The writing tools I use, most of those reside in my head. How I use words, how I edit my words, and the stories I tell. My computer uses Windows XP, so that dates the machine, but it does everything I want it to and more. I have notebooks and a pens. I read lots of books. Those are my tools for writing. One good contract can do a lot for me. Unfortunately, I could spend several more years, writing novel after novel, before I get that contract. I have to stack the odds in my favor. That’s the trick, and the rub. I actually have to research, write down what would and could stack the odds in my favor, and then implement those strategies. Those same strategies have to practical, and fit in with my hectic day-to-day life. It isn’t easy when one of the agents I submit queries to, admits to not remembering me, not realizing I sent in several other queries. And, probably isn’t going to remember a thing I do in the future. Women also outnumber men 25 to 1 on almost every agent client list published on the Web. Another strike against me. Yet, I’m a storyteller. I love writing novels. The Brain Turds blog, that details what I’m doing with my novels. What I think and how I feel in any given week. The Central Park blog, I let you read what I write. New posts once a month.

Four big publishers still take books submitted to them without agents, and that’s it. There are about 12 desirable small publishers out there, and only seven want what I write. That limits me to eleven possibilities, plus the agent list I sub to . . . 36 contacts total. That’s the best I can do, the best I can submit to, every contact or market legit.

Then there is me, and Orange Moon Publishing. I blog about that next week.

Last week I talked about my garden, and here are the pictures I promised. Two pictures of the garden, which looks ugly, but isn’t. Already I picked and enjoyed lettuce, radishes, onions. I gave some produce to a neighbor, who is elderly, my mother and my sister. I included a photo of the trash pile left to me by the crew who installed the town sewer system. That’s the half I have left to clean, and most of that is trees and metal. When metal prices rise again, I take it to be recycled, making a few USDs in the process.