(image courtesy Mark Stevenson)
Determined to give this last-chance-effort thing a fighting chance, I awoke this morning and sent a query letter to an agent first thing. I figured if I did it before I had my tea, I wouldn’t really notice what I was doing. It’s the old sleight of hand trick. Watch the birdie while I break my heart like an egg.
So I yawned and scratched myself with as much believability as I could muster as I navigated over to so-and-so’s page, filled out the form, attached my query, and pressed “send.”
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, ?????@$$$$$ and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
You have got to be shitting me.
This is not the start I had in mind.
This is so bad it’s funny.
I guess I better go make myself some tea.
girl in the hat 
Can’t we think of a way to turn this into a good omen?
Ha. It’s the universe telling me that nothing, nothing, is going to be easy.
Or, the universe is telling you that you were submitting your query to the wrong agent. Perhaps they would have snapped you right up and caused you nothing but trouble… Or maybe your query was going to arrive on a day when the coffeemaker was broken and no one was in a good mood and you couldn’t possibly get a fair shot… Or maybe… and I’m really going out on a limb here… it was just a server error :-).
Ha HA! This comment actually made me feel better! Thanks for that!
Email me if you need a pep talk. And don’t look at writing forums!!! They will make you crazy.
Oof. Bear in mind that NYC is still not up and running after the storm. I haven’t been able to reach my agent since before the power went out. Maybe give it a week or two before you start cracking eggs.
I thought that as soon as I saw the message. Rather self-centered of me, for sure. What the hell am I thinking?!
Pshh, don’t say that. We’re used to things working the way they’re supposed to!
XO
Wise words from Averil.
As usual.
Bad luck, but I think Averil’s right. Plenty of agents on the west coast now too, though.
Hmmm…. there is one on my list. Maybe I’ll send it one more time today. Thanks, Joe.
Yup, I’m with Averil — probably has to do with power issues in NYC.
But maybe there’s another message? May I presume?
Perhaps it will be POWERFUL to send these queries with a full acceptance of what you’re doing — that is, rather than sideways as you described in your opening?
It’s just that I feel I spent my entire career being sideways instead of more full on. I regret it. Forgive me if I say the wrong thing.
I now believe in complete consciousness, and most of all, I believe in believing in my SELF, which has always been a struggle for me.
And I’m with ThreeKingsBooks - Complete consciousness of what you are doing, believing in your SELF, loving yourself, trusting that what emerges and occurs is worthwhile and serving in some way you may not always be able to pinpoint in the moment… This path frees up a lot of energy otherwise spent in self-doubt, fear, procrastination and/or paralysis, so you can really enJOY your life! 😉
Lisa- Doing all those things is still no guarantee. I wish it were! You know me better than most and you’d probably agree that If it were, I’d already have two books published. Getting others to see what I see and having my vision be deemed relevant and sellable will require something outside of myself. A response from out there. Agreement. Some kind of harmonic convergence is needed here. It’s a total crapshoot.
I completely agree, Jody. But with me, it works like this: I tell myself I don’t care in order to move forward. It’s the not-caring that allows me to act. Instead of a leap of faith, it’s a blind step that happens to be aimed right over the edge. Oops, how did that happen?
What DID you do that might have caused the error?
Mike
Effing computers. I’ve been cutting and pasting and pressing return for years now. You’d think I’d know how by now!
Erm… Try, try again?
The question is when, I suppose.
That is the sort of moment when I cuss, slam things around, cuss some more, or maybe get teary, and go get the teenager. Who explains and fixes with no rolling of the eyes or making me feel stupid. Although sometimes I swear I hear laughter in the wind as he leaves…I’d say here, be glad it wasn’t your original gone forever through some evil computer glitch. You can always send again. I agree with the comments here about the storm. And I love the comments from ‘Stories in Pieces’.
That teenager sounds wonderful. Yes, Stories made me smile! And now, I’m off to knock on wood and back-up on my hard drive.
ERROR 8556B-32: Your domain lies outside of this error kernal. Please try imbedding your message inside nesting brackets. We have told you about this before. We are not allowed to give more than two hints as to what may have caused you such grief. This will be the last time you see this message. If you no longer wish to recieve these error messages then do not do anything. If you wish to recieve future error messages just keep on doing what you have been doing or click on “escape.” Signed; the savant server.
HAHAHAHA! Wally, you crack me up!
Hey there! I realize this is somewhat off-topic however I needed to ask.
Does running a well-established website like yours require
a massive amount work? I’m completely new to running a blog but I do write in my journal daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share
my own experience and feelings online. Please let me know if you have any kind of recommendations or tips for
new aspiring blog owners. Thankyou!