Links: Opposite Day

Well, this post and its links aren't getting any younger. Better publish it!

Once again, I only made it to a few of the links I tagged last week, but this time the post is proportionately short. Crazy, huh?

As before, they aren't necessarily the best of the bunch. Meh. They are what they are. Hopefully, I'll get better at doing these, with practice.

So. A couple from Hands Free Mama and a few from Query Quagmire. The Hands Free Mama posts are all sweet and heartwarming, the QQ posts... heh. Not... exactly.

Hands Free Mama

"When You Listen to a Child"

Good post, but this is the part where it really started to resonate for me:

"My friends, perfection is not expected on this parenting journey.

You will have days when you are dealing with heavy, soul-crushing issues.

You will have days when nothing you do seems to be good enough.

You will have days when smiles don’t come easily and harsh words are spoken too quickly.

You will have days when you can only do the basics and nothing more.

On those days, I urge you not to say things like, 'I am a failure,' or 'I am a bad parent.'

Instead, I urge you to garner the strength, the patience, the resolve to do one thing … just one thing.

Listen."

"The Song That's Louder Than Regret"

I loved that in the midst of talking about enjoying the moment with your kids, she acknowledged this (not everyone does):

"We know we can’t possibly cherish every moment.

We know it’s not realistic to neglect our life responsibilities to soak up their every word and every expression.

We know that telling ourselves to savor every stage of their childhood is just setting ourselves up for failure.

So what do we do? How do we realistically live life now to avoid the pain of regret later?"

Query Quagmire

"QQ, you know my love for you is as boundless as a Kardashian's lack of shame..."

Now, a silly little one. Query Quagmire has an ongoing thing about Cheez-Its. Recently someone asked her about her favorite flavor. The above is one of my favorites in the later conversation about her reply.

"Is a book more or less likely to be picked up if it's been previously self-published?"

This one isn't as funny, at least not in the same way. It's funny in an "ah yes, I know that bitterness of which you didn't write" sort of way. And though I don't work in publishing myself, it concisely sums up a few of my feelings on self-publishing too, ftw!

"When I send my first query letter out should my novel have a title?"

Language warning, but mwahaha. Here's some of that bitterness.

"There is nothing more annoying than sitting down to respond to a query letter and having to comb through the entire submission looking for a title to include in my letter only to realize there is none. Oh wait, there is something more annoying: when the author then responds to my response to ask which book I was talking about because they submitted multiple projects to multiple publishers."