The truth about publishing

As most of you know, I'm trying to find an agent for my book right now. It's a tough climb, but I'm going for it anyway. To give you an idea of odds, top agents receive something like 5000-7000 query letters a year from people like me. But they only take on 5-7 new clients a year. So, yeah, it's brutal.

But that's okay, because that prepares you for the brutal realities of publishing in general. I've seen publishing stats before, but these are the ones I've come across most recently (thanks to a random blog I stumbled onto):

* Number of different books (titles) sold in the U.S. last year: 1,446,000

* Number of those that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000

* Number that sold over 100,000: 483

Egads. That means the VAST majority of published writers, far from being the next JK Rowling, are going through something like this guy in the video.

Pretty funny.

Say Wha??

I've made a bizarre discovery. As of today (I'm sure it'll be different tomorrow) if you type "Paul Klee Sommerlandscaft" (that's the Summer Landscape painting) into Google, you'll see that my CookZoo entry on Klee is the fourth hit.

...

On Google...

Wha? How in the heck?

...

Wha? Maybe no one else in the world is talking about this guy or something, so being number four isn't hard to do. LOL.

So then I did some digging on my site meter, and it turns out the Klee post has had hits from countries like Belgium, Germany and Turkey and has been translated into different languages as well. It's kinda cool to see my blog all written up in some other language.

As far as it being on the first page of a Google search, I officially think that's both creepy and awesome.

I guess most of me thinks it's awesome though, since it's making me want to finish up my Art Masterpiece posts. (I have two more to do, but I'm sorry to say my foot will not be making an appearance.)

Proud To Be An American

Thank you, thank you to all the men and women who have fought for our country's freedom. America isn't a perfect country, but it's pretty awesome. I'm grateful to have been born in a country such as ours. And I'm grateful to all those, past and present, who have given their lives and their service for the rest of us.

A special thank you to Blake, Brian's brother, who has decided to make his career serving in the Marines. Although I was initially nervous about this (for obvious reasons), really I'm so proud of him. He's doing really well and serves honorably. Our country needs men like him and I thank him for all he does.

A special tribute to my Uncle Gene, my mother's brother. He died many, many years before I was born in the Korean War. He has lived on in my mother's heart, and her deep love for him has been passed on to the next generation. I love him too, and I remember him on this special day.

There are others in our combined family who have served, and of course so many soldiers around the world right now who remember their country even though they're far from home.

We remember you and honor you.

All because of gas prices....

Brian commutes into Phoenix for work. For several months now I've been trying to get him to sell his Suburban for something a little more economical. But he LOVES his Suburban and wants it for camping, so there was no budging him. One day he said we should get a third car for him to drive to work, saying we'd be saving enough in gas to make it worth it. I thought that was completely ridiculous. How is owning three cars going to be cheaper than owning two? So I told him to do some research on insurance costs, etc and run the numbers. I expected that would put an end to this crazy idea.

Guess what?

Owning three cars would be significantly cheaper than two (at least these two). So we decided to use settlement money from a fender bender Brian was in last fall, and a little bit of our economic stimulus money to go buy a car. Friday night and Saturday morning we scoured Craigslist and found a car that looked like a good match. In North Phoenix.

We loaded up the kids and drove to Cave Creek and Peoria to look at it. The outside was okay, but the inside was just too beat up. So we decided to pass. Meanwhile there was another car in north Phoenix somewhere, but we didn't know where exactly. We sent the guy an email and decided to find a place to wait for his response.

We drove down Central (don't you love Central??) and ended up at the Heard Museum. We didn't go in, but just hung around on the grounds. I really like it there. It's so peaceful and pretty and has interesting art to look at.

(They had two HUGE cotton plants in their garden; they were almost as tall as me. I've never seen them so big. I've also never seen flowers on a cotton plant before. Isn't it pretty? Above the flower you can see the busted open pods from the cotton.)

(Now why don't WE have a garden wall that looks like this? Course, we don't have a garden either...)

Even their benches are cool.

(My next words were: "Ben get down from there!")

One of the coolest things about the grounds here is this amphitheatre. The sidewalk goes around in a spiral to the center. My kids thought that was a blast. They must have ran up and down that spiral a dozen times.

Course, what's a hill for if not to roll down?

Brian and I took a more sensible route. The grass looked so soft and inviting that I had to take off my sandles and stand in it. Then I impulsively took this picture:

I sense a new blog tradition coming on. I've decided we need to take a trip to the beach so I can post a picture of my foot in the water. Don't you think that's a justifiable expense? Do you think I'll be able to persuade Brian? Hee hee.

We ended up lying in that soft grass looking up at a beautiful overcast sky. (This weather is a gift straight from heaven, isn't it?) We never heard from the guy though, so after maybe an hour we headed back home.

We drove around a few used car lots close to our house, but didn't see anything good. So we went home worn out and disappointed. This was around 4, I think. About an hour later Brian found another listing for a car right here in Mesa. So we loaded everyone up, again, and went to check it out.

This time, we have a winner! Check out Brian's new car.

It gets a sweet 33 MPG on the highway. Oh yeah baby...

John and Ben playing with Jenna

These boys love playing with their Jenna baby.

Travis' Graduation

The camera got here JUST in time for me to take pics of Travis' graduation. Travis is Brian's baby brother, the last in the family. This is what he looked like when we first got married (his mom's holding him):

This is him now:

Oh my gosh! Since he was so little when I married Brian, I feel a little motherly toward him. Nathan and Blake too, actually. I cried when Blake and Leeanne moved to Japan. I cried when Nathan left for his mission. I didn't cry when Travis graduated (cuz that's just too fun and exciting) but one of these days he'll be leaving on his mission too and I'm sure I'll... well, you know.

