Getting Kind of Excited And Terrified

I have officially finished hand editing my novel and I have to say that it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Are there some big sections of boring prose and little progress? Why yes, yes there are. Are those sections easily cut or rewritten to better fit into the entirety of the story? Why yes, yes they are. Considering I started writing this novel in pieces that weren't not necessarily in chronological order and I wasn't sure if I what I wrote would end up making much sense, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised.

So now I'm adding my edits into the computer and adding some touches before I send it to a few trusted people to read through before...DUM DUM DUM...trying to find an agent. My goal is to theoretically have something workable to send out by January 1st. I'll be using this time to not only polish the roughness of the manuscript down a little more, but also to mentally prepare myself for the agony of being rejected constantly.

I don't know if anyone takes rejection well, and I am no exception. I especially have a hard time if the rejection is coming towards something I care about and needless to say, I care about my writing. Even when I try to pretend I don't.

What I really fear is that this thing will get looked at and people will think it needs a major overhaul. Which means that I'll be rocking myself quietly in the corner for a month or so. As much as I love this novel, I'm also ready to start working on something else, too. Meaning that I need to have some time devoted to the new characters in my head. Unless that's schizophrenia, but then that would present before I turned 30, so I think it's just new characters.

Wish me luck!

I Believe I Can Fly...So I Did

Just off the ground

I have always wanted to skydive...except for the whole jumping out a plane part. I always thought that if I could fly without having to do something so inherently against my natural level-headedness it would be worth it.

When we were looking for apartments on a trip out to LA years ago, I was flipping through the promotional channel of attractions on the hotel cable channel and BAM! The answer to my request was right there. Indoor Skydiving. Simulated skydiving. Fake skydiving. Whatever you want to call it. A few months back a work friend was talking about wanting to fly but having the aversion to the whole plane-jumping thing and I mentioned the indoor skydiving. She was totally down for doing it.

Now flash forward last week to a staff meeting where a co-worker said she couldn't use her invite to a HR party at the indoor skydiving place and did any of us want to go, eat free Brazilian food and try out the wind tunnel.

Um, yes. That would be us over here please.

So last night my friends Meredith, Alexis and I went to iFly at Universal City Walk, ate some Brazilian ribs, and then suited up to fly. We got an adorable (and aspiring actor-SHOCKER) instructor. I think that being an attractive guy must be a prerequisite to being an instructor there because everywhere we looked there was a tall, handsome man who made flight suits look good leading a group of awkward-looking adults in goggles into the wind tunnel.

On our way or down with Ian, the instructor, photo bombing

Anyway, cute-as-a-button Ian gave us the hand signals and then lead us one by one into the booth where we flew up and down and then he grabbed our waists and walked us up on the wall of the tunnel so that we were about 2 stories up flying.

It was AWESOME.

And I think from the look of pure joy on my face you can tell I had a good time. I even paid money to get those pictures, but it was well worth it.The tunnel is out in the middle of City Walk, so as you're in there, there are a bunch of tourists that are taking pictures. I thought I would care more about that. I didn't.

I liked it so much that I might actually do it and PAY FOR IT next time. As opposed to a free corporate events cultivation party.