Friday, February 25, 2022

Three types of Rejection

 When writers send out manuscripts to editors, there are three types of responses they'll get.

1 -- Nothing. No response. They've read your submission on their computer or cell phone and just deleted it and went on to read the next submission.

2 -- A rejection, usually by email, which often makes a comment about your lovely writing and that they like it, but that they just didn't love it enough to buy it.  Sometimes they include a statement that they'd like to see more of your work, which is nice.

3 -- Acceptance.  They want to buy it and publish it !!!

Recently I've been mostly getting numbers 1 and 2.  

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Talking to cats when they talk back

 We were given a cat along with his vet record and discovered his 'name' was Eliot. Who the heck gives a cat that name? 

But we continued to call him by that name, and he was the first (and only) cat who would come when we called that name. Huh. How about that? He would also answer when we called. He would Meow a 'hello' when we let him inside and he did expect a response from us, so we would. 

Monday, February 14, 2022

Part time college jobs -- the typing pool

 One of my part time jobs in college was in the science department typing pool. I was moved from the typing pool into a separate room to use the just invented MTST machine. What an amazing change. I could type with the Selectric typewriter on paper while a wire connected my actions into a desk high 'computer' sitting beside my desk and my actions were recorded on computer tape. Then I could edit the paper copy, mark corrections, then have the computer type out what I had written while I had the ability to stop it and make corrections, which were instantly saved on the tape in the computer. Once everything was corrected or re-written, I'd order the computer to print out a fresh copy - perfect. !!! Next to the computer box was a large storage cabinet of typing supplies and fresh computer tape. Yes, this was the first 'word processor.'