12 Comments
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Pam Consear's avatar

I'm so sorry for your loss, Steph. 😔 And doesn't it always seem that endings arrive alongside new beginnings? Congrats on signing with an agent!

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Tina G.'s avatar

Beautifully written, Stephanie! Condolences and congrats, my friend 🙏🏾🫶🏾

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Laurie Brown's avatar

Congrats and condolences. The yin and yang of life. And it is only with both that we can have a truly meaningful life.

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Bridgitte Rodguez's avatar

What a beautiful sentiment and way to look at the situation. Echoing the above— bittersweet news all in one— but you have the capacity to find the magic/the joy/the riches everywhere, even in sadness.

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Mikaela Blackler's avatar

I am sorry for your loss, but happy for the literary agent all the same! Congratulations on the latter.

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,Lisa Dunn's avatar

I also see in myself the hope for treasure/magical fulfillment of things in my life and see where it prevented me from knowing what was actually happening, how things really are and making choices based on that. Yet hope is so neccessary! How to use them both to greatest effect...

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,Lisa Dunn's avatar

I'm so excited for you with the literary agent!

I'm so sad for you in losing your father...

Being in the grief/wonder/now - a lovely way to journey through

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Elayne Crain's avatar

Hugs, Peach.

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Alison Krupnick's avatar

I am so very sorry for your loss.

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Katharine Strange's avatar

Life is so many things all at once. I'm so sorry for your loss and so pleased for your gain.

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Jenna Vandenberg's avatar

OMG CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is such huge news. Good luck as you head on out submission.

And I'm so, so sorry about your dad. May you find peace and comfort in these days ahead.

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Stephanie Alter Jones's avatar

Thank you everyone for the love and generosity in your comments. I truly appreciate the community of support. It has been an excruciatingly rough week, featuring flu and cold and grief and...stuff. But also, "my" agent inexplicably pulled out. It is unlikely I will get answers. I'll have some perspective on this in next week's newsletter, but for now, the struggle to live in an "exquisite now" continues...

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