Weekend Roller Coaster

For me, this past weekend was one of extreme highs and lows, and in my mind, can only be compared to a roller coaster ride. It had the heart-pounding thrill of climbing that unbelievably high slope, the breath-stealing anticipation of reaching the top then teetering there for a few spine-chilling moments, and finally, the mind-blowing descent down the other side. By Sunday, I didn't know whether to give in and enjoy the sensations or shut my eyes and scream, "Stop the ride, I want to get off!"

I climbed into the car on Friday night while it was hovering at the ride's lowest point, held there by the Yankees defeating the Red Sox--a game we should have won and would have if our stellar and much-revered bullpen had performed the way they were expected to.

On Saturday morning, the car started its rickety climb up the slope when I received word from a publisher saying they wanted to include my short story "The Secret Life of Alice Smitty" in their PMS: Poison, Murder, Satisfaction anthology--see Saturday's post "Happy Dances."

Shortly after that, we reached the pinnacle when Josh Beckett led Boston to a 10-1 trouncing of the Yankees. It was a beautiful thing, especially since I actually got to see it! Of course, I had to watch it on Fox--do those people have any idea how incredibly dull and insipid their sports coverage is?--but even that wasn't enough to dull my excitement.

Sunday morning the car was teetering on the summit when I received word from the publisher of my first book, "Death by Indifference," that they were closing at the end of this month. This one was its own little roller coaster ride in and of itself. I was in turn, crestfallen, ecstatic, pissed off, and hopeful. Crestfallen because that meant my book would only be available till September 30th. Ecstatic because they'd had the good sense to close before being forced into bankruptcy as so many others in the epublishing industry have been in the last few months--thereby tying up the rights to countless books for months on end and causing unfair and unbearable distress to their authors. Pissed off because I knew for months this was coming, I saw all the red flags and ignored them. I'd signed a contract with them back in February for my paranormal romance, "Snow Shadows." They more or less sat on the manuscript for seven long months, and I can't tell you how many times I thought of writing them and pulling the book--patience is not a strong point of mine!--but I let it slide. How stupid is that? Hopeful because it means the days of wondering and worrying are over. As of September 30th, I can submit both books to other publishers and with any luck, they'll see the light of day sometime in the future.

Sunday afternoon and we're still teetering on the brink. My husband and I have been looking for a house for the past six months or so. We finally found not one, but two we like enough to make an offer on and now we have to decide which one we like more. They have a fairly equal amount of pros and cons, so the only thing to do now is weigh each pro/con individually and see where that leads us.

Sunday night, we plunged into the abyss when the Red Sox blew another game to the Yankees--I don't want to talk about it!--then it was back up again when the Patriots won their game against the Chargers, hopefully silencing at least a few of their critics regarding the accusations of cheating which came to the forefront this past week. One of the bloggers I tune into regularly on WordPress, http://firedannyainge.wordpress.com, made a very valid point about this and I quote:

"The Patriots have lost quite a few players in recent years that weren’t too happy about not getting paid. Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Willie McGinnest, Adam Vinatieri etc… to name a few. Wouldn’t you think if this had been going on for a long time that one of these players would have blown the whistle if they knew?"

Well, duh, of course. Why didn't I think of that? So, thanks firedannyainge for pointing this out and giving me ammunition to use against my husband who is a Colts fan.

So now, the hair-raising ride is over at last, I can climb with wobbly knees out of the car, and get on with my normally dull and staid life. The thing is, I have a sneaky suspicion I'm going to be feeling the repercussions from this particular roller coaster ride for a long time to come.