Holy Cow!

Have you ever had a holy cow moment? I seem to have these every day. A few of my holy cow moments that have occurred in recent days related to reading or writing are the following:

Holy Cow Moment # 1

Driving home from the hospital today I began to think about all of the essays, stories, book proposals and other matter I have floating around in the mail and in the netherworld of the publishing industry. Holy Cow! As I thought about the full corpus of work passing from one hand to another, I realized that I should be hearing any day now . . . any day now! . . . from an editor somewhere. The odds are just too great that EVERYTHING will be rejected. Holy Cow! Surely those editors can reject hundreds of submissions!

Holy Cow Moment # 2

I heard my first Christmas song on the radio today and I realized, Holy Cow, that Christmas is a mere 7 weeks away. I was flabbergasted by the thought of Thanksgiving next week--where, in our family, we pass around Christmas lists for shopping. My mother always wants to know: "Besides underwear from Goodwill, what books do you have on your wish list?"

Holy Cow Moment # 3

I hadn't really thought about 2010 as a productive year in terms of writing. It seems as though I've written much less (though I do write every day). Still, as I look back, I have produced a staggering amount of work, and I've actually had quite a few essays, stories and poems accepted for publication . . . some of which are slated for a 2011 release. Holy Cow . . . it's actually been a great year.

Holy Cow Moment # 4

I was driving through the rain today when I realized, Holy Cow, it's been weeks . . . weeks . . . since I've heard from my literary agent. When last seen or heard, she was on her way to old New York to distribute one of my book proposals to various publishing houses in the hopes of making a sale. The silence is not a good sign. Which makes me say, Holy Cow! What does a guy have to write in order to get a new book published these days? Do I have to run naked through a rain storm (okay, I can do that, let's set up a photo shoot)? Do I have to squawk like a chicken? Do I have to write better material? This latter might prove to be the most difficult, actually . . . I'm writing my guts out now. I'm writing, I believe, some of the best material in my life . . .

And so . . . Holy Cow. It's a cow-eat-cow world out there.