boys like you love me forever

I had a v. productive day; it was a struggle to keep myself from just relaxing, but I'll be in Iowa for a week, and I can relax when I get there. Instead, I cleaned the bathroom, changed my sheets, vacuumed, took out my recycling, unpacked from my trip, put the new registration tags on my car, reconciled my finances, and cancelled my Netflix (which I should have done ages ago -- I watch a movie every two or three months, which means it would be cheaper to just buy a movie when I want to watch it). I also spent an inordinate amount of time looking at Wordpress templates. I'm contemplating paying someone to build me a website for my romance novels, since my time would be better spent writing another book instead of building a site. But, Wordpress might actually meet my needs, and buying a premium template would be way cheaper than paying someone to create a site for me. We shall see; the website is really the least of my concerns, but it's one of the many things on my list of things to accomplish in the next couple of months.

After I felt sufficiently accomplished for the day, I went over to Cafe Zitouna and picked up a chicken schwarma wrap and a mint tea, which made for a delicious dinner. Then, I read a book that I recently ordered -- HER LADYSHIP'S COMPANION. It's by an author who is represented by one of the agents whom I was considering, and it's clear to me now why that agent thought that my book needed more sex; this book had sex in virtually every other scene, which I suppose is to be expected since the premise is that a woman trapped in a loveless marriage hired a man to be her "companion" for a couple of weeks. The writing was good, but my style is definitely lighter on the quantity of sex, so perhaps it's a good thing that I chose a different agent...

...which reminds me. I've officially signed with an agent!!! I decided to go with the agent who contacted me last week to offer representation; she's absolutely fabulous from a sales standpoint, but even more importantly, she's very enthusiastic about my work and we clicked immediately on the phone. I mailed the contracts to her last night, and we're talking next week to discuss the next steps in terms of submissions to publishers in more detail. It's very strange to find myself with representation; I was looking at my calendar, and it was less than a month ago that I finished my edits and started sending out queries again. So far, everything has happened remarkably fast; let's hope that they don't come to a screeching halt. And that means that I can retire my "the agent hunt" label after this post, unless I find myself in need of representation again in the future.

The only other thing of note that happened today was that I had a moment at the ATM when I wondered whether I was being tested fairy-tale-style -- there was an old woman who looked quite ill leaning over a bike rack, occasionally using her cane to tap out in front of her to find the curb. I had a moment of wondering whether it would be rude to ask her if she was okay, but then remembered all the fairy tales; good always comes to those who help the old crones, and woe betide those who ignore or mock them. So I asked if she was alright; either she wasn't part of a fairy tale, or I didn't ask the right question, because she claimed she was totally fine. So I walked away, but I looked back half a block later and discovered that she had disappeared in true fairy-tale fashion. No mystery there -- she had gotten on the bus. But it was an odd moment nonetheless, and an indication of how easily my imagination runs amok.

Okay, no more blogging tonight; it's time for bed!