Being an independent agent is often a fairly lonely experience, so for the past few years I've thrown an agent holiday lunch at my home office.
This year I was really committed to it, so I sent out invites before Thanksgiving, so everyone would mark it down before they got invitations to other parties. I invited 15 agents - three weren't able to make it at the last minute (a former assistant who is teaching grad school now came up with a case of pink eye, which we were very glad he declined to share with us).
So, my offices was closed on Friday, as I cooked and got things ready for our gathering at 1:00. We schmoozed and ate until 5:00. I do appreciate my agent friends, and one of the things I love about us, is even though we all do the same job, none of us do it the same, so we can always learn from each other. We share information and how-to tips, and just a little bit of bitching about the work-load, but we always come away feeling that at least everyone doing what we do is working as hard as we're working.
Saturday I took my son for a new phone and made turkey pot pie with the luncheon left-overs. My best-friend is the New York President of the Drifters, a community non-profit organization, so we went to their holiday fund-raiser at the Cotton Club that night, which was terrific. The house band is awesome, but go now if you're interested, because there's a ferocious battle of eminent domain playing out with Columbia University as I type this (and when you fight authority, authority always wins).
Sunday we got the tree! A full balsam, which is already making the home smell like the holidays. I had dragged the Xmas decorations from the Christmas dungeon on Friday morning (under the delusion that I might be able to clean a house, cook a lunch for 12 and decorate in 4 hours), so we hung those lights and stockings as we watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (can you believe that show is 43 years-old?).
Last year we were late getting the tree, so we bought the last one standing at Stew Leonard's. This year were were early enough to get the tree of our choice, and we're the first one's on our floor with a Christmas wreath on the door. That's kind of nice.
But I only had time to look at two partials this weekend, so I still have a tower in front of me.
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6 comments:
I've wanted a balsam tree for years! Hopefully this year I'll be able to convince the DH. I just love that fragrance!
Put Christmas lights on the tower! Poof! Gone!
:D
We have friends (one of them is a literary agent: OOOPS!)whom we love, but they are't the most, let's say, "ambitious" people. We joke all the time that we did more in one morning than they do in one year (We spent New Year's Eve with them last year and it took one of them a day to hang a wreath). So it's nice hear you're out there, after cooking and cleaning and schlepping, at Stew Leonard's too.
And, with regards to the previous post, good to hear Spender is now an associate. The guy is really so good in the most unexpected ways. You know, writers encounter all types of criticism: agents, editors, amateur book reviewers (they are the worst), etc... And most of that criticism is banal (amateur book reviewers, again) at best and doesn't help make things better. But Spencer has a rare gift of going after problems, and when he criticizes them you know he's right. I only had a brief encounter with him last year, but I knew he'd grow. Good for him; good for you.
It's nice to know you play as hard as you work, Lori. Enjoy the holidays and think of us, your readers and wannabe-published-writers as elves cobbling away on our future bestsellers that hopefully you will guide toward success and mutual fortune.
still toiling away on the vamp-to-answer-all-vamp novels,
JD
Lori:
If you'll take my manuscript, I'll be glad to come clean house, wash dishes, cook, etc. while you read mine and others.
Is that a deal?
Sign me
Desperate in Texas
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