Wednesday, November 26, 2008

the cookie is tainted

My father brought home twelve chickens and two roosters today. If you want eggs, we will have plenty of them; one of the chickens laid an egg in the truck on the way home, which is a good sign for their later productivity (unless the cats figure out how to get in and kill them, in which case we will have a lot of chicken and noodles).

The other big news of the day is that I submitted my first official query letters to agents! I submitted to two agents; I'll likely submit to more over the next few days, but I kind of want to see how brutal the reaction is to these letters before I try again. The querying process will likely take months, but at least I'm on the path. I'm going to be sad if I find out that I'm like one of those mothers who never seems to suspect that her kid is actually ugly -- perhaps my book is one of those homely babies, but I can't accept that right now, so I will persist in my belief that it's the most beautiful baby in the whole world.

Of course, that all pales in comparison to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai today. I didn't stay in the Taj Mahal hotel that was attacked, but I stayed in the Taj President in 2005. I met Vishal and went to a nightclub in the Taj Mahal, and also had lunch in one of its restaurants that same weekend. While I didn't have the best time ever in Mumbai due to an extreme bout of food poisoning, I still have fond memories of the place, and it's sad to hear about such insane violent acts. I love India and would like to go back, but I'm sure my family is happy that I'm safe in Iowa instead of gallivanting across the subcontinent in the midst of an upswing in terrorism.

Okay, if I'm going to wake up in time to eat all day, I suppose I should go to bed.

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