All writ­ers dream of get­ting “The Call.” That first phone call when your agent or edi­tor phones you and tells you that yes, some­one wants to pub­lish your book. It’s a won­der­ful feel­ing, the high­est of highs.

But real­ity even­tu­ally sets in.

And you real­ize that now you have to sell the *@$! thing. That you get­ting another book pub­lished will depend, in part, on how well Book 1 does.

And the des­per­a­tion sets in.

You get out there and talk to every­one you come across about your book. Order your friends and fam­ily to buy it (sorry, Mom, no free­bie for you). Bully your co-workers into pick­ing up a dozen copies for Christ­mas presents. Accost total strangers in the gro­cery store and demand that they stop at B&N on their way home.

And this is you being restrained.

But you can’t help it — you’ve got des­per­a­tion fever. 

I’m feel­ing a touch warm myself, right now. And my book won’t come out until May. I can’t imag­ine the pres­sure on other authors to deliver big sales num­bers all the time. I also can’t imag­ine bad­ger­ing some­one to buy my book when they’re try­ing to pick out the per­fect watermelon. I hope I don’t sink to that. But the fever’s got a hold of me …

What about you? Do you get des­per­a­tion fever when your lat­est book comes out? Inquir­ing minds want to know …

Watched the Heroes pilot last night. As a comic-book fan and writer, I was inter­ested to see how and if it would work — and if it would be too much like X-Men. It did, and it wasn’t.

It totally rocked.

Dug the char­ac­ters. Dug their con­flicts. Dug their emerg­ing pow­ers. And won­dered what it all meant and how they’ll come together. I espe­cially loved the nerdy Japan­ese guy who so des­per­ately wants to be spe­cial. Don’t we all?

What about you? Are you feel­ing a lit­tle Heroes wor­ship? Inquir­ing minds want to know …

I finally sold this year, after many, many, many years of writ­ing and query­ing and get­ting rejected. When that mag­i­cal moment came, I was thrilled. I’d finally achieved my dream. I’d made it. My work was good enough, I was smart enough, and dog­gone it, peo­ple liked me. And I wouldn’t get rejected anymore. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

I went on a day trip this week to do some shop­ping and take in the sights over in Asheville, N.C. (A lovely, bohemian town, for any­one who’s think­ing about vis­itng.) While I was there, I went into a few book­stores to give them my busi­ness card, ask about sign­ings, chat up the locals, you know the drill.

One guy was very friendly. Asked me how long I’d been writ­ing, etc., etc., etc.

But the other woman I talked with not friendly at all. She looked at my card for maybe half a sec­ond before say­ing that she’d need to see a copy of my book to deter­mine if it was right for the store. That was it. End of dis­cus­sion. We talked for less than a minute.

She runs a book­store. I write books. Seems like a nat­ural fit to me. But appar­ently not.

But her cool recep­tion reminded me of all those rejec­tions I use to get. The ones that are form let­ters or where your name and book are so badly mis­spelled that you won­der if the agent even both­ered to read it.

Her rejec­tion depressed me. At least, until I went to this fab­u­lous lit­tle choco­late shop. It’s amaz­ing what truf­fles can do to restore you.

A cou­ple of pounds of choco­late later, I’ve decided not to let it bother me. It’s just another part of the author game. I’ve got­ten hun­dreds of rejec­tions. What are a cou­ple hun­dred more?

What about you? Have you ever been rejected by a book­seller? How do you cope with it? Inquir­ing minds want to know …

First of all, I have to give a shout-out to Ruth for inspir­ing this post. Thanks, Ruth!

Now, onto the ram­blings. It’s been rain­ing where I live all week­end long. But I don’t mind.

Because rainy days are my absolute favorites. Every­thing is gray and sil­ver and quiet. The air is so humid that I can feel the mois­ture gather on my skin. Every­thing smells wet and fresh and clean (except for dogs, they just smell like wet dogs).

It’s rain­ing now. I can hear it pound­ing against my roof. Ahhh .… I think I’ll go curl up on the couch with a blankie and a good book.

What about you? Do you like rainy days? Or do you pre­fer clear skies and sun­shine? Inquir­ing minds want to know …

Just a reminder that I’m guest blog­ging over at Mag­i­cal Mus­ings today. My topic is Writ­ing Out­side the Para­nor­mal Box. Hope you can check it out!