One of the best things about having my very own literary agent is that I can buy books and consider it “research”. I NEED to know what’s happening in the MG/YA market!

That’s Middle Grade and Young Adult for those of you outside the publishing biz.

Anyway, today I found this book -

Louis Sachar wrote Holes, one of the best MG books EVER. And he’s a avid bridge player. I’m sure you know which one I find the most impressive.

This book is about a teenager who’s urged by his mother to help his rich, blind uncle at the bride table. It’s all in a BID, (see what I did there) to ingratiate themselves into his will.

But the best thing about it is that he really explains BRIDGE. It’s a whole book about BRIDGE! You should go right now and get your copy.

Be quick about it. I’m pretty sure it will fly off the shelves.

I went all day without winning a contest, playing bridge OR garnering a great literary review, so I’ve got nothing to share. It’s hard to blog an ordinary life. How DID my brother do it for so long?

Anyway, with nothing exciting going on, I thought I’d show you one of my favorite websites. Trailer Addict is a site of movie trailers. That’s it – trailers. I rarely get to go to the movies but I do enjoy seeing what’s out there. And then I enjoy NOT going to movies.

There’s a lot of scary movies and I don’t do scary movies. Case 39 looks especially creepy. Here’s how it works – I watch the trailer, don’t go see it, read the review, then after it’s been out, read the whole plot on Wikipedia. I get the whole movie AND save 10.00 in the process. I may be a genius. Or at least cheap.

A couple of weeks ago, I won $75.00 from The Pioneer Woman. Last week I received a contract from a literary agent to represent my novel. Today I picked up a partner at a bridge tournament and WON 1.45 points.

I’ll leave you to guess which of the three was the most exciting.

My in-laws are in town and because I’m sweet and totally unselfish, I’ve agreed to let them plan our day. I’m leaving it completely to their discretion. WHATEVER they choose is fine with me.

Did I mention there’s a regional bridge tournament in town?

I don’t even have a partner, but I refuse to let that stop me. Some lucky person, asleep in their hotel room, worn out from the long drive but excited about the prospects of a win, is going to get up in the morning, go down to the partnership desk, and meet me!

Maybe I’ll wear one of my bridge sweaters, that should put them at ease.

AND intimidate my opponents. Win-Win!

I think I’m a fairly simple girl. Sure I complain about my house from time to time – it’s too dark, it’s hard to clean, the closets are small – but for the most part I’m satisfied. I don’t really need anything bigger, and I’m pretty sure I’d be in trouble with a Homeowners Association if I lived in a neighborhood.

But how much is a woman supposed to endure? This morning, I packed up my laptop and headed to the basement where our office is located. Only a portion of the basement is finished. It has a playroom for MP, and an office area for me and JD. The rest is behind a door where there’s no sheet-rock and lots of junk. For the most part I stay out of it. I did, HOWEVER, go into the laundry room to iron a dress for MP before school.

So there I sat minding my business when JD went through the door to the laundry room, then quickly came back into the office.

JD: Don’t open this door!

Me: What is it? Is it a dead rat?

JD: Uh, it’s not anything DEAD.

Me, starting to panic: What is it? A opossum, a live RAT?

JD: Wait here.

No biggie, just a 3 foot snake SKIN. Found in the doorway of the laundry room where I had been IRONING.

I’m pretty sure our neighbors heard me scream. My neighbors in TENNESSEE heard me scream. And I might have stood in my chair. It’s all a blur, really.

The good news is that JD has assured me the snake is gone.

Me: I want you to move all of the furniture, every toy away from the walls and find it!

JD: Honey, it’s so darn big, we couldn’t miss it.

It doesn’t make me feel as good as you might think.

*What the Sam Hill?

I went to a conference this weekend five hours away. Well, it was SUPPOSED to be five hours, but because I was driving with two other women, and we laughed and chatted continuously, it actually took us 7.5. We got lost, turned around for no reason, stopped three times and generally participated in behavior that would have made our husbands insane.

Is it our fault the directions were confusing? 75 North for 340 miles. Everyone at the conference had the same question when told we got lost – HOW?

Whatever, the point is – traveling with women is fun. And exhausting. We were in training all day, every day, then each night we stayed up talking and laughing until almost midnight.

And in between, I proved my brilliance by completing the Genius Determiner game at Cracker Barrel AND kicking butt at Spades.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be sleeping till Tuesday.

The MoonPie wants to be a photographer when she gets older. I don’t know why. It must have something to do with the one work day per month. We had some folks over the other day and she grabbed the camera.

Excellent candid of Kim and I about to whip some serious booty in Play Nine.

Wow, I love the ironic posing of the mug reading “Bodies”, while simultaneously cutting OFF a piece of his body.

Good use of Negative Space! That’s a tough concept for beginners to get – good job MP!

I am pretty sure she has a great future as a photographer.

I’ll start praying for a rich husband now.

Are you sitting down?  Go ahead, I’ll wait. Okay, here goes – I, Zolligirl, am bona fide! Yes, Dear Readers, I have in my hot, little E-mail, an actual contract from a LITERARY AGENT! An real-live person has read my book and wants to represent me! And it’s a real person at a real agency, not some fly-by-night scam artist from Nigeria who needs to me deposit a large sum of money into their account first!

So here’s a THANK YOU to all the little people who helped me along the way.

And by “helped”, I mean provided inspiration for all my wacky characters. Expect no royalties.

MoonPie: God DID give me a spirit of fear.

Me: No, God did NOT give you a spirit of fear.

MoonPie: Then why did he create lions in the first place?

Yeah, I lost. I blame my parents. Why weren’t they holding kittens or feeding each other grapes? Kissing and laughing – that’s so old school.

Okay, I DIDN’T totally lose, I won 75 bucks, but I didn’t win the TOP prize.

Maybe the next contest theme will be “Bitter.” I’ve got my photo all lined up.

*Just kidding. I’m just happy to be nominated.

*Totally false statement in case someone stumbles onto this website other than my family.