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Dreamin' and Squirmin'
The word from Steve Laube, my agent (still feels strange to say that phrase) is that he's got one good strong bite on a new novel of mine, something I call Irresistible Grace (and, in case you're wondering, yes, that is the I in T-U-L-I-P). Simply stated, it's a novel of sin and redemption set right smack in the middle of the Great Plains on one long, extraordinarily cold night. A variety of voices tell the story.
Writing a novel is a painful and blessed business. There's nothing I'd rather do, yet the job empties me; and now, when it's on the desks of eleven publishers (placed there by my agent), its simply being judged that way scares the bejeebees out of me. I've had winners before, but I've had losers too--and I don't want this one to ends its life somewhere in the bowels of this computer.
A novel is expensive to write but even more expensive to lose.
Here's the good news: one of those eleven publishers as much as told us they'd be making an offer. Best case scenario?--another three of four do too, which will allow us to make a choice.
Only once in my life have I had a choice with a book, and that was Things We Couldn't Say. That book has sold 46,000 copies.
I can only dream.
And squirm.
Dreamin' and squirmin'--that's about it.
My life at sixty: "dreamin' and squirmin'." Ought to be a song.
Don't touch that dial.
The word from Steve Laube, my agent (still feels strange to say that phrase) is that he's got one good strong bite on a new novel of mine, something I call Irresistible Grace (and, in case you're wondering, yes, that is the I in T-U-L-I-P). Simply stated, it's a novel of sin and redemption set right smack in the middle of the Great Plains on one long, extraordinarily cold night. A variety of voices tell the story.
Writing a novel is a painful and blessed business. There's nothing I'd rather do, yet the job empties me; and now, when it's on the desks of eleven publishers (placed there by my agent), its simply being judged that way scares the bejeebees out of me. I've had winners before, but I've had losers too--and I don't want this one to ends its life somewhere in the bowels of this computer.
A novel is expensive to write but even more expensive to lose.
Here's the good news: one of those eleven publishers as much as told us they'd be making an offer. Best case scenario?--another three of four do too, which will allow us to make a choice.
Only once in my life have I had a choice with a book, and that was Things We Couldn't Say. That book has sold 46,000 copies.
I can only dream.
And squirm.
Dreamin' and squirmin'--that's about it.
My life at sixty: "dreamin' and squirmin'." Ought to be a song.
Don't touch that dial.
1 comment:
It's like the fog that drifts just feet over the lake...haunting in a way, but amazing and providential to have been the one rowing through it.
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