Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Hoppie New Year


It's 2008 already?
Where does time go?

It seems it was just yesterday that my oldest daughter mentioned that she might be in our area around Christmas -- and now she and her husband have come and gone.
But not far.

When I e-mailed them yesterday to thank them for coming and asked, "how was their trip?" I got four words back.
"Stuck in Atlanta airport."

I woke up yesterday morning to bright skies and temperatures in the 40s. (okay, I slept in and woke up at 9 am.)
However, I soon learned that during the night a small ice storm hat hit -- causing accidents all over. And delaying the take-off of their plane for three hours. (from 6:30 to 9:30) Since they had been taking off from here the very minute they were supposed to be boarding a plane in Atlanta to fly to California, naturally they did not make connections. And since planes are overbooking these days, the likelihood that they were able to continue with their trip was nil.

Therefore, the message from Atlanta last evening.
Poor kids.
I hope they were able to either catch another plane or get a hotel room. Sleeping in airports is for the birds.

New Year's Resolutions --
Keep sending out manuscripts to publishers.
Keep working on the Works in Progress and send them out when they are ready.

Publishing news --
Charlesbridge. the publisher of my books Busy Toes and Busy Fingers (under the pen name of C.W.Bowie), has bowed to the sign of the times and is now saying that, they will no longer return manuscripts, nor send rejections. However, they still ask to be your sole submission for three months. If they haven't responded by three months, you can safely assume they may be rejecting your manuscript and you are free to send it elsewhere.

-wendieO

3 comments:

laurasalas said...

Hi Wendie--Ick news about Charlesbridge. That seems rather presumptuous, to not return mss and yet still expect exclusive subs. I don't like that at all!

You've done a lot this year. Hope 08 is great for your writing!

Wendie O said...

Laura -- actually, I meant to say that Charlesbridge was joining a host of other publishers that now are simply throwing unwanted manuscripts away with no response.

Houghton Miflin, Harcourt, and many others. Which is why it's so important to check for up-to-date submission procedures every time you/we submit to them.

-wendieO

laurasalas said...

Hi Wendie, Oh I realize Charlesbridge isn't the only one. But they're one of the few pubs, I think, still insisting on exclusive subs, so it's disappointing that they'd adopt this policy...