I returned home from a writer’s group lunch and was quietly sorting the mail when my husband piped up. “Your agent called.”

“Your agent called” is the sort of message that should be emblazoned across the front door in lights. A skywriter would not be out of order. Any author will tell you phone calls are good news, great news even. E-mails are where rejection lives. So for a second and a half, my ears perked and my tail wagged. “Five-book deal?! Maggie Gyllenhaal is playing me in the movie? I’m being translated into German, right?”

Husband licked his finger and scrubbed something off his desk. “She said happy holidays.”

My tail drooped. “That’s it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Do I need to call her back?”

“Nah, she said the office was closing up.”

Well. It was a nice second and a half while it lasted.

Happy holidays to you and yours.