Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Comfort Food (As In, I Need Some)

Why, you may ask? I would tell you specifically, but I have resolved not to whine. Okay, maybe I'll whine a little bit. Let's just say I've been at war with technology and some companies that use it.

Double billings from one of them. Talk about unsettling.

And private and personal information for thirteen people (THIRTEEN!) sent to me by mistake from another. You have no idea how difficult it was to return these to a haywire computer, one that can be blamed, but not held accountable for this bad, bad thing, especially when you can't reach a human being no matter which number you punch. There is no automated choice for this kind of situation. There are only time-consuming, ringing telephone extensions that go unanswered.

Which, speaking of phones, brings us to the new cell phone I'm apparently going to have to make into a necklace or some kind of lawn art because my area code has no telephone numbers left. Who knew? Did I ever realize this could be a problem? No. I did not. I don't even like cell phones -- or I didn't until I found out I couldn't get one.

And my nephew is out of the country until Christmas. And sick. Again. He is many time zones away and about to have a birthday. Bless his heart, he probably needs some comfort food, too. His old war horse nurse aunt thinks he really, really should stop eating things that are -- as he puts it -- "questionable."

On the plus side, I did finish a book proposal today, i.e., graphics, character sketches, synopsis and the first thirty pages. This one has been a long time aborning. Murky, it was. In the middle. The beginning was strong. The end was strong. But oh, that vast wasteland in between. I rather like the finished product, though, if I do say so myself, despite knowing it's probably not going to "fit" anywhere. Everything about it feels "real" to me. The people. The places. The emotions. Now, all I have to do is bite the bullet and mail the thing to my agent. Then I wait. And wait. And wait some more.

As I said. I need some comfort food...

5 comments:

Liz Flaherty said...

Your blog is like comfort food itself!

I have such trouble writing most of these days (although more trouble NOT writing), and I remember telling you once that I wanted to be you when I grew up. I still do, BTW. I want to be able to string words together the way you do and wrench a heartache right out of a stone.

See, I'm not even making sense in this comment. However, when I read what you write, I'm reassured. Thank you for that.

Cheryl said...

Oh, Liz. Thank you. I like the idea of running a "comfort food" blog. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure anybody was reading the thing.

And thanks for the writing compliment. It's much appreciated. I hope your muse is behaving better than mine has been. She took off and -- as the late Sandra Canfield used to say -- went to live at Nora Roberts' house.

You take care, and good luck with YOUR novels.

Cheryl

Cheryl said...

Oh, Liz. Thank you. I like the idea of running a "comfort food" blog. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure anybody was reading the thing.

And thanks for the writing compliment. It's much appreciated. I hope your muse is behaving better than mine has been. She took off and -- as the late Sandra Canfield used to say -- went to live at Nora Roberts' house.

You take care, and good luck with YOUR novels.

Cheryl

Liz Flaherty said...

I'd never read that, what Sandra Canfield said, but she was speaking for a lot of us, wasn't she?

I have a friend whose blog is so active and who gets "tons of reader mail" and who--let's be honest--writes a whole lot more than I do. I envy her in a way, but in another way, the writing business controls her life and I don't want anything to control mine. (Except grandkids; they're different.)

I'm looking forward to reading your orphans.

Cheryl said...

Yikes. I see Blogger double posted my reply. I can't seem to stay on the right side of large computer-driven entities these days.