THE DAY
So, as I said, I’m on the road and I spent the day at the Cavalcade of Authors 2016 talking to kids about various writerly things. Having not done this for awhile, I’ve forgotten how much fun connecting with kids, who are really enthusiastic and like what you’ve written, can be. They’re so thrilled to meet you that it’s just plain fun–and it’s rejuvenating, too. You feel special for a day in ways that you don’t when it’s just you, the computer, and the cats.
I’d also forgotten how much fun it can be to connect with other writers. You realize that, yes, you may be having troubles, but other writers really do understand what that’s like–and they’re sympathetic. They want to help. Colleen Houck and I spent a good hour and change talking about publishing in general, my difficulties in particular, and she was so tremendously supportive and encouraging that, after, I felt ten thousand times better. Like…it’s okay to have had such a hard time writing at this point. It’s okay to decide to follow a story I’m passionate about. She shared a couple of her own frustrations and stalls…and it was all good.
In fact, it was so all good that I reached a pretty important decision about the current book. You know, for whatever reason, it’s just not working right now. It would be better to let it rest for a while and come back to it later, at another time when I think I know where it’s going–and go back to another book that I was/am much more passionate about but decided not to finish because, frankly, I got my heart torn out by an editor on this particular proposal. As in, the editor loved the book just as my agent loved/loves the book and I was pretty much promised a contract and perhaps a two-book deal…only to find out three weeks later that the editor at that time didn’t have that kind of power. That was devastating in ways that you might not appreciate. I mean, yeah, what’s one more rejection? Writers get them all the time. But it’s one thing to have a proposal rejected when you’ve either worked with the house or editor before and quite another when it’s a rejection by a relative stranger. The first hurts a hell of a lot more, and that came right on the heels of Egmont’s demise and then the whole move-horror started. So I just decided to put the book away. No good reason. It’s a perfectly fine story I really cared about (although, with some distance, I see what I’d cut out and what I would add), and I cared so much that when an editor I really respect and adore was so enthusiastic but then didn’t even have the decency to tell me that the offer was an overreach . . . it just hurt.
Anyway.
So I talked to the husband this evening, and you know . . . he’s supportive. In his eyes, I’m not worse off going back to a different book than I am in retooling the one I’m working on now.
That’s what I’m going to do then. It’s a good idea. It’ll be a fun book. Now to write it. Going to get started on that when I get back.
So–obviously–no words today.
Anyway, so I gave lectures all day, then did a massive signing event, then gymed, and then out to dinner with some of our terrific hosts. My Friday’s cocktail wasn’t really–just a beer–but I’m planning on the real deal when I get back tomorrow.
Blog Post: 680
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What I’m Watching:
Finished The Newsroom. <sigh> Started the second season of Bosch. Here’s the problem: if you’ve read the books, you know what’s going to happen. PLUS, I can already tell what’s going to happen at the end of the season and I’m not even there yet. So, again, if you’ve read the books, there are no surprises here. Which kind of sucks.
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What I’m Reading:
The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russ; Hitler’s Black Victims by Clarence Lusan.
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What I’m Listening to:
Got to find me a book.
