The Country Mouse Squeaks Home

Back from the Big Apple with Minnie Mouse shoes and skirt unpacked. New shoes rubbed a blister within minutes of hoofing down Park Avenue. I tried to smile a lot, parking the pain somewhere except on my face. At big meetings where one recognizes only a few people, a smile is the best introduction. This is such a cliche but true. So smile, dammit!
The MWA Symposium was actually better than it usually is this year, maybe because the abysmal pessimism about getting and staying published was downplayed. With two hours to kill in a bookstore, I bought another volume in Rebecca Pawel's mystery series about post-Spanish civil war Spain. I like these books a lot. Snow is the latest in the series. I read Death of a Nationalist and my current one is The Watcher in the Pine. It is always great to find a new author who has not been hyped to death.
She is published by Soho, and I would so love to be published by them but I have to confess that I have been too chicken to send anything lest they reject me. They might like the East German book, but maybe it's too much like chick lit (but not enough for other publishers), too light-hearted. Cripes. We are talking serious paralysis here.
The Authors and Editors cocktail party was all right. I limited myself to 1.5 glasses of wine, and didn't eat except one piece of chicken to cushion the wine. Why the hell is life such a tightrope?
Made contact with 2 agents and one editor.
Now I realize that World of Mirrors needs a new query and a new synopsis, due to my having gutted it in the rewrite. O.K. I can do that. What I need to do is convery how exciting the story really is and it is an exciting story. How could it not be with the KGB, the Russian navy, a wall dog, a North Vietnamese sailor, a bad Brit, a bad but charming software pirate, a failed spy with a knack for disasters and a glamourous, technical female who does not wish to be along on this particular caper? Tell me, does this sound interesting? And a little different? Just what you want to pick up at LAX before you board the flight to Singapore?
In my e garden the tulips are blooming, and the Solomon's seal is sprouting out of the ground. Bleeding heart looks healthy. The spinach is up along with (possibly) dill, cilantro and grass. How can I thin all the baby stuff? The oregano is sprouting along with the sage.
Speaking of sage, we ate at an Italian place on 57 St (maybe 58th) called Teodora. Excellent lunch with good Chianti and great bread. I had triangle shaped ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a butter sauce topped with sage. Really succulent. The best pasta since the appetizer at Harry's Bar in Venice many moons ago.
My next post will be a comment about the young lady from Harvard who blew it big time in the literary world.
Keep on truckin'.

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