Writing thought

As I've been waiting for my friends to tell me what they thought of the ugly novel (and procrastinating mailing it to the one friend who needs a paper copy, because I'm a bad friend), I finally realized that a lot of my stress over this phase comes from a basic confusion on roles.

I've been sitting anxiously at home going "well, when will my friends tell me if it's publishable or not?"

It took me two months to remember that this is not my friends' job.  They've been very helpful about mentioning things like "you totally failed to convey a major piece of character info here that causes me to fall out of the story."

It is the job of editors, editorial assistants, or agents to tell me that my story is publishable or not.  If that's the feedback I want, those are the people I need to send it to.  (Which means writing *bleh* a summary thing of some sort and/or a query letter, depending on who I submit to.... *shiver*).

My Aunt got this idea fairly quickly - read stories with folks, wrote and revised query letter, revised novel a last time in light of insights she gained while summarizing it, and is now ready to start sending it off.  So why did this concept take so long to percolate into my brain?  Dunno.  I'd like to clear it off my desk for a while by November, which what with NaNoWriMo is sort of the official "start of the writing year" in my mind.

I think sending it off to an editor or agent will kill the voice in the back of my brain that keeps saying "call up one of your friends and ask them if it's a Real Book!"
 

Book: Graveyard Book, plus something about ghouls

I just came back from listening to Mr. Neil Gaiman read the last chapter of the Graveyard Book here in St. Paul.  It was organized by the Red Balloon bookstore.  

I hadn't read the book or listened to the chapters read aloud before I went.  I read chapters 1-6 while waiting for the event to start, heard chapter 8, and then read chapter 7 on the bus ride home.  It was fun in that order, which is an accomplishment, I think.

Non spoiler-y (I think) thoughts:
( Of course, spoiler means different things to different people. )