I'm suffering from one of the more pleasant writing dilemmas it's possible to have. Sunday evening, I got a call from an agent who'd been considering my children's novel, The Winter of the Earth. The good news is that she likes it. The bad news (possibly) is that she thinks it needs a different ending. She also thinks it should be 40-45k words, rather than 31k. In many ways, she's probably right on both points. The ending as it is now is a tough sell. One of the main characters dies, and the others can't save her. You'd have a hard time persuading a children's publisher to go with this. In terms of length, she pointed out that in today's children's/teenage market, if you want a publisher to put a big push behind a book, it is easier if the book is longer.

Being who I am, I'm having to fight against the reactionary impulse that says "never change anything". I hate revising stories, but it's something I know I need to learn. Steph was quoting to me from a writer's blog/website where the writer said that five major revisions before publication was not unusual. Five! Aargh!

I'm spending this week thinking about what I should do here so I don't make any impulsive, foolish decisions either way.

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We made chocolate fudge brownies on Saturday. They are delicious, but they are also probably the most sickly thing I've ever eaten. I want to eat lots of them--this is how I deal with chocolate, but I just can't. My mouth feels like it's disintegrating from all the sugar and fat. My gums want to bleed. Damn, I wish I had another one with me.

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Slow progress continues on Winter Sparrows. This story is taking forever. I'm not 100% on the speculative concept of the story, so I'm really feeling my way through it. Soon, though, soon.