After countless re-writes, I feel like there's nothing more I can add to the story.  Now it's time to start crafting some query letters, but all examples I see are what not to do.  And strangely, I feel more stressed now than ever.  Maybe I'll chill out if I take another year just for the queries.  Or maybe not.

I handed off my MS to my beloved editor (my sister) this weekend.  Now all I have to do is. . . wait.  I don't like waiting.  It's uncomfortable, and I think I figured out that it stresses me out.  I'd rather write.  But, I don't want to start another project before seeing this one through.  But this may take a long while to see through.  Oh, the agony!

Because I'm waiting, I've started reading again.  And what better way to start again than to dive into the second-longest book I've ever seen (I find the wording of the Swedish cover particularly humorous).  Although I'm on page 380, I'm only a third of the way through.  The story rocks, by the way.

I just finished my last go-through of the MS when I stumbled upon the answer in the crammed spaces of my brain:  I was writing about mangy pines, not mangy pins.  You see, ". . . dirt fields and mangy pines raced by. . .".  

The main character is tearing through Russia, desperately searching for a way out of his dilemma, and, well . . . it's a long story.  I don't want to jinx him.  His name is Justin, by the way.

I was just one letter off, and I had no idea.  Time to hang it up for tonight!

I'm trying desperately to finish re-writing, and I came across the following sentence in my MS:  "She looked out the window as the dirt fields and mangy pins raced by."

What the heck are mangy pins?  I can only work on this stuff late at night, so when I write, my brain is the consistency of oatmeal.  Either I'm barely operating at the conscious level, or I'm just so tired sometimes my hands just take over and complete nonsense gets typed in. 

At this rate, India will complete a second lunar mission http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,442821,00.html

before I finish.   I have to get back to work - I'm drooling all over the keyboard.

. . .I'll be done with this book by 2014.  I'm kidding, of course.  It won't take that long, but one event that I swore would not take place before my book is done has already happened:  India will complete its first lunar mission.

Oh, the bitter taste of humble pie!