27

It's my birthday today. I don't tend to make a big deal about these things. I expect my coworkers will take me out to eat today, and if they get ANYONE on staff to sing a SINGLE word to me, there will be blood.

I mention it here for a specific reason: the wish.

As I've grown older, I've come to realize that making a birthday wish is pointless if you don't make some effort towards that wish coming to fruition. I tend to treat these wishes more like New Year resolutions. For example, along with wishing to lose 20 lbs, I'd start an exercise regime. (This is a hypothetical situation, since at 130 lbs, I need a diet about as much as I need a life-sized replica of Colonel Sanders made out of toothpicks and gumdrops.)

Last year, I made two 'wishes'. Those two wishes were to get published, and to find a woman I could care deeply about. I only succeeded at one of those wishes (which I suppose serves me right, for making two of them), and I think you can all guess which of the two it was.

And no, I'm not going to tell you anything about her, because it's none of your business.

That said, I have made a lot of progress towards the other goal in the past year. I've been humbled by the publishing industry after sending my queries out last summer and receiving nothing but rejections. Since then, my work has improved significantly. Has it improved to the point of landing an agent? I guess I'll find out soon.

I'm taking next week off of my day job, in order to focus entirely on things I need to get done. Aside from various appointments and registrations, this mostly means finalizing (relatively) my query, and sending it out to more agents. My hope is that this summer, after much revision to the work, it will receive more interest. After all, I only have one wish to make this year.

Let's just hope I manage to blow out the candles.