A Thank you to Michael Meanwell

Hi Michael!

WOW!! What a response to my original note here on this forum. I hope I am hitting the correct "respond to this message" button and replying back to you and not talking back to ME. Something tells me I am talking BACK to me. LOL! Ahhh.....I don't know where to begin. Firstly, before I start....I like when the symbol ~ is used. There is something quite mesmerizing about that squiggly thing and I saw it a lot in your reply. Let's begin...firstly, thank you for such detailed advice. I am a speed reader so my eyeballs were scanning my computer screen at the speed of lightening and I was hooting and hollering nearly traumatizing my puppy. I was so excited to read my screen because your words were so positive and I felt the guilt of being PAID for writing slowly roll off my back...either that or it was beads of sweat.

Who cares?! I am free! I couldn't help but shout: "YES!! I AM GOING TO BE sooOOO friggging RICHHHHHHHH!!!" Okay. Now that I got that out of my system I can be normal again. I have to say that it feels good to learn from someone far more experienced than me or is it...I?? ahhh, grammar rules suck! or is it spelled g-r-a-m-m-e-r? whatever. :0 I THINK I found a marketable hook for my book. I went to an event today where one of the biggest name hot shot literary agents was in attendance. I was dressed quite stylishly--of course, I planned this wardrobe attire 3 weeks in advance---my mama didn't raise no fool, now! I had the agents' book with me to get an autograph and made myself very visible. It seemed like almost every writer had a manuscript or some finished work to present and I started to feel intimidated because...um...I had n-o-t-h-i-n-g. Nada. 'cept one helluva smile and beautifully coiffed hair. Yes, these were my weapons. Stay with me now. It gets weirder.

I made an announcement to the entire floor that I am to be the very last person to speak to the literary agent (I did this so that I can spend as much time time with the agent as possible as I saw that each writer on that long line was only being given 2-3 minutes...oh, no! I needed the agents' ear without a time limit. hee, hee. Well, after making the announcement and getting stares from everyone....the agent hollered and laughed at my outrageous announcement----I knew from that point, I did not need to feel like a loser for not having a finished manuscript, more importantly....I didn't need the hair anymore and that it was now ok to shake it wild. Woo-hoo....I was in! After everyone on that line made their pitch to the agent I introduced myself and asked the agent to autograph the book so that I can sell it on ebay. More laughter and then I got down to business.....

"I want you to help me to find a marketable hook for my book...this is what I am writing, what do you think? These are all the things I have been doing to build a platform. what do you think? Here are all the books (yes! I had a ton of books on me..haaaaaaa)belonging to my competition that I have studying, plucking, dissecting and what have you---and I still don't have a hook. I can do this...please help me. Tell me what you know before you get in that taxi. I don't care that it is raining" (more laughter...if only the agent knew how serious I was...lol!). We talked in great lengths about what angle would be a goldmine---and finally...I got my hook!! We both looked at each other when the idea was born and it was quite magical a moment. I say all this to encourage everyone reading this forum to be RESILIENT in your writing journey in life.

I had no manuscript. I have no connections. Yet I managed to bond with a top notch industry person for close to THREE hours and walked away with not only a gold medal of the pop! fizzle! hook I was so desperately searching for but with a new friend as well. Yes, we will be meeting again. YEEE HAWWWW.

Good luck pixie dust to all!

Mary Alice Smith

p.s. Oh, Michael...I took your advice about getting rid of things in my life...you know...making sacrifices.....so that I can have the time to write "that" book and I threw all of my boyfriend's clothes out the window and told him to get lost and find another because chapter 3-21 have yet to be completed. Ummmm....he wants your address, by the way.