A Time To...

...breathe.

My manuscript is still being considered by an agent for Trident Media Group in New York (their clients include Deepak Chopra, Russell Banks--I had the wonderful experience of sitting with Russell Banks and Mr. Strega, long ago, well into the night in a little restaurant in San Jose, talking about all manner of things--Stephen Colbert, Molly Giles (who was one of my creative writing teachers at State), Stephen Coonts...and, heck, even Penn and Teller. My manuscript has been under consideration there for over a month now. I know it's the holidays and I am sure the agent is swamped with things to do; I don't expect to hear back for a while, and that's fine with me. Mr. Strega says that I have been remarkably calm about it all...I'm really not worried about it. I still think it is a great nod from the universe, no matter what the agent decides.

I also feel like I am querying in the crappiest economic time ever for anyone to be doing this, when the economy is so dismal...and yet this is pretty much my life's journey, facing very strange odds and finding the path through, anyhow.

I'm starting to write an essay, which I'm thinking of submitting to NPR for This I Believe, about returning to teaching after I never thought I would stand in front of a classroom again. If anything, I am beginning to write more and more, which is good. All those months of shock over my sister and mother's deaths are feeling like they are giving way to another aspect of what will probably be a lifelong process.