Inspiration to keep on writing...

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=10803&cpage=1#comment-80641

Author writes children's book.
Nobody wants to publish it. It remains unpublished.
A string of events brings the manuscript into the hands of a child.
Ten years later, child (now young adult) writes an e-mail to the author telling her how the book changed her life.
Get some tissues ready.

Plot and Pitch

Novel plots and pitches follow pretty predictable formulas, but it's not so easy to find those formulas summarized simply.  This website does a fabulous job of it: http://www.iggiandgabi.com/2010/05/abcs-of-writing-a-pitch/.  Yep, the ABCs of writing a pitch.  It makes the incredibly difficult job of summarizing your 40,000-100,000-word novel in 300 words much less daunting.  I still haven't figured out how to summarize any of my novels in one sentence, though.  Any pointers?