On Its Way

I consider myself to be a Luddite, a technophobe, someone who has to have my sons program numbers into my cell phone for me. I don't even know how to operate the remote control for the TV in my house, which I only turn on two or three times a year. Though to be fair to me, operating the remote control in my particular house is not as easy as one might think. Once when I wanted to turn on the TV for a houseguest, I could not, simply could not, use the remote even make the TV turn on, let alone tune to various channels. Desperate, I called my son Christopher: "Christopher, how do you make the remote for the TV work?!" He told me, "Oh, you have to take the batteries out of the DVD remote and put them in the TV remote." I really can't blame myself for that one!

The one technology I do love, love beyond all reckoning, is email. I check mine every few minutes, with hope springing eternal each time that I'll receive notification that one of my books has been nominated for an award, or that I've been invited somewhere fun and fascinating, or that a ten-year-old is primed to do a language arts report on me.

And I love being able to email manuscripts. No more hunting for the right-sized envelope, driving to the post office, waiting in line. Though, I actually did like doing those things, too. But for instant gratification, nothing beats attaching your manuscript to an email and clicking SEND.

I just did that, five minutes ago. I sent off the manuscript of my novel, all 281 pages of it, to Margaret Ferguson at FSG, and now I can start awaiting what I know will be her brilliant editorial insights. I don't expect them this afternoon, of course, or tomorrow, or even in the next few months. It will be good to be away from the book, to give myself some distance on it so that I can react thoughtfully to whatever she will say. The important thing for now is that it is off my desk and on her desk. I'm done done done with it for now now now. It's on its way!