It is with tired fingers that I compose this wee post, as I have spent a very long Sunday inputting all but the last 12 pages of edits for H&B.

I know, just 12 pages! If only I could have stayed up an extra hour or so to do them, but then I'd have to go back and proof them to make sure it was in English. (A lesson learned on Friday morning after working until 2:30 a.m. the night before.)

My query letter (now without the Harry Potter reference), revised synopsis and first three chapters are comfortably waiting until August 1. Sure, I could send them out now, but I feel that sending out a query letter for a novel that isn't complete (even if it's this close) is asking for trouble. Call me superstitious, but that's the way I'm approaching it.

And I can't wait for the real waiting to begin. ;)

Seriously, all of this waiting for me to finally get my butt in the chair has probably done little to prepare me for the gut-wrenching, soul-sucking waiting cycle that I will be entering come Wednesday. This is the part of the process, I'm sure, that drives my comrades-at-keyboards to drink.

I must pick up more paper umbrellas on the way home today.

It's time to release this novel out into the cruel, overloaded-with-submissions world. That way I can get all of those other projects done (sends big hugs out to understanding editors and publishers) and prepare for the fast-approaching frenzy that, no matter how much I try to plan, always catches me by surprise each fall.

I also kind of cheated and bought myself my "finishing the book" reward: tickets to see The Police on November 9. Woo hoo! Now I just have to live up to that promise and deadline so that I don't have to give the tickets away because I'm unworthy of such a reward.

Oh, and thanks to everyone on the "leave the lid on" egg-boiling tip: it really works!