Rejection, kicking the cat, what to eat and sundry topics

Yet another rejection--this time for Promiscuous Mode which is climbing up there in reject count. This was was one of the first agents ever I queried for the book I gave up on, which was the only book that agents ever responded to in a more or less positive way, my first book. Stupid plot. All over the place. Oh well.

Results oriented
Everlasting hope
Just keep on querying
Excrement happens
Can't help kicking the cat
Thanks for every personal note
I must be crazy to keep doing this
Optimism is alive
No reason to set one's hair on fire

I would never kick the cats, they are such lovers and are always there for you. Thisbe plays the "foot game," which consists of nuzzle, nuzzle, lick, lick, nip, nip on bare feet and then repeats. If I say "foot game," she knows what it means. Also understands "catnip" and "do you want to go into the garage?" Also, "would you like to be brushed?" Well, with all the catering, why wouldn't she understand? To repeat a well-known maxim, dogs have masters, cats have "staff."

Congratulations to my buddy who has lost 2o pounds on Jennie Craig and looks terrific. Grapeshot has flunked out of every diet except Atkins, and currently we are having salad main courses twice each week and that seems to be good for losing the odd pound. We are doing bread sticks (grissini) or rye crisp and trying to cool it with the cheese.

Summer is good for fruits and vegetables: So far this week:
apples, oranges, lemons, limes, watermelon,cranberries,blueberries,raspberries, pears, bananas.

On the veggie front: lettuce, tomatoes, cukes,olives, carrots, zucchini, summer squash, peppers,parsley,dill, cilantro,oregano,mushrooms,garlic,onions,chives and scallions and green beans. Variety is good.

I fixed the first chapter of Festival Madness and it seems O.K. I drop a body on page one, paragraph one, but there's not a lot of action. Thinking about the dreaded prologue from the murderer's point of view. Opinion is divided about Prologues, but they can jump the reader into the action, get the pulse pounding, ask a lot of unanswered questions, then the story can start in a sedate manner. Dunno. Dunno. When a murder happens offstage, then the reader is distanced. No more computer crime novels. Apparently they have no appeal to agents and publishers and in theory readers, although I have heard differently.

My garden starting to swell with blossoms, and my heart beats a little faster each time I inspect it and see how the flowers and tomatoes have grown.

Raccoons finally figured out how to raid suet feeder. Thistleseed feeder on the ground this a.m., hummingbird feeder empty. Lots of extra tasks in summer. How had I forgotten?

Onward,

Grapeshot