A SANDwich

It's basic math - pre-summer style. A sun-filled Memorial Day + 80 degrees = A beach day. You just have to love parking it seaside, watching the waves frolicking with the shore. Well, I do, anyway. We headed out bright and early and before I knew it there was nothing between me and the sand but an orange towel and some SPF 30 (& last years bathing suit, of course. Hey, I'm no peep show.)Gary LeVox was blowing his famous pipes in my ears via the IPOD. The southeasterly breeze was blowing just enough to keep us from frying. The sky looked the way it does in every artists rendering of THE PERFECT BLUE HEAVEN. I was...content.
Fast forward eight hours. Post shower. No. Not sunburned. Itchy. Very, very itchy. While I'd been busy with my s & s (sun and sand) and r & r (that ones a given) it seems a group of hungry mosquitoes were going to town on my flip-side. Maybe not a group. Maybe a small third-world mosquito country - one of those starving insect nations who'd sufficiently put an end to their worldly famine courtesy of my bare back. Shoot, when I say covered, I do mean covered in bites.
I am a humanitarian. I donate when I can, crusade when I can't. I have a healthy respect for the food chain and the earth's ecosystem. But, I mean, come on you guys, spread the wings, spread the love. Save the fangs for another happy camper.
From here on out I will decorate my beach body with some OFF. Now excuse me while I run for some more calamine lotion.

Disarm the Devil...yeah, but

So it would seem that somebody out there is interested in publishing my book! L & L Dreamspell Publishers has offered me a contract. I know. I'm fairly certain there's been a mistake. Still, I've been told that if all goes according to plan, my first (really second) novel will be released about 12 months from now. Things in my mind have suddenly shifted from "I wonder if/when" to "What could go wrong now?" It's the curse of the ever-anxious. Good news is only as good as your ability to ignore the little devil perched on your left shoulder. You know the guy. He's the one there to remind you not to count your chickens before they hatch. He's the one that says "Yeah, BUT..." to every positive thought you dare entertain. I.E.:

I will finally see my manuscript evolve into something I can hold in my hands!
Yeah BUT, so will everyone else. What if people hate it?

One year will go by fast. Before I know it I will be a published author.
Yeah BUT that's assuming the publisher doesn't disband/change their mind/anything bad that equals squashing the whole deal.

For anyone, if there's anyone at all beside me keeping track...this has been a long time coming. The goal now is to disarm the devil. They say it's not the destination so much as it's the journey. Getting there has to be part of the experience, part of the fun. Yeah, but I'm so damn impatient, nervous, READY. Or not.