What do I do with this?

Seriously. This is not a rhetorical question... What do I do with this information?

My new four-part serial short story "La Luna" began in Woman's Weekly (a UK magazine) this week. As I posted last Friday, the editor wrote about it in her Editor's Letter, which I didn't see until yesterday when I received my contributor's copies. Here's what she wrote:

So... OMG! (and I don't use that expression lightly, because, honestly, I just can't pull it off.) Seriously, this magazine has a circulation of 350,000 every week and a readership of 570,000. So even if only half the readers take a look at the contents page, that means almost a quarter of a million people just read my name and really nice comments about my story.

Now aside from the fact that this gives my ego a boost it could really use after all the rejections that come from querying a novel, there has got to be some way this can work in my favor, right?

I've posted this on my web site (if you haven't already checked it, go ahead and look -- I've got a stat counter and it makes my day when I get visitors). But I'd love to hear from you marketing experts if there is something else I should do to with this development. Should I mention it in my query letter? Include a hardcopy of this page when I send out paper copies? Hire a skywriter to reproduce it in vapor? Get over myself because it's not that big of a deal?

I'd love to get any suggestions people have. Remember, there's no such thing as a bad idea! Thank you in advance for your help.

What are you waiting for?

We all know that writing is all about waiting: waiting for feedback, waiting for agents to respond, waiting for editors to respond. I'm used to waiting, but I'm not very good at it. I seethe and suffer inside. And though I know it is counterproductive, I lose sleep, I lose concentration, I lose my mind.

And these days, it seems all I am doing -- in every aspect of my life -- is waiting. So I'm going to vent a little into the ether.

Things I'm Waiting For:

• Response from agent with full manuscript.
• Response from agents with partials.
• Response from agent queried with a referral.
• Responses to THREE job applications.
• Mortgage refinancing paperwork.
• Go-ahead from hubby (who manages our finances) to attend Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference
• The school year to start so I can get some real work done.
• Cooler weather
• Apology from hotel after disastrous spa weekend
• Shoes I ordered from Ebay
• Return call from body shop about the huge dent made by non-note-leaving driver in Old Navy parking lot

Yeah, feels like a lot.

So how about you? Anything you are waiting for that's driving you nuts? Come, join me!

Feel Good Friday

I received an email from the fiction editor, Gaynor Davies, at Woman's Weekly. My four-part serial "La Luna" hits the UK newsstands next week (10 August issue) which is exciting enough. But Gaynor also told me that the editor is mentioning my serial in the Editor's Letter that appears on the Contents page! Gaynor didn't tell me what the editor wrote but said "I'm sure you'll be pleased with what she says" and went on to thank me for a "lovely" story.

Yay!

And then she went on to inquire about the progress of my next serial. Um... I better get to work!

How about you? Any good news or happy feelings you'd like to share?