IT'S SURELY A SIGN OF SOMETHING...

I never was a numbers person. I always was more of a words person. I did well in Math in high school. I did not do well in Statistics in college. I do not know what I was thinking when I took that course. There was an offering of algebra-type math that was intended for English majors. It was the Math for Dummies. Why didn't I take that? So many questions. So few answers.




My ex-husband was a numbers person. He was one of those people who remembered the dates of every significant event in his life. If any other significant event happened to fall on that date... well, it was fate. Or destiny. The universe was sending him a sign. It turns out that our first date was also the date his divorce came through from his first wife. I didn't know that when I said, "Yes," to that date. Do you know how many times I have relived in my head him asking me out? You can't possibly know this. They all end with me saying "NO," in a variety of ways. Some of them are fairly harsh and hit below the belt. In other words, I am a badass bitch. Better yet, I walk away, get in my car, and feel very proud of myself as I peel out of the parking lot. I look in my rearview mirror and he is still standing there wearing a dumb look. It is very gratifying.

If you are actually keeping up with this blog, you know that I am having to pull paperwork together for lawyers (bankruptcy and SSD) and I discovered something that I didn't know. I should have known it. However, when I got divorced, my migraines were so horrible that I just pulled the divorce decree out of its envelope and stuck it in the legal folder. It was done. Finally.

I got married on July 27, 2002. My divorce became final on July 27, 2005. That was the day it came across the desk and it got tagged by the rubber stamp. July 27. Exactly three years later. I didn't know that until about ten days ago. I don't know if my ex knows it at all. Probably not. I don't feel obligated to enlighten him.

I told you yesterday about some cool book giveaways going on over on Simon's page at Constant Revision. I laughed when I saw the last day you could turn in your submission form. Any guesses? July 27. These are the two books up for grabs if you hustle it up and get your form filled out posthaste.




I started following another writer, Alexandra Shostak at The Publication Follies of Alexandra Shostak. She writes YA and Adult fantasy. She is also doing some book giveaways (these are only two of several ~ I have forgotten how many). Obviously, the books are in her genre. Guess what day her deadline for submission entries ends? This is too easy. July 27.




Before I remembered Alexandra's book giveaways, I was going to call this a trifecta. Now, it has to be considered the perfect storm. The thing is that I know there are other things out there that I am forgetting.... things that I have read or seen about July 27 and it just bounced off. Numbers don't matter a whole lot to me. It's words. It's actions. Anyway...

I follow an agent, Janet Reid, who posted yesterday about another agent taking a break from query letters in July. She had a link to this other agent's site, BookEnds, LLC. I was afraid to look. Could it be? If she chose July 27, of all days, to stop accepting query letters, I thought I might just hurl. It turns out that her magic date was July 19.

I leave you with these thoughts:

1) If you are interested in winning some free books, enter the contests. You can't win, if you don't enter.

2) If you are a writer looking to read the blogs of other writers, then it is worth your time to check all of these links out. I have handed you two writers and two agents. Don't kick a gift horse in the mouth. (Even if you don't give a rat's ass about the contests...)

3) Even if you are not a writer, but enjoy reading the blogs of people who write well, it is worth taking a peek. Tell them I sent you. That won't get you very far because they have NO IDEA who I am. I am this little cricket in a huge forest. I chirp occasionally in their comments, but my voice is high pitched and very annoying. I am really not making a sound argument for recommending me as the person who sent you, am I? *sigh* Okay, leave a kickass comment and then tell them I sent you. Whew. Problem solved.