Sonja Foust, Romance Author

First, my mope: My Silhouette Desire manuscript got rejected yesterday. Via form letter. After 10 months. And my name was spelled wrong on the rejection. I had been telling everyone that even if it got rejected, I’d still feel ok because it got to a second read-through and that means it wasn’t total crap… But I don’t feel ok. I’m sad. But it did get a second read-through and it is the longest time a rejection has ever taken. I’m just going to keep telling myself that.

Now, my surrender: Nanowrimo kicked my butt this year. Ok, well, life kicked my butt and Nanowrimo got pushed to the side. And I’m kind of ok with that, actually. I’m not going to mope about it, because this year in November, I started a new job, hosted Thanksgiving dinner, got the bulk of my Christmas shopping done, and generally remained sane throughout. This would not have been possible had I attempted Nanowrimo with any sort of gusto. Next year.

I have to say first of all that I thought Hattie Big Sky was well-written and that the heroine was likable. It was also set in an interesting transitional historical time period, which I appreciated. I also liked the theme of trying to find a home, and the lesson that first you must be at home inside yourself.

SPOILER ALERT! (Stop reading if you’re planning on reading this yourself, because I’m going to talk about the ending.)

I did not, however, like the ending. Even the historical Hattie, on whom the book was based, got a better ending than fictional Hattie. I felt cheated that she ended up hoping for something better, rather than settled and happy, and that all the things she found and loved were taken away.

Ok, well THIS blog doesn’t speak, but I speak over at Laura’s 15secondpitch BlogTalkRadio show! We just finished our interview about an hour ago, and it’s ready for you to consume at the link above. Be gentle, it’s my first live interview ever and I was kind of nervous! I love the way everything turned out, though, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too! Laura and I chatted about my job, Twitter, 15secondpitch.com, my writing, and some other stuff too, so check it out.

Image via WikipediaMy project for the rest of the day is getting ready for the Foust Thanksgiving. We’re hosting it at our house this year, so it’s cleaning and grocery shopping and baking for me this week! We bought our bird last night and the cleaning fairies came Wednesday, so I’m hoping the whole thing won’t be too daunting.

I’m also considering making one non-traditional, kind of weird (and yet still delicious) dish to see if people like it. Since this is the first year we’re doing the Foust Thanksgiving at our house, I feel like we should start some kind of new tradition. Any suggestions? What’s your favorite non-typical Thanksgiving recipe?

Hey, stalkers, here’s your chance to put a voice to the blog. I’m going to be on Laura Allen’s 15secondpitch radio show this Saturday at 11 a.m Eastern. You can listen live if you want, or you can go back and listen to the podcast of the show later on. I’ll be talking about 15secondpitch.com, Twitter, and, oh yeah, my favorite subject: me. Heh. Come have a listen, and let me know what you think!

To all my new coworkers who came by way of sonjafoust.com, HI! I’m looking forward to meeting you, and I hope you’ll give me your blog links too so that you won’t know everything about me without me knowing at least a little something about you. Fair’s fair, after all.

It’s weird how I never even considered my new employer would look at my website when I got my first job out of college (even though I did have a website way back then… in 2003), but now I kind of expect everyone to know everything about me before I meet them in person. Heh. I’ve gotten over the weirdness factor, mostly, so if you ask me about something you read on my blog, I promise not to stare blankly at you for too long.

Anything else you want to know about me? Ask away. I don’t promise to answer, but I do promise to at least read the question.

Can’t wait to meet all of you in person on Monday!