I Have News to Show/Tell!

I can finally tell you my good news! Except this week’s topic is “Show, Don’t Tell,” which I’m pretty sure means I can’t just tell you. I’m required to show you instead of blurting it out in ALL CAPS like I want to. 

 

It was the day after Christmas and I heard the telltale ding of an email landing in my inbox. With visions of post-holiday-sale notices dancing in my head, I clicked on the envelope icon. When what to my wondering eyes did appear, but an email I’d been hoping for but hadn’t expected until next year!

Okay, I’ll stop with the Night Before Christmas schtick already.

My heart began to beat faster than a Taiko drum finale and my NyQuil-addled brain wondered if it could really be true. Was this it? The prelude to the legendary “call?” I sent off a reply and proceeded to wear a ridiculous grin for the rest of the day. Except when I became certain that “the call” would consist of a very polite rejection. Or that the hideous coughing plague I’d been gifted by my thoughtful preschooler would strike in the middle of my phone call, thereby making talking impossible.
I emailed my writer friends to make sure I knew the right questions to ask, just in case. I googled all things call-related. I started fourteen different craft projects in an effort to distract myself.

At the appointed hour I shooed my noisy family out of the house, popped a cough drop and proceeded to stare at my phone. Which promptly rang.
My pulse booming like a world class beatboxer, I answered.

It was THE CALL!! 

I started happy dancing around the house like I was performing every song on Just Dance 2 all at once at double speed.

Then I emailed the other agents I was waiting for responses from. Every time an email with the heading “Offer of Representation” hit my inbox I had palpitations. Somehow I kept forgetting that I was the one who sent the email with that heading and the agents were just replying, not necessarily offering.
My January decision deadline suddenly felt impossibly far away. I became that speed-obsessed snail striving for the finish line, desperate for nitro-induced superpowers to get me there faster.
But the longer I waited, the more certain I became I’d already found the agent for me.

Okay, I could probably use more specific details and active verbs to really show what the whole process was like, but sometimes shorter is better and you have to resort to telling. And so... I’m ridiculously thrilled to tell you all that I’m now represented by literary agent Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency!