LadyLee put up her more, um, formal review of Counting Raindrops on her site. Click on her name to check it out. :-)

Thanks to all who have left encouraging comments on yesterday's post or sent an email. I really do appreciate all comments. As you can imagine, no matter what, there are always butterflies. And it's not like a one time performance. Like you have butterflies before a speech, or a play, or a dance, and then you do whatever and 2 - 4 hours later, it's gone. For the first time novelist, the butterflies last the entire first 3 - 6 months, because these are the crucial months. LOL So thanks to all of you for congrats!

I called my agent to catch her up to date and had planned to get off the phone quickly. I always feel like she must be busy and I always plan to make my statements quickly and keep myself to a two minute maximum. Well, after giving me a pep talk, inspiration, and coaching, I found that we were on the phone for over an hour. This is one of the reasons I'm so grateful for my agent. She has a very beautiful spirit, encourages me to call her anytime, and gets back to me as soon as she can when I have to leave a message or send an email. She even helped me to decide not only which story would be the next best to write, but also we put in order the next three books from my list. She's awesome. She's an author too, and she's been in my shoes. So not only does she know the industry, it's like she knows what I'm thinking and feeling. She knows exactly what I'm going through, whether it's the upswing or the down, because she's been there herself. She always knows the right things to say and to tell me what to think about, and what to consider. Just by nature, she's one of those people who ask you questions to pull things out of you to help you to come to your own conclusion about things when you are conflicted about something. Then, only after you've come to a conclusion will she add her input. She doesn't seem to want to influence your decision.

As you can probably tell, I like my agent. :-) You know how it is when you call up your best girlfriend and you talk for a long time, just gliding from subject to subject just by going with the flow of the conversation? That's what it's like in talking to my agent. Sometimes we have to go, "oh, and back to business...." LOL

I think she's a keeper!