The "Oh. Wait!" button

"Oh,wait!" I click the appropriate buttons until my "Sent" file comes up. Sent. Not sending. I've just sent my story (picked apart until it bled, mind you) and attached it (oh so carefully) to an email to Harelquin. Of course, it was after I hit the Send button that I realized I hadn't included anything in the body of the email. No signature. No "Nice doing business with you," ramblings. No "Thank you for the opportunity." Nothing.

Great. Wonderful. And so I ask you. When will they create the "Oh, wait!" button to take back the stupid email we didn't realize was stupid until after hitting the send button?

Until that button comes along I'm forced to make do with my swisscheese memory. Those little tidbits keep oozing out the holes, you see. So, now what? A list! A list!

So below is the checklist I've created for just such a problem. Hope it helps you all as much as it does me. At least until the "Oh. Wait!" button comes along.


*Print out and read through manuscript. (Personally, I find more errors when things are printed in real ink.)


*Create synopsis long before the eve of the contest/submission.


*Print out and read through synopsis. (Duh hun? But I would forget.)


*Double check submission for:

spacing (per particular entry/submission rules)

margins (per particular entry rules/rules)

spellcheck (sounds like a no brainer but yet it's not)


Do you have anything you think I should add to my list? I'd love to hear from you!

A poet I am not

A poet I am not but nonetheless I have written one anyway. Writing takes my abused emotions and turns them into triumph. How I have missed you, my muse.

Autoimmune

by A.E. Noble

A fool you are.

I cause you pain and disappear like the morning mist in sunlight whenever you seek out those with the white coats.

A fool you are.

Your cloudy mind is my friend. I love it as you love to sleep from my evils.
You are like a two year old who has skipped his nap. Ah, yes. Just the way I like you. The white coats ask you questions about me but you can not remember the key to their riddles. And thus they stay ignorant of my ways.

A fool you are.

You worry for your money clip. He shrinks ever smaller as the bills roll in from the white coats.
You visit them less and less. You are afraid. What if they tell you your deepest and darkest fear? The one you speak to no one. That your brain has tricked you, too.

A fool you are.

Your worry for your job as I increase your exhaustion. You press the buttons and pray the one you call boss accepts your many excuses. And I laugh at you. Why, you ask? Hahahaha! Your worry has caused a black desolation with you. The hopelessness continues as the blackness within causes more pain and fatigue.

A fool you are, I say. For you do not know yourself as well as I.

Curious Thoughts

Why is it every person you know wins when they go to the casino but the casinos are making hand over fist?

Why is it nobody speeds but the state rakes in thousands in speeding ticket fees?

Why is it one person thinks your manuscript is 98 out of 100 and one thinks it's 79 out of 100?

Well, I can't answer any of those questions but it does make you think. Maybe it doesn't matter so much what your score is in a particular contest as much as it matters who is giving the score. It's not the one person that matters but who that one person is that matters. After all, twenty people can hate your work but one editor, one agent, one published author can make all the difference in the world.

Why is it nobody thinks you can make it until you do?