Friday, May 20, 2005

Stunned Into Silence

Either the weekend blanket of quiet has settled over my corner of the Net, or my pictures of hurricane destruction were decidedly uninteresting. I found them while trying to locate a good picture of hubby since Shannon and Gena asked. And Shannon? There are no good pictures of me. Not many. I am the taker of all pictures since I'm the mother. Maybe I'll get some decent ones soon.

I have the Wyoming snowmobile pics of Jud and me, but we look like Michelin people. I might post them anyway.

Meanwhile, had to share THIS. Apparently my general rejection letter is now featured on a site of rejection letters. Not just publishing rejections, mind you, but a sort of Hall of Fame of Rejection.

Funny. Should I submit the many letters I've received from editors on behalf of my clients?

18 comments:

Jeanne Damoff said...

What a lovely little Oz! I'm thankful the hurricane didn't destroy it. (Sorry about the SUV, but I assume it was covered by insurance?)

Nice rejection letter, Deidre. Glad I never got to see one of those! :)

Jaci Burton said...

Just saw the house pics. It's Gorgeous!

Congrats on making the Hall of Fame of rejection letters. What an honor. Hey, I think somewhere in my past I might have gotten one of those from you *g*

J

Anonymous said...

LOL Jaci! It was a GOOD rejection letter...if that isn't a contradiction :)

Shannon McKelden said...

First of all, you people who live in the Southeast have to be the bravest people EVER! I could never live anywhere with hurricanes...or tornadoes! I'll take our once-a-century volcano eruptions anyday.

Your house/business is beautiful, Deidre! You guys should be very proud of it! I love old houses like that.

As for the pictures, or lack thereof, I totally get that. My friends have been nagging me to get a picture up on my website or blog, and I just don't have one! Moms take all the pictures! It's a fact of life. We'll have to take pictures in Reno this summer! :-)

Shannon

Deidre Knight said...

Shannon, that's why you have pink fuzzy slippers for your icon, right? :)

I love this house. Love it, love it, love it. It was the first house in our town to have running water (our historical claim to fame in a very historic little town.) Six people were born here (it's why I think it's so creative!)and it just feels so perfect for a literary agency. In fact, if you study the picture, on the left lower level, just left of the flag, that's the main office where I work. You can see the lamp on my desk! :) The main office has gigantic pocket doors and I like to pretend that long ago some wonderful man came to call on the young women living here, and they sat in this room, which was the parlor and someone actually *pulled* the pocket doors shut. Isnt' it a historical romance novel waiting to happen?

Deidre Knight said...

Jaci--you'd be surprised how many of the sistahs got one of those letters at some point or another. It's all in the timing! :)

Diana Peterfreund said...

Yeah, my rejection letter wasn't one of *those,* but the practical upshot was the same. But I got plenty of *those,* let me tell you!

The house is GORGEOUS. Wow. Someday, I will live in a real house. Right now, though, the high rise does me well.

~Diana

Anonymous said...

I love that house and all the historical details about it are fantastic :)

Deidre Knight said...

It's so cool hearing your reaction to our house. I think when you have an older home it feels like a kind of trust. Not so much like, "Here's where I live" as "here's something I treasure."

On rejections, that's actually our email pass on a query, just so folks know. One reason I'm so in favor of e-submissions is b/c it allows me to offer personal reaction when I reply. It's much more time consuming to do so if I have to print a formal letter.
D

Anonymous said...

Now THAT'S a house! And you get to work there too, you lucky woman. (Can you tell I'm just a little green, here?)

As for the rejection site...well, I guess there are a lot of bitter people out there! I think your letter is one of the nicer ways to tell someone you have to pass on a project--especially at the query stage. Hall of Fame worthy, indeed. Can I plan the induction party? ;-)

Anonymous said...

The pic you posted of yourself early in your blogging career was a good one.

I guess I must be lucky because my hubby takes all of our pics.

And Shannon, we have earthquakes too!! Livin' below the Mason-Dixon line is f-u-n!!

Shannon McKelden said...

Yeah, I forgot, we have earthquakes, too. I didn't think you all would over there. Thought it was only a West Coast thing. Luckily, we've only had about 3 or 4 really noticeable ones up here in my lifetime.

The last one was rather humorous...for me...I was driving, so I didn't know it was an earthquake. I thought I had a busted tire on my car as it wobbled all over the place. I was about 2 blocks from my son's preschool so I pulled in, examined the tires (saw nothing wrong), then tried to call my husband, since I obviously couldn't drive with a loose tire! All circuits were busy. I even saw another mom pull into the parking lot and do the same circle-the-car thing as I did.

Finally I gave up and went to the classroom to get my son. All the moms there were white as sheets and when the teacher opened the door, half the kids were screaming and in tears...and I was SO confused. I had no clue what had happened!

Good thing I hadn't been home working though, as something really large fell off an upper shelf and landed in my desk chair, which would have been my HEAD if I'd been there. :-)

Still...I'll even take earthquakes over a hurricaine or tornado any day. Those things terrify me!
Shannon

Jeanne Damoff said...

Deidre, reading about your delightful house reminded me of something I wrote in my blog in July of 2003. If you have a moment, check out this link:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ellezymn/6718.html

Happy Saturday! J.

Kristen Painter said...

Hurricane Isabell was one of the most truly frightening things I've been through.

When Isabell toppled a 150 foot oak across our house, it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. That hurricane sat on top of us for HOURS.

The wind howled and keened like a living thing. Trees snapped with the ease of twigs or in some case, like the one that hit our house, the wind pulled them up from the rain-soaked ground by their root balls. Sharp pops like gunshots riddled the lulls between gusts - the sound of trees being snapped in two.

But the worst of it came when the sun went down. With no electricity, night dropped a blanket of darkness over us like I have never before experienced. Eyes opened or closed, it made no difference. There was no light. None. Each gust of wind caused the huge oak piercing our house to creak and sway. The branches scratched our roof like fork tines on slate. The sound reverberated down my spine and each time I heard it, I was sure the gables would give way and drop the tree the rest of the way through the house.

Never in my life have I been so happy to see a sunrise. Never.

Anonymous said...

It is a great house. Plus, it's all kinds of fun to sit on the back porch and watch the horse and buggy slowly glide by. You can envision men in suits and women in hoopskirts so easily.

Ellen said...

Eeeek. I hate hurricanes. Right after college I moved to Charlotte, NC, and a week later Hurricane Hugo came through. I spent the night cowering in a walk-in closet. The irony is, until then I had lived in Virginia Beach all my life, and never experienced a major hurricane!

FantasyAuthor RobinDOwens said...

Gee, why didn't I take a pic of when my BEAUTIFUL blue spruce broke off about 20 ft from the top and landed in front of my front door after our last blizzard?

WEATHER!

Robin

Tracy Sharp - Author of the Leah Ryan Series said...

I got a rejection from you hehehehe! I realize now that you don't represent the type of book I was pitching though.