Hasty Update

Ahh! I took a five month break. Lazy, bad posting slacker! I have no excuse, really. Except, well, I moved to Surrey, had to file a complaint regarding unpaid wages from that Buffet job I got (resolution still in progress), learned the wonders of living close to the skytrain and Vancouver, signed up to be an Extra in films and television (best job I've ever had!), met an aspiring screenwriter (now aspiring novelist), joined a choir called Maple Leaf Singers until I realized I had neither the money nor the Monday nights to make it work, helped kitten-sit our household cat's unplanned litter (two left to go to homes next week and one we're keeping), moved into the back suite of the place where my friends and I are living when the side suite we were renting lost it's plumbing, joined a temp agency when my Extras gigs were getting slow, and...pitched Drescopata at the Surrey Writer's Conference!
As usual, waiting to here back, so I can't start counting my e-mails before they hatch, but...ooo, she asked for the first fifty pages and now she just has to like it! Conference definitely is the closest I've gotten to getting a literary agent so far. If this one doesn't come through, I'll definitely go again next year.
As an Extra (love that job!) I've so far been a lesbian at a charity dance, a tourist at an amusement park, a protesting fanatic, and a nun. In temp work (NOT head-over-heels with that job!) I've been cleaning flood and/or fire damaged furniture. Word of advice: don't damage your furniture in fires and floods. It's just not pretty. Ah, there I segwayed into the theme word for my second Drescopata book. I've decided to put more time into that and less into scrambling to complete short stories for contests and magazines. I have enough of those now I can just keep sending them out, while my poor neglected novel gets the tender loving care it's been begging me for.
Merry Christmas, in case I don't post again before then. Happy New Year!