I tried to use most of my wasted day at work writing, but it's going pretty slowly. Not sure why that is, I think I'm trying to get to the new and exciting part of the story and it feels (to me, anyway) like it's dragging a bit.

In other news, I've got some folks in an online writing group that I'm a part of, suggesting that my first book might be too long for the age group I'm going after. That, friends, has me worried. For those of you that have read Travis 1, I think the majority of y'all would agree that there isn't much that I can cut out. It clocks in at a meaty 80,000 words, but I'm being told it should be pared down to 35,000 or so.

Ugh.

So, of course, I've got that running in my head as I'm writing the sequel. Are these stories too long, or should I not worry about that so much and just get them out of my head and take care of it in the editing process. Decisions, decisions.

I'm struggling to make my two pages a day and I hope I'm not forcing it along...but it might just be that I'm at a slower point, you know...right before the really good stuff kicks in.

We'll see what the weekend holds.

Well, well...no sooner do I open my big yap, then a card saying I've got something at the Post Office shows up.

In my head, I'm thinking: It's too soon to get any of my manuscripts back, right?

Wrong.

I went to pick it up on Tuesday, but the disgruntled clowns had misplaced it and urged me to try again later, of course after making me wait 15 minutes while they searched through their bins. So, I decided to give it another shot today and I kind of cringed when I saw the wobbling postal worker woman limp to the window with a familiar, thick manilla envelope in her hand.

Hoo boy.

I didn't open it right on the spot because I figured it had to be bad news, so I waited until I got to to work and slit it open with an exacto knife. I noticed there weren't any postage marks, so I couldn't tell if it had come from California or Georgia. I slid the contents out and saw my manuscript was still strapped between the two pieces of cardboard and rubber bands I used to hold it together. What...they didn't even look at it?

Wrong again.

I unwrapped the package and saw a letter on top of the cover page of my manuscript. It went a little something like this:

Dear Kingsley,

Thank you for offering your work to Peachtree Publishers. Regrettably, we are unable to accept your manuscript for publication. Of the 20,000 queries and manuscripts we receive each year, we can only publish about 20 titles per year.

Our decision to decline your work does not reflect on its quality or on the ability you bring to it. As you know, publishing is a very subjective business and another editor may feel differently about your work.

We would like to give you a more personalized response but time and the volume of submittals does not permit this; please know, however that your manuscript received a thorough reading and full consideration by our editorial staff.

Best of luck in your publishing endeavors, and thank you again for considering Peachtree.

Cordially,

Helen Harriss

Editorial Department

(beneath that was the following handwritten message)

Though the story is a workable concept, it is much too long for the age group targeted.

Not a bad rejection letters, I guess. I mean they could've been complete jerks and just stuck a slip in there that said "Thanks, but no thanks friend."

The question I have is this, and I'd love to hear people's take on it: When they talk about the age group targeted...do they mean the age group THEY target or the age group I'M trying to target?

I'm hoping it's the group Peachtree is trying to target. I'd hate to cut it down to any more than I have just to shorten it for a younger audience. As it stands, I think the story is kind of lean enough.

Then again...what do I know?

So...that means I need to send it out to some other 'lucky' publishing house. Remember kids! Trying to get published is FUN!!!

Quick update:

No further news on the stray agent query I've sent out. The would be Pema Browne Ltd. Also, my manuscripts that I sent out the week before last have got to be sitting in the 'slush' pile in two different publication houses. Have they been read? Look at it? Sent back? Only time will tell, I guess.

As for my new book: It's coming along just fine. I'm already working on Chapter 3 and it's getting to the part where it will be even more fun to write than the beginning was for me. Things are picking up, getting more exciting. My plan to write a couple pages a day is still working. I've had a tendency to get ahead of myself so that I didn't have to hit it as full-tilt on the weekend. I was actually a couple of pages behind last night, but I caught up while burning the midnight oil.

I know I made a deadline for myself to get it done, and it's kind of cool to think that I'll probably make it. It's the stuff that happens after that I don't look forward to. Editing. It's the worst. While I could definitely see the benefit of it from the first draft of my last effort to the final version, it still sucks. Big time.

Ah well...this is at least is keeping me busy while I wait for the 'experts' out there say 'yay' or 'nay' to my book. Rest assured, I'll keep kicking them out. Eventually, they'll come around. Right???

Okay...so it's going smashingly.

My 2 pages a day plan is working like nobody's business. I made up a calendar on how many pages I should have and I'm actually ahead of schedule. Today I should have 12 pages, and I've got 13, if you count the title page. Toward the end of the day today, I'll kick out another couple and keep myself on track.

I'm basically writing as it's coming to me. I'm not worrying too much about editing or how it's all going to turn out (I know how it'll end, it's the journey that's the most fun) so I just keep moving my fingers over the keys as my characters do their thing. Crazy. Considering I've never written a sequel to a novel before, I was worried that I'd be bored with my characters. After all, I had 300+ pages of their adventures in the first book, who wouldn't get tired of them??? Amazingly, I'm not. I'm discovering that my main character is literally growing right before my eyes and is going through a slow and gradual transformation into...something. Not sure what yet, but it's exciting as hell for me to be working on Book #2!!!

Yeah!!!

Here is my plan...and I think it's going to work.

Since I've given myself a small window in which to write my next book, I've worked out how I'll get it all written by 10.1.02. My first book was roughly 115 pages, single-spaced in a 10pt Arial font. If want to write the next story and shoot for roughly the same length (and who knows how much longer it'll be???) I need to write 2 pages a day for the next 2 months.

No problem?

So far, so good. I kicked out 2.5 pages yesterday at the end of my work day and it just flowed right out. In fact, I'm jonesin' to get back to it. I had to stop right before something big n' exciting happened. It's crazy how much fun I have writing about these characters. I think meeting my goal is entirely possible, I'm so excited to get crackin' on it, I doubt I'll get much 'work' work done today.

I can do this, yo.