Agent Research

It is exhausting researching agents. Searching their websites, their lists, their submission requirements, their likes, what authors they represent, etc. requires a lot of time and concentration. My reading glasses prescription needs to be stronger. And what must they go through, reading, reading, reading, hundreds, maybe thousands of queries and picking a few to ask for full manuscripts? Too bad the queries and manuscripts aren't on the audio kindle.

So far I'm only a quarter of the way through the agents on the agent query site and my list of fabulous sounding agents has grown to 31.

These sunrise pictures cannot be helped. My little car races past predawn fields of gray cows and gray horses and gray llamas and dark wheat fields and I start to hold my breath in anticipation as "the place" gets closer. I round the corner and there it is, Mt. Hood in all its splendor and glory. Each day the sun rises later and later and the view changes. Sometimes gray clouds hide the mountain and secret the beauty. Sometimes the ticking clock forces me to speed on to spend the day in the closet at work. But sometimes, just sometimes, my little car screeches to a stop in a "no parking anytime" zone, my window slides down and the beauty of the scene settles over me like a misty spring rain on bright green baby leaves. My breath catches and my eyes take in every detail of the field, the house in the distance, the trees against the fire of light, the mountain, tall and majestic, the brilliance of color.

It is a gift. It is happiness.