As I walked the Penn campus on Monday I was struck by images of endings. This is a close-up of a campus information kiosk—all the advertisements, slogans, promises, queries snatched out from the rust-grip of staples. Come January, it will all be new again.
Here, in between corporate projects and Christmas shopping, between the tree I haven't gotten yet and the countless gifts I have, I am at work on a final round of edits for my adult novel. Come Monday, the book will be ready for prime time, which is to say, for its submission to editors. There's no telling what will happen after that. All I can say for certain is this: Rahna Reiko Rizzuto read it closely, and so did my agent, Amy Rennert. This book is already far better for the time they took with it—for the questions they asked, for the themes they parsed, for the way they told the story back to me.
I will be thinking of you often and hope you have the best of "luck" (although it's definitely not luck with your beautiful writing!)
I'm glad to know we're not the only ones without our tree up.
I'm getting really excited about your adult novel because I know it will be fantastic.
That's wonderful, Beth. I hope the response is terrific.
I better get my tree up soon. The kids are getting anxious!
I wish you the best of luck Beth. I know you'll continue to blossom in your writing!!
You are so gifted at making the ordinary into something extraordinary. Fabulous picture of the poster board.