Thursday, March 08, 2007

Other echoes / Inhabit the garden

… shall we follow them? A lovely lamb-like March day, almost 60° -- not as warm as the next few days are forecast. I opened the shades in my office that I need to keep closed in the morning to see the monitor and looked out at the garden. One of the Douglas irises was in bloom, so I went out to look at it. Outside, I saw that another had bloomed and gone already, without my seeing it. Hopefully, John saw it, and the Greta sniffed at it. But it made me sad that my life is so busy and in turmoil that I'd missed it entirely. Maybe this weekend we can put in some time out back.

Elsewhere in the garden is a volcanic-type rock with a hole in it. A calla lily is blooming straight through the hole. Well, okay, I suspect John set that up to happen but still, it's neat, isn't it?

Here's a question that needs to be asked: If you have submitted a ms. to a competition one year, is it worth resubmitting it the next year if it's unchanged or hardly changed?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Diane:

Yes, particularly if it is a contest in which you were a finalist or semi-finalist. If you made it that far, it means the screeners liked it--those people won't change much from year to year. Therefore, my guess has always been that the manuscript has a better than average chance of getting into the hands of the judge.

Unknown said...

Oh! And Good Luck!

Leslie said...

I agree with Greg. Especially since the ms in question has come so close so often. It isn't about the ms so much as it is about the competition. The question to ask is if they will get anything they like as well as they like your ms. And if they don't and yours wasn't there...

Unknown said...

Greg, Leslie, thanks for the advice and encouragement.

Just wanted to note as well that the above-mentioned turmoil has nothing to do with po biz. The po biz is frustrating but doesn't usually keep me up at night.