So I officially have an…

So I officially have an agent now; I just signed the contract. Very cool! It's funny all the little markers of adulthood -- the progressive stages in one's career, for example. My first short story sale; my first check; first anthology galleys; first book; Library of Congress listing; first time as a convention panelist; first book proposal; first book that actually made money; first NY publisher; first time teaching fiction writing; first agent. And I've been calling myself a writer for years, but it takes each of these steps to make me feel a little more convinced of it. :-) Odd, no? I assume it's the same in all fields -- my sisters are both going into medicine, and I know that's very hierarchical; academia is too. So at what stage do you actually feel confident in your abilities? 30? (I'll be 30 in July, but 'confident' is a bit too strong a word for me still). 35? 40? And then you get maybe twenty, maybe thirty years before you start to forget things...ah well. Fingers crossed -- I'm hoping to live to 100 or so, and remain in full possession of my faculties the whole time. We'll just have to wait and see, though.

I did almost everything I needed to last night, except for the review for SH. Bad Mary Anne. It's easier to miss deadlines when it's for your own magazine. :-) But it's on my list for this morning, along with revising the cookbook proposal, calling my history professor and explaining why I'm not done with the reading yet (not fun), doing the outstanding SH checks and contracts before leaving town, verifying my PayPal account for SH, and asking Pair about accepting credit cards at SH. Well, that's for this morning and early afternoon, with a meeting with a student at noon. Most of it isn't particularly painful stuff, so as long as I don't procrastinate...

...and I'm afraid this counts as procrastinating, so until later, munchkins.

1:00. It's brightly blazing sunny out today -- not good for Karina's fair skin, but very good for Mary Anne's mood. I just had a conference with a student, sitting outside at a Cucina picnic table. How lovely! I forget sometimes how hard I find it to be productive when it's dark; I do enjoy stormy rainy days, but they make me moody and restless and wanting to be having sex in a field somewhere -- not conducive to sitting and plowing through a pile of paperwork. :-)

But at this point, I've finished and mailed the proposals and signed contract to Sara, I've e-mailed the history professor (much easier than calling), I've revised and re-revised the diversity booklist for Potlatch (probably one final revision to do before it's ready to take to the con) and I've met with two students. Good morning. Karina's up now and having her toast; we'll soon be heading out. We're going to walk down to a sculpture garden; I may take some photos. Then we'll walk to the Blue Iguana and have lunch (more mole, yum), and then she'll drop me at Borders where I will diligently write my book review for Chris while she does some last-minute sight-seeing. Dinner with Paul and Marcia eventually, and then home again home again. Lovely day, lovely mood, happy happy joy joy. I'm going to go do one or two more tasks before my silly buzz wears off. :-)