Isn't it Ironic? Don't you think? (Alanis Morrissette)

Anyone out there ever hear of Alanis Morissette’s song called “Ironic?” It’s kind of a funny song with lyrics such as: “It’s like rain on your wedding day. It’s the free ride after you’ve already paid. It’s the good advice you just didn’t take.” (It’s a very weird video, by the way. I may see if I can add it to my blog for the full effect).

Anyway, irony is a funny thing—a very, very funny thing.

Wasn’t it just yesterday that I whined about writing and the sucky aspects of doing it? Yep, it was yesterday. I posted my blog yesterday morning, being a whiny baby and talking about how I wasn’t sure I was any good at writing or if I even wanted to continue to do it. I was in a mood (a funk I was told by my very good writing buddy and friend of mine). I hadn’t been sleeping well either, so minor criticisms of my work really took their toll on me. They shouldn’t. I have to have a thick skin to be in this business. But at that moment in time, my skin was paper thin.

Here is where irony comes to play . . . I went to the League of Utah’s Writer Convention this past weekend and had my work judged for a contest. The comments made by the judge made me feel less than happy and so, therefore the reason for my “funk.” (Okay, here comes the irony . . . )

It wasn’t even a day later after I posted my whiny blog for all of you, more like a couple of hours, when I received a very promising email from a literary agent I had been waiting to hear back from (one I had my fingers crossed for). In this email she said, “I'm not quite sure what to do with Desert Rice. It's intriguing and involving. For the most part, I see it as a Young Adult novel. But the ending is far, far too graphic for Young Adult . . . Would you be willing to revise the ending so that most of the events now chronicled in that section are suggested but not described in detail . . . If you think you'd be willing to revise, I'd like to talk to you about representation.”

Just to clarify, the graphic details are not graphic details, per se. More along the lines of PG-13, maybe a hint of R. I’m not a graphic details kind of person.

BUT did she just say what I think she just said? Representation? Ahhh, I will revise this novel and give them rainbows, kitty cats, and pretty little ponies—HECK YEAH! My heart flutters like crazy every time I think of it.

Actually, the issues this agent brought up were issues I have had concerns with all along—it reads Young Adult because the characters are 12 and 15 of age, but the trials they face are heavy adult issues. This agent helped clarify what I had known. I have no qualms with revising at all.

But isn’t that ironic? I was ready to toss in the towel over what some dummy judge of a writing contest said about my work, when an agent (who means more) saw the potential of my work and may want to take me on as a client.

Yeah, that’s irony for you. (I’m starting to like irony, I think).

Don’t get me wrong, this can all still fall apart. I am a realist/pessimist. Things happen. Wait a minute . . . I think I like irony, unless of course I write and post this blog and then the agent emails me and says, “Whoops. I change my mind. I thought you were someone else”.

Now that would be irony and I wouldn’t like it one bit. That would suck.  Okay, let’s all hope that irony decided to stop where it’s at and that irony doesn’t decide to twist things up again. Yeah, let’s all chant, “No more irony! No more irony! We like you just the way you are!”

That just might work. Keep up the chanting guys. Cross your fingers and toes too. Let’s cover all the bases.

All I know, is that after I received that email, that beautiful golden nugget of opportunity, my spirits have been heightened. I will keep writing. I will work on my confidence. I will not let others determine my worth (okay, that one I will still need to work on, because I’m a sucker for letting others determine my worth—I’m a fool). I will continue to hold onto hope and possibility.

Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think?