From the "When It Rains, It Pours" File

Last night, minding my own business wasting a summer vacation evening perusing the internet, I was beset with a communique from an anthology editor. Seems my writing is not so perfect as I imagine, and a segue and a clarification were needed. I dashed them off toot sweet, as my teaching buddy Mabel might term a speedy action. She's of a different era, that Mabel, whose claims to fame include the shaking of the hand of one Wernher von Braun of rocket scientist fame. That may not mean much to you literature-heads, but this sciency gal was quite impressed. Sorry for calling you literature-heads. We analytical folks are not known for our people skills.

My corrections were welcomed with open arms, and a photo was requested. Not of me, silly. Who in their right mind would ask for such a thing from anonymous Val? A photo of the subject of my submission was needed. Because this sciency gal is no good with technology, all photos found in that computer file called pictures are of substandard resolution. So the heave-ho of Genius is needed to boost me over this hurdle. Of course, he has been out all afternoon on the premise of building a hovercraft, so I await his return.

Wouldn't you know, this morning the first thing I saw upon dragging myself out of bed at the inhuman hour of 8:45 was a suggestion that another of my breathtaking works of staggering mediocrity might be suitable for a different volume of the same anthology. I am currently refining a raggedy slice-of-life to bring it up to standards. Okay. I am currently wasting time typing up two blog posts. But I PLAN to refine that slice soon.

I set a writing goal for this summer, and I am already three steps behind. Ah...the pressure of summer vacation!