Temptation Aisle: Have you ever noticed how stores put tons and tons of impulse items along even the express checkout lane? There I am with my 10 items or less, or 20 items or less (should be fewer, but most stores say less), and I usually have just that many items...and there's that Twix, or that magazine, or pack of batteries I need, or whatever, just daring me to put it in the cart. Do I take something else out of my cart and put it where it isn't supposed to go, so I can buy this new item I want more? Do I bury the urge for the new item? Or do I risk the express lane police by sticking that extra item--or items--in my cart? I half-expect alarms to sound and handcuffs to close around my wrists if I do, or at least I expect a nasty look from the person behind me. I think it's cruel and unusual to put so much eye candy in the express lane, when most people are barely squeaking through it with the right number of items as it is....

Today was my 2nd critique group meeting. I thought it went better this time, since this time they agreed my YA novel really was YA. And liked it, for that matter! Someone said something I liked a lot, about submitting to publishers: You can reject me, but you can't stop me.

My absolute favorite quote at the moment, considering my current mid-30s crisis, is by George Eliot: "It is never too late to be what you might have been." (Actually, I think it a lot of cases it is too late--I'll never be a child star, for instance, or an Olympic athlete!--but I'm still clinging to that quote daily!)

Three clichés I need to take to heart:

1) Don't sweat the small stuff.

2) Don't sell yourself short.

3) Strike while the iron is hot.

I went to my first critique group meeting this past weekend. They seemed to think my YA-novel-in-progress should be written as a mid-grade instead. I thought long & hard about it & didn't agree, but of course I had more information about it than they did, as they only saw 3 pages. But now I'm re-thinking the idea altogether and have so many ways I want to go with it I'm not really sure what to do. I have so many other ideas, too, that I'm not sure what to focus on right now...and not at all sure what to take to the next meeting. But it will almost assuredly be a different project.