Anyway, last night was a little crazy. As you may have noticed, it rained. A lot! Part of me loved the rain and the cooler weather (we have to enjoy it while we can, right?). But there was a part of me that thought it sucked. Mainly because graduation got rained out (which hasn't happened in decades!). What that meant was they moved it indoors, gave two tickets to each graduate (which went to his parents, naturally), and the rest of us got to wait it out at the house.

So we didn't get to see Travis graduate. But that ain't all. There's a tradition that if your child is the fifth (or more) to graduate from MHS and the last in the family, then the parents get to sit in a special section on the field during graduation. There's a part during the ceremony when the parents' names are called out and we all get to cheer and clap. Well, Travis is not only the last but the 8th child in the family to graduate, so we've all been waiting for Ken and Kathy's moment of glory for a LONG time. Thanks to the rain, it didn't happen. Oh we were so bummed. I can't even imagine how Ken and Kathy must feel. We decided we need to have a BBQ on the field anyway, LOL.

So, here's some pics from us waiting at the house.

Aunt Sherrill with Jenna

Kelli with Jenna

Katy with Jenna

Chris with Jenna

Jenna was a big hit.

So we waited...

and ate pizza...

and waited...

Kent with Chris

and played in the rain...

and waited...

and played with cars...

and waited...

and smelled Daddy's armpits (don't ask)....

and waited...

Until at last the waiting was over. Hail the conquering (and wet) graduate!

So then we watched him open presents...

And he played a voicemail he got earlier on speakerphone. It was little Logan giving him congrats on finishing school. It was so cute!

Katy gave him a porcelan turtle because HIS turtle died a few weeks ago too. I won't say how (it's pretty sad) but Travis had him since he was 3.

Then Travis cut the cake...


and shortly afterward he was out the door to his Senior Class Party (Golfland this year!). We waited over 2 hours so we could spend maybe 30 minutes with him.

It was totally worth it. :)

Congratulations Travis!!

My Camera's Here!!!!

(Brian would say OUR camera's here, but why trifle with words?) ;)


Anyway, I love this thing! It's so fun! Check it out. I can take a picture of any ridiculous thing I want and have it up in seconds. For example,


My foot....





The door jam where Brian marks off how much the kids have grown...




A picture of Ben in front of said door jam, because he was saying "Take a picture of me too!"




My oh-so-interesting bulletin board. We've managed not to bury the picture of Nathan for two whole years - proof that we really miss him and can't wait for him to get home from his mission. Look, you can even see the mostly-buried flyer for the Fun Van! LOL.




I think it's so cool that I can take a picture of anything that strikes my fancy and have it on the internet mere minutes later.


Like that commercial says, if I can do this, then WHY don't we have flying cars yet???

John and Bummpy

For John's fourth birthday, he received a tortoise, who he named Bummpy. (Yes, two 'm's.) About a week ago now, Bummpy was attacked by a cat, which was horrible. We did our best to help him, but he must have been injured too badly. He died today and we're sad to see him go. John wanted to do a memorial for Bummpy here on the blog. The text below is from John.

Bummpy was the best tortoise in the whole, wide world. And no other pet could beat him. His shell was so bumpy, and I'm so sad that he's dead. But I will always remember him and never forget him. He's always in my heart. I know that he will be with Heavenly Father and be safe with Him. I will remember his bumpy shell and never forget when he died. I hope you're okay Bummpy. It's time to go. Bye.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I haven't been able to blog about this yet because I had to wait for my film to be developed! (That's SO 20th century!) Anyway, we're so excited because Leeanne and Jenna are visiting from Japan! Hooray! For those of you who don't know, Leeanne is Brian's brother's wife. (Got that?) Blake is busy doing his Marine thing so we won't get to see him till Christmas, but we LOVE having Leeanne and Jenna here. (Or "Jenna Baby" as Chris would say.)

Jenna has a very sweet personality and (thank goodness!) let all of us hold her even though she doesn't really know us. The boys all wanted a turn.







And it goes without saying that I could NOT get my hands on that baby fast enough. She's so friggin cute!

Jenna's never seen a dog before, so she was fascinated by Ashley. She'd crawl over to touch her, but if Ashley moved toward her, Jenna didn't like it. Jenna also didn't like it if Ashley moved away. She wanted to examine that dog and she wanted her to stay still! LOL! Fortunately Ashley was being pretty obliging, and Jenna did manage to touch Ashley's paw. Good dog.

The boys just love their cousin Jenna. I was pleased to see that they gave her the same enthusiasm in person that they do when they see pictures of her via email or on the blog. (When there's a video of Jenna on the blog, oh my holy my boys go nuts!) Anyway, they loved talking sweetly to her and touching her and calling her name. It was so sweet to watch. (Chris is eating chips, in case you're wondering, LOL.)

This happened to be the Saturday before Mother's Day, so my family was here too. Leeanne felt a little bad about "crashing" our party, but hey, if you're coming from freaking Japan you can come over any time you want! Anyway, this is a pic of my mom, my sister Wendy and her husband Louie, and her son Ryan. If you're wondering what all the boys are looking at, it's Jenna. (Who else?)

I never thought I'd see my mom and Jenna in the same room, but here's a pic to prove it actually happened.

The following Monday Leeanne and I took Jenna and Chris to the park to feed the ducks and play. I was almost out of film, so this is all I got.

We've since had them over for FHE which was so fun. We'd like to have them over all the time, but we do have to share her I suppose. But they're here through June 5 (or 6?) which means they'll be in Texas for the family reunion too. Then we'll have ALL the cousins together! And I should have the digital camera by then so I can take as many pictures as I want. Woo hoo!

Anyway, we just love Leeanne and sweet Jenna (Blake too) and we're happy to have time with them.