Dear Santa,
I’ve been a good writer this year. I’ve spent a lot of time at the keyboard and learned a bit about the publishing business. As a devoted follower of your blog, I soaked up all your sage advice to aspiring writers. (BTW, I loved Scrooge’s guest post on the sympathetic villain.) Best of all, I’ve made some wonderful writing friends.
I did land on the Naughty List a few times. These were mostly minor infractions—misplaced modifiers, confusing pronouns, and the like. Wow, I can almost see your eyebrows rise up beneath the white fur on your cap. Okay, there may have been bigger issues with my manuscripts. I promise to work harder next year.
I’ve reviewed the Christmas List submission guidelines on your website and believe I’ve followed them to the letter. I haven’t included any attachments, and I edited out the rhetorical question (What does “good” really mean, anyway?”) that appeared in the first draft. The original version of this list did exceed the recommended length, but I’ve since pared it down to just ten items, and here they are:
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| 1. Time to write. The guilt-free kind is best, but I’ll take whatever I can get. |
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| 2. This nightshirt. |

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| 3. A deluxe librarian action figure. Comes complete with book cart and finger-to-lip shush action. |

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| 4. Hassle-free computers and printers. A year free of blue screens, paper jams, and dried-up ink cartridges would be heavenly. |
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| 5. This tree ornament. It says, “Once upon a time . . . there was a beautiful and extremely gifted writer . . .” |

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| 6. Any of Grammar Girl’s books. |

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| 7. A smidgen of good luck. Maybe one of your elves could make sure that my manuscript magically rises to the top of an editor’s to-be-read pile?
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| 8. Writing pants. Any color, extra-comfy, please.
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| 9. This throw pillow for my desk chair. |

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| 10. A new pair of ruby slippers. |

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Thanks for your consideration. I look forward to seeing evidence of your existence under my tree Christmas morning.
Gratefully yours,
Anne
So, that’s a peek at my wish list. I’d love to hear what’s on yours.
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For me, how about an editor of my very own? And then for a large, devoted fan base. Hey, I can wish, right?
Super cute blog. And I’m really diggin’ the typewriter ornament.
Wish away, Shea! Good things come to those who ask.