When a woman is nearing the end of her pregnancy, she is generally miserable, ungainly and desperate for her child to just hurry up and come out already! At this time, well-meaning friends and relatives shower her with advice on how to trigger labor. “Go to the mall and walk,” is common advice. Or, as my Aunt Cindy always says, “Go bowling. I went bowling when I was 9 months pregnant and ‘poof!’ Labor.” My cousin, on the other hand, would advise you to go to the 54th Street Grill and order a spicy Philly…threw her into labor 3 times.
Well, I don’t have any advice on how to help you if you’re impatiently waiting for Junior’s arrival, but if you’re out on submission and you are miserably waiting to hear news and your nerves are nearing their breaking point, I can tell you just what to do:
Get a Pedicure.
And while your feet are soaking, and you are pondering the book-deal just handed down to Snookie, your agent will call.
Oh yes, she will. With an offer for a 3-book deal. It will go something like this:
(Phone rings, causing instant guilt that you forgot to turn off your ringer and are now disturbing fellow customers who are just trying to relax while nail technicians are filing away their calluses. You glance around with an apologetic smile and reach to turn the phone off when you notice it’s your agent calling. You snatch the phone up, other pedicurees now forgotten.)
“Hello?”
“Hello! What are you doing?”
“Well, believe it or not, I’m having a pedicure,” you say, sheepishly.
“Isn’t that nice? Well, you might as well sit back and relax, sweetie, because today’s the day.”
(And much whooping and hollering ensues, drawing surprised stares from other customers, but that is another story.)
That’s pretty much how it went September 30th, at high noon (CST). Going to auction is a whole 'nother story indeed, but after the dust settled a week later, I am very proud to say that "Sweet Enemy" will be published by NAL Signet Eclipse in Spring 2012.
So, if you’re out on submission, and the least bit superstitious, hie yourself to the nearest nail salon and plop yourself down in the self-massaging chair. If you’re REALLY superstitious, here’s a picture of the actual pedicure, so you can have it replicated exactly…
Sadly, the little sticker on the OPI bottle that told me the color had been pulled off, so you’re on your own for that…
See you next week!
Blurb from Publisher’s Marketplace:
2010 Daphne Du Maurier Award Winner and Golden Heart nominee Heather Snow's SWEET ENEMY, where beakers and ball gowns don't mix, but chemical attraction is hard to ignore, to Laura Cifelli at NAL, at auction, in a three book deal, by Barbara Poelle of Irene Goodman Literary Agency. Foreign: Baror International
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