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I have the timing of a finely tuned curse and the damned luck that wins a game, but you end up leaving the field with a broken leg. Okay, not quite that serious, but pretty close to it. Yesterday, I sent out my proposal submission to Mirrorstone and a letter to Open Book Press to say that I miscalculated postage and sent them a new SASE with the proper postage. It was embarassing, but I figured what could be worse?

I should have learned, never, ever make that question.

So, this afternoon, when I stopped by my mailbox, I had only two letters. One of them was a SASE where someone added the $0.02 stamp to make it get through postage. Inside was a letter with the predictable header: Open Book Press.

Okay, I found something more embarassing. I mailed that apology a day before I got an answer.

I also got another different type of answer: if they are really nice and apparently when they want to read a few chapters of your novel, they'll put $0.02 stamp on it. Heh, it took me three times before I realized what they were asking. It was also a very nice and very precise request for submissions. Most of it is pretty easy, cover page between 65# and 110# solid color index stock. A title page. The only thing that threw me is a #5 brass brad with rounded head. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a #5 brass brad in this city? I went to four office places and found #1, #2, and two sets of #3. That is including Walmart and Office Max. Staples didn't have it either. So, I decided to be literal and order a set of them ($4 a box, with S/H $8 a box!) so I can follow all the directions.

So, apparently my query writing skills aren't as bad as I thought. As they said in the letter:

What it does mean is your query was professional and captured our interest.

I am happy. Very, very happy. And worth the $8 box of fasteners to follow directions. Plus, they prefer my favorite font: Courier.