinker contest being run through THREE fabulous blogs. Already my preliminary pitch is up over at Kat Ellis's blog for critique.

Then there's Trick or Treat with an Agent! This one is particularly fun because of the two questions entrants are asked to answer. Even if you're not entering the contest, if you are a writer you should give those questions a gander! Fun stuff!

And I can't forget the Pitch Live! Video pitch contest. This one just about killed me. I spent five hours making a video pitch, and I still hate it. *grumbles* I'm about to throw in the towel and just do a costumed chorus line routine, and possibly sing my pitch. At least then the agents who view it will have something memorable and likely a good laugh (or possibly an aneurism. Maybe I should rethink that...) I'm working up the nerve to post the video on this blog.

Also upcoming: The Authoress Baker's Dozen, with FIFTEEN agents participating! My logline is also there for preliminary critique, at #15. Kinda auspicious, right? Fifteen agents, I'm number fifteen...okay, I'll take what I can get. This one is a HUGE, MUST-NOT-MISS EVENT for the unagented among us.

There are probably others, which I'll post as I remember them. In the mean time, here's my sad Progress-o-Meter update:

Words: 55,678
Pages: 173
Edit Page: 139