07-18-05 @ 9:37 am EDT

Hot and humid and muggy here as always today. :/ I want to go to the island soon but the weather is actually so HOT that it makes it nearly impossible. And it's not letting up! I can't believe I actually wish it were COOLER. -_- I'm just not used to the temperature being 80+ every single day. Last summer, we had only a few days of hot weather, literally, and not all at once like this. I didn't actually think we could get a summer like this again.

I REALLY hope it cools off about ten degrees sometime soon or else lets the HUMIDITY DIE DOWN, since this is just atrocious on my hair... >_< I even had Ma cut me BANGS! because I can't stand it. Ugh, I probably look like a moron. They do not hang straight over my forehead; they part in the middle and are kind of cowlicky. I don't really mind but I wonder if it looks like I have a mullet? -_- *sigh* I wish I could just cut it ALL off, if it wouldn't make me look like a boy...and the humidity is STILL acting up on it...

That's the only real reason why I hate this weather. I could tolerate it if my stupid HAIR didn't always act up. I keep turning the fans down because I hate them blowing on my hair and Ma told me last night that I must be sick. "Yes, I AM sick!" I reminded her--duh, hello, SHE'S the one who brought me to see a shrink before! "But it's not like I can go to the DOCTOR now, is it?" That silenced her, though I do not believe she knew what I was referring to. She thinks I LIKE being like this--?

I wish I could get some help. The thought of being this way for the rest of my life...I do not want to live very long at all. I don't want to face an entire life of this, day after day after day. And this isn't even the WORST of my problems, either. -_-

I never mentioned it because I kept forgetting, it was so negligible. But I got ANOTHER stupid pseudo-offer from some dorky wannabe "publisher" some days back. I'm seriously wondering if this is the same guy behind that LAST stupid-ass offer I got--you remember, the one where the moron actually left me a NOTE at a writing website, and misspelled everything in the process...

Whatever.

Well, this one was an E-MAIL, so I can't post it here like I'd like to, and that put it ONE step above the last one. But it was still pretty lame. Claims it's a new publisher looking for their first fantasy book to publish, and they came across my writing--you guessed it--on FictionPress.net. They want to know if I have any OTHER work I'd like published (what!--you mean what you saw wasn't good enough??--you mean you aren't interested in publishing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I *might* write in the future, like the first person was?? :P ). And there was a link to their site, which looks to be a real site, run by two people, a husband and wife team I believe; one has a degree in teaching/caring for children or something (which made me think, why are you going into publishing??), and the other has a degree in English of some sort (which made me wonder--keep reading), so they look VAGUELY legit.

The only thing is...in the e-mail the person misused the word "your"--JUST LIKE THE LAST "PUBLISHER" WHO CONTACTED ME:

Please visit our site, and if your interested in being published by a new traditional publisher, please email us back...

And also, on the website, there is NO specific information regarding publishing rights, royalties, fees, how much you get paid, what specifically they're looking for, novel length, restrictions and requirements, etc. etc. etc. Just the bookstores they plan to carry the books through, and who is in charge of the typesetting and cover art and whatnot. Most of the links in the sidebar are not functioning yet. Whenever the two refer to "bachelor's degrees" and "master's degrees," they use no apostrophes. AND, they misspelled "Waldenbooks" as "Wadenbooks" in the link to that site. !!!

One of these people has an English degree...?? Are they the one who wrote to me, or the one who made the site...? Cripes, I hope not.

And once more comes the age-old question: WHAT sort of legitimate publisher...contacts some random nobody on a fiction website...and asks to publish their writing?? Honestly, I never EVER hear of legitimate publishers doing this. I'm sorry to sound like a snob and maybe I'm missing something but it just sounds way shady and ludicrous. If they really are a new publisher, I think they need to learn some things first. If they advertise properly they'll have authors running to THEM. They shouldn't have to ASK people to come to them if they're serious. The only other times I've had publishers ASK me for my business was a subsidy publisher idiot who left a note in my guestbook...and the idiot who left the note at FictionPress, described in the entry above. Look at the company they're in.

Ugh.

Which is why I wonder if these two are for real and are just way naive, or if it's that same moron who left me the note. I just KNOW that first one was some jerk trying to make me flip out and get all happy about being offered publication. What a loser.

I really am tempted to reply to this e-mail and say, "If you are serious about publishing, perhaps you had best learn the proper usage of the words 'your' and 'you're,' and correct your spelling of 'Waldenbooks,' so an author might take you more seriously." Because as it is, why would I even want to be published by people who can't spell?? Imagine what they'd end up doing to my writing! Yick!

Too bad they aren't looking for a COPY EDITOR...

I'm supposed to be working on the TAC:58 rewrite. The thing is...I don't think this part NEEDS a rewrite. It's already lengthy and pretty much complete. :/ This must be where I began to really pick up my current writing style for the series. So I've been proofing it instead, right off the bat, and adding little bits here and there as I go along. So I don't end up having to read it TWICE, which would bore me. So...I just ran out of things to say.

Oh. ONE more thing. Everybody who has a Yahoo! account...head on over to http://360.yahoo.com/ ...and go crazy. I already did. It's still in beta and apparently has been at least since March...when are they ever going to make this thing public? I only found it on accident...and at the moment I am the ONLY PERSON on Yahoo! with "Egyptian mythology" listed as an interest. Now that is just shameful. :*/