Aches and Agents

So, I joined a new gym...Brick Bodies. Let's hope I get a brick body soon enough. Well, do I really want a body like a brick? They're pretty hard and no curves whatsoever. But I digress, I really enjoy the gym so far. I have my first meet with a personal trainer on Tuesday. Apparently, they take all of my measurements, height, weight, BMI and feed it into a computer (gulp) then show me what I'll look like in 6 months if I commit to 3 times a week and stick to a sensible eating plan. I'm really kinda stoked to see that because I think it will be a real motivator.

In 6 months my mother is having a "gala" 60th b-day party and I'll have to wear a gown. I would say that I'm looking forward to turning heads but as the majority of the party guests will be 60 years old or older...or family, I don't want to turn any of their heads! I just want to feel nice in my gown and sexy should I have a date to bring with me.

I started using the gym from the very day I joined last week. I just took a "Body Pump" class. It's aerobics with weights...can you say, FEEL THE BURN!!!! Good Lord! I'm still hurting! Saturday, I took a "Body Flow" class, which is yoga with some mild pilates. I've discovered I'm only flexible when both of my feet are on the ground :D Who'd a thunk stretching and bending and being one with the freakin earth would work up such a sweat! I looking like someone had dunked my head in the toilet! (not that that has ever happened to me!) but I looked like a drowned rat! My hair is cut in a style where one side is longer than the other. Well, the shorter side started drying and thus grew frizzy. I looked CRAZY! But it was a lot of fun. I'll do it again, but I'll wear a bandanna the next time-lol.

Friday at work, my cell phone alerted me to an email. I had received an email entitled: Query Submission. Whenever I see this, my heart always skips a beat. I've gotten so used to seeing, "Thanks you for your submission, Unfortunately..." Or, "Sorry, while your story has merit, it's just not right for our list..." that when I read the words, "We would like to see the first 30 pages of Light Bringers..." I had to read it like three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating!

I was so pumped that I couldn't do any more work Friday! Good thing the email came at 3:45pm so I was only slacking off for 45min...not that the hospital would like that either-LOL.

I'd queried this agent last year and was rejected. I decided to try again because I'd made considerable changes to the manuscript and to the query letter. I took the ms from 102k words to 76k words and restructured the query to just the introduction, summary and closing since I don't have any publishing credits to include. I know this made a difference.
zellie_bean really helped me see the redundancies in my story and pull out text that, while I may have loved the witty banter or clever phrasing, didn't move the story along. It's empowering to look at your work and be objective enough to say, I love this sentence but it's gotta go. I still, and suspect I always will, struggle with letting go of some things but I realized that they don't have to stay away. I can use them elsewhere if I can work it.

So it's been a good week. I'm still plugging away at my queries and the dreaded 1 page synopsis as I still have about 45 agents left to query!

And can I just say, I and LOVING the Fray's new song, You Found Me. It's kinda depressing but man I LOVE songs about something! Enough with singing about sex, and money, and drinking...songs about something deep always RULE!