Downs and ups...

Yesterday was sort of a sad day. I and a colleague have put together a manuscript for a course that we both teach, and have been using the manuscript with our students for the past 3 years or so. And it works great, and the students love it, and so do we... So of course, I strongly believe that this could be a best-sellers on the textbook market, and set off to find a publisher. I must give credit to the rep. of a company that said he had no textbook of the type to offer to his clients and he basically told me that I should write it and it would sell. Which I did.
Now, one company turned me down rapidly, then a second took the time to thinks and then said no. A third company looked at it and it looked promising, but alas! they declined. So I went back to the second company with help from another rep., who talked to the acquisition editor, and we had a great meeting, she fell in love with the project, and we got going... She did her number crunching, her viability research as for as markets were concerned, sent a sample chapter to 8 reviews, and all seems to be going the proper route... until she changed position in the company. The new acquisition editor told us he'd go along with the project too. We met with him in April, set a to-do-list of revisions to the manuscript based on the reviews. And my colleague and I set out to do the rewrites this summer. And we have been working hard at this until yesterday... when the editor told us that the project was probably not viable and he is putting an end to it.
It felt like a punch in the stomach... it's my baby... it is a great project.
At the same time, it has a taste of freedom... now we can do minimal changes to get the text ready for our classes in August, and actually enjoy the rest of the summer without pressure.
Mixed emotions...
I have yet to answer to his email. 

On the up side, my girl, who is 2 1/2 this month, is an outdoorsy person. Her first words in the morning, after asking for milk, is either I want to go outside (maman, I wanna go dehors!) or to go to the park (maman, I want park!).
This morning at daycare, her educator told her there was no park today because she had to leave the premises for a couple of hours. The other educator, in the older group, was taking her kids to the park and to the sprinklers. She saw how sad my little one looked, left the room for a minute, and told me upon returning that she had permission to take her along... B. let out a cry of joy and ran to go get her 'maillot' (swimsuit). Bless that woman - it is a little gesture, but my girl is in heaven, and I am so grateful that she'll have a happy day. The reality is that she still would have been happy had she not gone to the park, but the kindness is good to my heart. Thanks D.!