Patience certainly helps in the writing business.... I've had a novel out to a publisher for more than 6 months now, a short story out to a magazine for more than 3 months, and a picture book out for just under 3 months (not to mention the story I sent to a magazine a year ago & have given up hearing back about!). I try to keep busy writing other things while I'm waiting, but still can't help but check the calendar occasionally!

I got quite a bit done yesterday. I spent way too long dealing with printer problems, but finally got the invitations and envelopes printed for my son's upcoming 6th birthday party, and got those mailed out. The theme is "Knights, Princesses, and Bouncy Castles!" I designed the invitations on the computer to save money, but ended up spending tons of time on them, and just as much money (with the inkjet greeting card paper and all the ink I must have used for the many failed printing attempts) as I would have spent to buy professionally printed ones! At any rate, I also wrote a bio for the Tall Tales Press anthology and sent that off, and finished polishing a story I'm submitting to a small literary magazine, and submitted that in the evening, along with another bio I had to write for that one. Then later at night, I started making some revisions on a children's story I've never been able to find a market for, but soon decided it was a lost cause--I decided I didn't even like it much! I still may rework the idea, but I'd want to start nearly from scratch. And last of all, I submitted an entry in a contest to win a day in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! The Wienermobile has to be one of the coolest vehicles ever. I said I'd like to use it as a bookmobile, to distribute free books to kids.

Finally some good news! My quirky story "Falling Through the Quacks" received an honorable mention in the Hidden Talents short story contest from Tall Tales Press (a Canadian contest, though I'm not Canadian), and will be published in their Tall Tales and Short Stories Vol. II anthology this September! I really like the story and it had gotten notice in a contest before, but I wondered how I'd find a home for it, considering that it's a romantic humor story involving a dancing duck! It's about adults, not kids, but is appropriate for a general audience. This will be my second fiction publication, so it's a nice confidence booster for my fiction writing!

Bummer. I had sent a short story to Seventeen magazine, hoping they might still publish occasional fiction (as mentioned in Writer's Market), even though I hadn't seen it in their pages recently. I just got a phone call from a very nice woman there, thanking me for my submission but letting me know they don't publish fiction anymore. A rejection by phone was a new one on me, but it actually seemed much friendlier than getting one by mail. Which I also got this week...my midgrade story came back to me so fast I can hardly believe they had time to read it! I don't think I'll be going out of my way to write more short stories soon, as there are so few markets for them anymore. I have no idea what to do with the midgrade story now, since even the newly edited version is too long for most relevant markets. Too bad, as I still like it!