Jillian wanted me to pass on to everyone, thanks for all the birthday wishes! She had a great party, and is now sitting quietly on the couch, reading book something-or-other of the Twilight series. That novel is huge -- the author must come from the J.K. Rowling School of Sequel Writing. :-)

Speaking of writing, I've submitted the first chapter of my story Storm Chaser to the Firebrand Literary Agency (http://www.firebrandliterary.com/), which is holding a one month "query holiday". This was passed on to me by agdhani; basically, through January 15th they'll take a look at the first chapter of anyone's completed novel, without the writer needing to tear their hair out trying to compose that all-important perfect query letter. Personally I think my query letters aren't too bad, but I'd rather have my story stand on its own, rather than on my ability to boil the essence of both the novel and myself down to less than a page.

And what are my chances? Well, since the holiday began, one agent has received 1,600 submissions! The month is only half over, and she already has to read 1,600 chapters .... so far she's read 189, and asked for 11 full submissions. So not great odds, but no worse than anywhere else in the publishing industry.