They say it's your birthday! Well, it's my birthday too yeah!

Actually (and no fooling) my birthday's tomorrow. I will be 35 in about three hours. So it goes.

Every year "Get a novel accepted and published" is on the top of my New Years Revelations list. But I'm thinking that I am going to succeed this year. My novel, The Symphonians, is really good after my having revised it into the ground.

Also, I've been writing seriously and studying the craft for over ten years now. I talk a lot about what I call the "Ten-Year Plan," which was taken from a study in creativity that said that it takes about ten years of study and work for the artist to write something that really makes the sparks fly. A look at writers' careers overall seems to bear this out.

To have a first novel published at 35, well, it beats having it published when I'm 95. At least I'll be attending the big Missouri Writer's Guild conference in KC at the end of this month. I hope I can get an agent, or get a referral from an author for an agent or editor. Networking also goes a long way toward publication. I'll take what I can get.

But I've got to hurry up and use my time wisely. I'm going to apply for an English teacher position here at the high school. Have to write lesson plans -- arrgh. But that'll eat up a lot of my writing time, double arrgh.

But hanging around my audience and getting to know them well over time is a definite plus. And if I can help them learn how to write and read well, then I'll have done a good thing.

So hurry up and accept my book! I don't have much time to get it revised!