HAPpy New Year

Have any of you ever seen Showboat? (The old movie version with Katherine Grayson, not the theater version.) Well, the subject of today's post is a nod to Joe E. Brown's memorable New Year's line in that movie. I love that scene, and that character, and heck, I just love Joe E. Brown.

But that's not what the post is about.

Yesterday, I spent a large chunk of the morning writing a post wherein I waxed philosophic about the total bleh of 2008. Truth be told, it wasn't a bad year, but it wasn't a great year either. Wrapped into one big ball of twelve months, it was mostly unmemorable - at least on a personal level.

Anyway, I wrote most of the post before I had to go run my morning errands. Of course, my daughter wasn't ready to go when I was, so I left her and just got donuts while she finished getting ready. Donuts in hand, I arrived home to find her putting her coat on, so it was all good. And just before we stepped out the door, I checked my email - because it never fails... I get home from errands to find one of my used books sold or something, and then I have to go back out again. I didn't sell a used book yesterday morning, but I did have a different happy email in my inbox.

I got a request for full.

So much for nothing important happening in 2008. (Okay, so I also got a full request in May, but since nothing ever came of that, I wasn't thinking of it during my bleh moments yesterday.)

Since the partial was sent back in October, I was pretty certain the whole thing was dead. When the request came, at first I thought it was another rejection. I'm standing over the desk thinking as soon as I open the email and verify I've been dumped again, we can go finish our errands. I even read the first few words and thought 'rejection'... and then came the words '...I enjoyed reading what you sent so much. I would love to read the full manuscript...' My daughter squee'd when I read it aloud, and she ran over to give me a hug. I just stood there with my mouth open, not quite believing what I was reading.

Let's be honest... Lately, I've been feeling like a BFFF (and I don't mean Best Friends For Friggin'ever - think more along the lines of Big Fat Frickin' Failure, with 'frickin' being replaced with its less PC version). The first couple years it wasn't too bad, but these past couple... Well, when New Year's rolled around and I looked back over the previous twelve months - with no measureable progress to show for my efforts - it's not hard to feel like a BFFF. This year was worst than the last, of course, and not only were the previous months bleh, but the next twelve looked like more of the same. Bleh, bleh and more bleh. A never-ending, ever-winding road of bleh.

And then I got a full request from a big agent who actually sounded like she loved the first three chapters. Here's hoping she loves the rest.

I'm trying really hard to not get my hopes up, but since I lay in bed last night envisioning what having an agent would be like, that endeavor is failing big time. If nothing else, though, that one glimmer of hope is going a long way toward pulling me out of my funk. Thank you, Ms. Agent Person. Even if you ultimately decide not to take me, you've given me enough rope so I can climb up and get back to work.

So, here's to a Happy New Year for all of us. May we all see good things in the coming twelve months.

:HUGS: