God's Delays Are Not God's Denials (I Hope)
Well, another year has come and gone, and (unless one calls between now and midnight) I'm still without a literary agent.
Yes, I know there are far greater tragedies in the world, but I was really hoping this would be the year. In fact, I was drop-dead certain this was going to be the year.
I was wrong.
I'm saving the details of my quest for an agent for a future entry, however suffice it to say that I've been querying, submitting and getting rejected since April. Response to the novel and my writing in general has been consistently positive, but for one reason or another every agent who has read it has decided to "pass"—like it's a bowel obstruction. Who knows, maybe they're all constipated and that's the problem.
I once read that "God's delays are not God's denials." I can't remember where I saw that, but I like to believe it's true. I like to think that the Big Guy is getting things lined up just right so he can do some utilitarian "greatest good for the greatest number".
I like to think that He has His own good reasons for delaying my wishes, and that just because I'm being made to wait longer than I'd like doesn't mean He isn't listening and isn't working on it. (The vision I always get is that of a child tugging on his mother's skirt, trying to tell her his Christmas list, while she's doing more important things--like making the brat's supper.)
So I didn't get my agent this year. Like I said, there are worse things in the world. Rather than dwell on what I don't have and didn't get, let me review for myself some of the things I do have and did get:
1. My health.
2. A beautiful, brilliant wife who, like the Kenny Rogers song says, "believes in me".
3. A completed novel and a second one in its final draft.
4. A swell new apartment in a house in Millbrook, NY—quiet, pastoral goodness in which to write.
5. A brand-new automobile (a silver Honda Accord SE).
6. Loving (and at times, exasperating) parents and siblings who are all still alive and in good health.
7. A handful of best friends, one of whom, the amazing and inimitable Jason Sadofsky, gave me one of the coolest, most awesomest gifts I've ever received: a framed genuine movie poster from the recent James Bond flick CASINO ROYALE. Here's what Jay's gift looks like in my sweet new home office:
Now, like all of us, I'll have to wait and see what 2007 brings. At least I'll have my Bond poster to admire while I wait. I wish you and yours peace, health and prosperity in the New Year.
Thanks for visiting,
Chris Orcutt
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