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May 02, 2005
things to be thankful for, and stuff I'm worried about
I have book contracts. I am thankful for those contracts, because they mean that publishers have faith in my ability to write a novel and tell a story that people will want to read.
My book contracts worry me. For example: My publisher handed me a large amount of money (a respectable six figure sum) for Queen of Swords. That money has already been divided up between mortgage and utility bills and college saving plans, and now I must deliver a book that is between 250,000 and 300,000 words long. By October 1, or thereabouts.
I am thankful for the work and for the money and the confidence, and I am worried. I am always worried. Can I pull it off this time, and what if I can't?
The answer: I have to.
Four times in the past I have managed to do what needed to be done. Each time it felt harder and more of a hurdle. This time, the fifth book in the Wilderness series, is worse. Sometimes it feels like I'm hiking up Everest with a piano on my back. I think it is harder this time because it may be the last book in the series, which means I have to bring everything to a close that will satisfy me, and the publisher, and the readers.
I am thankful for my readers, and to be truthful: you scare me.
So I'll push on tomorrow, and hope for a thousand or two or three thousand solid words, and hope for the best. With any luck the next time you check back here you'll find me in a more optimistic, cheerful mood. I'll do my best.
07:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
elves to the rescue
I love this so much, I thought it would cheer me up (and maybe you, too, after my last entry) so I'm rerunning this post from a long time ago.
Once I had a collection of writing-related cartoons that made me happy. How I lost them isn't important, and there is some good news: Robyn has come to my rescue and she doesn't even know it. She sent me a link to the absolutely essential Philosophy Comix website, and on that page is a link to a repository of lost masterpieces, the Cartoonbank.com site. By plugging a few words into the advanced search screen I found my all time favorite cartoon by Tom Cheney. In case you can't read the caption:
This is going to be a tough fix. He's completely obscured the main character's plausible motive for revenge by overdeveloping the setting and peppering the entire chapter with irrelevant flashback narratives.I'm ordering a print, and you can too, or a t-shirt, even.