A Life in the Day

Was having a pretty good day today despite the unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen. I've been feeling "off" for a few days and today the feeling was a bit stronger. When I've had these feelings before, I've ended up in a car accident or with a family member in jail. I should've listened to my gut and stayed ho me. 14-year-old girl with autism. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Instead, I took the kids to Barnes & Noble at Waterford Lakes as we often do when we're bored and don't have much money to spend. We were there for less than an hour when David rushes to me to tell me they are kicking him out of the store. When I turn around, there's the manager of the store (must be a new one or a weekend one because I've not seen her before and I know most of the staff there, we've spent more time at that store than we have anywhere else in the city) telling me she's received complaints ...

If you've submitted a query in the past month or so, you know I'm out of the office on medical leave. Had a hysterectomy in March and have been laid up (forced bed rest) since. The entire experience has wreaked havoc in my life as I'm not one to sit idle and just... rest. My idea of resting (pre-surgery) was going through manuscripts on a Saturday while finishing several loads of laundry, cleaning the kitchen and talking clients down off the ledge. I realized, while being on bed rest the last three weeks, that I've forgotten how to rest. I mean, even while I was on my cruise last year, I was working so this forced bed rest has been very difficult for me. I'm eager to return to the office in a few weeks and get back to work. In the meantime, I'm reading books I haven't had a chance to read and playing games on my iPad. In other words, I'm bored out of my ever-loving mind. What do you do when you're on forced bed rest?

Spent a good portion of the past two days watching documentaries I've had sitting in my Netflix Instant Queue for months (ok, some close to a year... don't judge me) while working on a million things at once. If you've followed this blog at all you know I can't just sit still and often have several things going on at once . Such was the case with the documentary watching. Most of it was watched on my iPad while I helped kids with their homework and housework. (Love being able to lay the iPad down beside me while folding laundry!) The problem with watching so many documentaries back-to-back is that you start to feel like you're starring in your own documentary and find yourself providing commentary for every day tasks. "While brushing her teeth, Saritza checks her to-do list on her iPad prioritizing items before consuming her first cup of coffee." I even had background music playing from my iTunes library on my iPad. The funny thing is I used to do ...

Know thyself. — Socrates I've been on a constant search for identity as I reach my forties and I can safely say it's almost reached an obsessive level. My private journal is riddled with entries where I've asked myself "who are you" or are tagged " self-identity " and in this search for self-identity I've continue to answer: an agent . I'm the representative for a talent to a business who plans to exploit and benefit financially from said talent and I take this role very seriously. I strive to be better at my job on a daily basis and I spend countless hours learning and absorbing information from an industry (who like our economy) is in a constant state of flux. There have been times (many, in fact) where I've felt insecure about my abilities and my knowledge of what I do but the minute I sit down and talk with a client, another agent or an editor, I know, without a shadow of a doubt who I am. I'm an agent! In the beginning of my...

I often head straight for the fiction and literature section in my local Barnes & Noble and scan the shelves. I may pick up a book here and there with intent to purchase but 9 times out of 10 I spend my time looking for author names I know or recognize and seeing what they may have new that I haven't read yet. I may pick up a "new to me" author and browse through the first few pages then head over to to the romance section and do it all over again.  The first thing I look at when I open the book is the acknowledgments page. Who did the author thank? Did they mention their editor and agent? I must admit that when I find a book without that acknowledgement, I put it back and feel a little sad that the author didn't thank them. I don't think it's because I'm an agent because it's a habit I've had all of my life and it doesn't prevent me from buying the book. It's just something I thought about today.  I don't do this when b...

Tree of Life by  Hartwig   HKD   Oprah calls it an a-ha moment. That moment when you "get" something that makes you snap your fingers and say, oh my God, that's it! That's what I've been waiting for! I get it! I finally understand! In his interview with Oprah for her new  Next Chapter series,   George Lucas  said people are always asking him "how do you know what your passion is" and he said, "if you get up to do something in the morning and have breakfast at 7 AM [then look up again only to] realize it's 7 PM then THAT's your passion." What do I wake up thinking about every morning?  In Sister Act 2 , when Whoopi Goldberg 's character talks to Lauryn Hill 's character about singing in the choir when her mother says it's not worth her time, Sister Mary Clarence says, "if you wake up every morning thinking about singing, then you're meant to be a singer, baby!" That quote has stayed with m...

We all do it, right? We scan the shelves at the bookstore, grocery store, or online bookstore and if we don't know the author, we make our decision about a book purchase solely on the cover of the book. Publishers know how important good cover design is and those with a strong budget and staff, hire freelance cover artists whose works can help them sell books. Some have an entire Design department with a  Design Manager overseeing the cover art requests and assigning the work to various cover designers. These folks take the time to not only ensure the cover design is aesthetically pleasing but also meets photo and digital rights requirements as well as marketing scopes which will help sell the book to the right demographic. Not all publishers have the budget or staff allocated to do this but those that do, I've found, tend to sell more books than those who don't. Regardless of whether your publisher has one of these nifty Design department managers on staff or not, it...