The most romantic gesture ever

Some husbands give flowers and candy to be romantic. Mine just gave me the most romantic gift ever. He stayed home with our sick baby for two days, and this morning when I came home from teaching to take her to the doctor, I came home to a clean house. The living room was clean, the kitchen was spotless with counters wiped down, and the kids’ rooms were immaculate.

In the past, he’s brought home flowers spontaneously. But, in my book, this is the biggest bouquet he’s ever given me in my life–a spotless house and taking care of a sick baby.

What’s the most romantic thing your spouse or significant other has done for you?

The urge to submit

Every once in a while, I get this urge to submit something to a publisher. It usually happens when, like right now, I’m knee-deep in a new story and it’ll be a while before I finish it. I have a craving to mail something new, to get a wouldbeinterested (a request for a partial or full). Usually I mail partials. Sometimes queries.

Anyway, I was looking over old files and I came across an old cover letter. All of a sudden, the story sounded really cool. I had only written three chapters.

And the submission voice started whispering…you could mail it….you might get a request for the full manuscript…it’s just a quickie story, only 60,000 words…come on, do it….you know you want to…

This kind of thing always happens when I’m writing a fun historical. My inner contemporary voice wants out.

Of course, some day I’ll be really in trouble. Because I’ll get a request and suddenly I’ll have multiple books to write. And they’ll all be due at the same time! Cripes.