Author Contact

I went to a distant relative's wedding shower yesterday.
It was interesting - when they were opening the gifts, the hostess started a game where the person whose gift had just been opened had to make a wish for the next person whose gift was about to be unwrapped - without knowing who the next person was to be.
When my family's turn came, I wished for the next person to experience "wild passion" - a suggestion that elicited much laughter when the wizened grandmother of the bride stood up next to watch her gift being opened. The rest of the party didn't pass so smoothly, I was snubbed by both Sister #1 and my grandmother, and returned home in a bad mood.

I've tried posting on authors' blogs now - Jennifer Macaire and Catherine Collins have both replied, and Robin Hobb (Robin - freakin' - HOBB!) replied to my posts on her message board. I posted on Elizabeth Bear's LiveJournal today, but I was a little intimidated - all the other commentators appeared to be published authors as well, who knew Ms Bear a great deal longer than I have (I have not, as of yet, had the chance to actually read any of her books, but I have heard of one [Hammered, which was mentioned in Locus]), but I am automatically admiring of anyone who has managed to garner fame in the fantasy/science fiction genre. Is this wrong? I just hope she isn't insulted that a teenage girl who still lives in a pink bedroom with teddy bears in her parents' house dared to post on her Journal.

Also, on the Spider-Man movie website, they've officially announced Thomas Hayden Church is cast as Sandman for Spider-Man 3. Expectedly, the messageboards proceeded to erupt into chaos, and I and a few others have felt it necessary to try and restrain the swearing-matches and fan-boy chest-thumping that has resulted.

I'm still trying to write the second draft for "Desert Muse". It's fairly easy for me to rewrite the first halves of my stories, but for the latter halves (which are invariably better-written), I'm often lazy and resort to copy-and-pasting large passages into the second draft instead of rewriting those parts. Should I rewrite first-draft passages even if I think they're already good enough?