Finally!!

At 2:35 p.m. this afternoon, I finished the rewrite of the book.

Let's all cheer.

However, I had to go back and revise the partial and synopsis to put in the mail tomorrow. Which I finished at 11:30 p.m. I had to cut 8 pages, make the grandfather less of a jerk, and make my hero less wishy-washy. Pages are cut. I think I succeeded with the grandfather and hero.

So tomorrow, I'm off to Kinkos to print and mail. Then, I can find my life again.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I set a difficult goal and met it. More importantly, I learned that my family can pull around me and work together to make it happen. Hubby very generously kicked me out of the house so I could get some work done. He kept the kiddos fed, the house semi picked up, and accomplished the crazy tasks I absolutely had to have done to stay sane.

As I prepared the very gourmet meal of hot dogs, the first I'd done all week, with the exception of a lasagna I'd frozen a couple months ago, I thought about a speech I saw a famous author give when she received an award for one of her books.

She got up and said that while everyone else thanked their family, she wasn't going to, because her family didn't write the book. Maybe the family didn't write the book. But at least in my house, my family plays an important role in my writing. They eat cereal on the nights I'm too preoccupied to cook without burning the house down. My husband works hard and sometimes extra hours so I have enough money for whatever I need- whether it be paper, ink, or conference expenses. They put up with me asking them weird questions like, "If you were in this situation, how would you react?" And they pitch in to do chores that I don't quite get around to. The seven year old informed me that she loooooooves to do laundry.

So to my family, thank you. I still have a lot of work to do, but without your help, I would not have reached this goal