So I was looking over October, now that it’s over, and discovered something. I managed, without even trying, to send out four submissions this month. Four different submissions that no one has ever read (well, I’ve read them …). And I thought: Whoa. How did that happen?
It was magic.
Actually, when you work a little bit at a time, put some small words on the page, then a few more, and then a few more after that, they grow. It’s only after the fact, after the manuscript is written and revised, after you put a stamp on it (or click submit), that you realize how much you’ve done. Even then, you might sit back and think:
It was magic.
Speaking of magic, reading in October was full of it. I don’t know why I’ve never read 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. I don’t know why I decided I needed to read it right now, in October. But I did.
And I fell in love. Predictably, I immediately gobbled up Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Q’s Legacy. Charming, wonderful, meandering books with no high concept, no high stakes, and yet I was glued to the page, kept turning the pages, stayed up way past my bedtime to read.
It was magic.
Writing Wrongs 