Real

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

That’s about the best I could come up with tonight. I got my first rejection today – which isn’t as bad as it seems. It was actually a very nice rejection note, so I’m rather grateful for that. Better than just a “not suited for our needs at this time” kind of thing. On one hand I’m kind of relieved. That first one is over and surprisingly not that bad. I mean, sure, it stings, but she did say I was talented, so hopefully that counts for something. If it wasn’t a good fit for her, perhaps it will fit better with someone else. And now I suppose it means I’m a “real” author. I qualify for PRO status with RWA now, at any rate.

I also got my scores back today for the first contest I entered. I didn’t final, but the scores varied – I got a 91, 92 and a 53. This qualified me for a discrepancy judge who gave me a 75. The opinions varied from outright gushing to assuming that Abby was bisexual and that I should “read submission guidelines carefully, as there are some agents/publishers that only accept ‘male/female” romances’ “. Abby isn’t bisexual (I don’t think), but it wouldn’t bother me if she was.

I don’t mind having a wide range of scores – it would have been nice to final, but from what I can tell it means I have a strong writing voice – people either love it or hate it. Doesn’t mean I’m going to change it, but I am going to pay attention to the comments that were similar. Although there is a part of that is beginning to wonder if I should just scrap that first chapter again. But not tonight.

Of course, the icing on the cake today was the fact that my new netbook (that is less than two weeks old) has already managed to crap the bed. Truthfully? I’m more upset about that than the writing. And it still works, but the battery no longer charges. Samsung won’t send me a new battery though – they want me to send the whole thing back to Texas. *eyeroll* I’d just buy a new battery but they are over $160, and being the whole computer was just over $400, I can’t really justify that. Tomorrow – it’s off to the post office.