Back from Vacation

I know there was a rumor going around that I wasn't really on vacation, that I was in rehab.  For clarification, I usually need rehab after my vacation. 

As horribly hot as it was, I didn't get as much done in my yard as I'd planned, but I did get a lot of projects cleaned up in my office at home.  You may have noticed the Toddz Spot blog has a new look--I did that myself!  I had to get a little help with my website at toddcreason.org--it got a major overhaul as well.  It looks great, but my web-guy still isn't happy I shattered his moon "motif" by insisting the typing monkey picture be on the blog tab.  If he can find or create a picture of monkey typing in the moonlight, I'm open to a change.  It still needs a few tweaks here and there, but it no longer looks like a sixth grader is maintaining it. 

I also finished the revisions and editing on my first novel One Last Shot.  I started writing it last summer.  It's one of those stories I've thought about for years.  I'd always known what the crime was, I just didn't know how to frame it up in a story.  I'd started writing it several times and abandoned it--the last time was in about 1992.  I attended the Illinois Council of Deliberation meeting in Bloomington last June, and I'm talking to this guy in the bar (yes, I know it's shocking, but I was in the bar just that one time).  He tells me this remarkable story about his 50th high school class reunion.  All the way home I'm thinking about it, and suddenly, I knew he'd given me the missing piece to my story.  I outlined the entire novel in about two hours that evening after I got home, fleshed it out for a couple weeks, and started writing.  I finished the first draft over the Christmas break.  I've been editing and revising since.  It's a great story.  And it's ready to go at 90,200 words.

So now I need to sell it.  I spent a good portion of my vacation crafting query letters, preparing a synopsis, and looking for agents I think would be a good fit for my book.  And I plan on posting every success, and every rejection on this blog.  Unlike my non-fiction works, I want this one to go through a major publisher.  It promises to be quite an adventure.
TEC