Ladies and gentlemen, may I have a word? First, let me say that I am preparing a brand new feature for you tomorrow, and if all goes as planned, it will go up…tomorrow!

Now then, I felt the need to let you know that this feature slowdown looks to be semi-permanent. Last night, I started the third edit of my book. I’d been putting this off forever because I was worried about it, but now I’ve set a schedule for myself. You see, I want it to start to go out to editors by the end of the summer. To that end, my new goal is at least a chapter a day marked up in red pen. I am, as of this writing, 1/19th of the way through.

After that, I have to make the changes in the computer, of course. The good news is that it doesn’t look like I have to do any massive changes this time like I did for the 2nd draft. Mostly, I’m rewording things and fixing things that don’t make sense again.

I realize now that I’ve been waiting so long because I know that once I start editing again, my urge would be to fix it up forever. I’m afraid of sending it to agents. Nothing I’ve written has ever been rejected before from someone, and I don’t want to start now. But it’s inevitable. If I don’t MAKE myself say “enough is enough”, I never will. Nothing is ever pefect, but at some point, every writer has to learn to say it’s good enough. I guess I’m figuring this out now.

In fact, that’s why I haven’t submitted any short stories since my first few back in 12th grade. The first submissions I ever made, anywere, were accepted . People were stunned. I have a perfect record. It was, in effect, the worst thing that could possibly happen to me. I paralyzed me.

Well, now I have to get over that. Here’s to getting (laughed at by) an agent!

Here’s to publication!