Something I really hate is when someone who interviews you says he/she is going to call you regardless of his/her decision, then doesn’t do it. I don’t blame this person… much. I wouldn’t want to make the rejection call. But dammit, respect me enough to let me know.
On a lighter note, I took a big step. I met Karen Cushman at a conference a couple of years ago, and she recommended her agent to me. So today, I contacted the agency through their website and submitted my book “idea” to them. Of course, I have completed the thing. I’m getting tired of sitting on my ass. I believe in that book. It had been a while since I had looked at it, but I worked on some revisions pretty steadily over the last couple of days. Each time I come back to it after being away for a while, I realize anew how good I think it is. I am very proud of that accomplishment. Those characters became so real to me. I created them, but they seemed to really spring to life and do their own thing. It is hard to explain if you’ve never seen it happen. I used to think writers who talked like that were full of it. Of course you steered your characters — anything else makes no sense. But you know what? When the magic is really working, they start doing things you didn’t expect. And strangers walk into your story and give it life.
Diana Gabaldon divides characters into three categories — mushrooms, onions, and hard nuts. Mushrooms are those great characters that spring up out of nowhere. Onions are characters you work on layer by layer — mostly your protagonist(s). Hard nuts are characters that it is tough get inside of. I can’t think of any of my characters as being hard nuts. A lot of them were mushrooms, though.
Dad says Mom was frisked at the airport. Mind you, someone walked through a metal detector WITH A GUN at this same airport. He realized he still had the gun on him (it was a mistake, and he had forgotten), went to the nearest law enforcement officer. And they gave him a ticket. I am shaking my head. Airport security is still a joke when they’re frisking my mom and letting someone with a gun walk right by.
Well, I need to find out what Professor Snape is going to do to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley for flying to Hogwarts in the Weasleys’ car, and thus confounding Muggle witnesses. Sorry if I ruined anything for you. You all should really read these books. Maybe Steve is right. Maybe they did inspire me to get off my ass with my own book. Well, that and I would like to see if I can get it published and make some money.
Remember that song “Reunited”? Wasn’t that Peaches and Herb? “Reunited, and it feels so good… ” That is how I feel about my book. Like I reunited with it. And it is great to have those crazy people back in my life. Good God, I sound like Anne Rice talking about Lestat. Oh well. I can think of worse things.