This post is dedicated to Laura Lippman who just found out that her new book WHAT THE DEAD KNOW will be her first New York Times Bestseller. I read her post last night and almost started crying for her, this has been a long time coming.

This whole thing made me realize how much I want this. All of it. The book deal, the publishing experience, the bestseller. I would love to have Laura's career. Not just the fancy-schmancy part of it. But she started off with a mass market career and has slowly built it from there.

I hadn't realized until recently how much participating in the contest with Dave was distracting me from the whole submission process of my new book. I had the manuscript out to a couple of agents who were reviewing it but I was so focused on getting pages done on the contest book that I didn't think too much about it. But now that I don't really have that going, I'm driving myself batty wondering what's going on.

I sent out one batch of email queries that I haven't heard a thing on, and yesterday I sent out a batch of snail mail queries. All I can think about it getting an agent and getting a deal and having a career. It's bordering on the point of obsession now and that's got to stop. Obviously I need to immerse myself in another project. I'll probably stick with the urban exploration book that I'm about 3k words into.

But I've also debated doing more short work, including a mainstream-type story for EQMM or AHMM and possibly even a novella for the AHMM/Nero Wolf Society novella contest. With the way I'm feeling though, I think a massive, long-term project like a novel is just what I need.