Without a parachute...

The life of a book is equivalent to a piece of string. How long is the piece of string, you might ask? Well as long as the life of a book.

Yes....exactly.

My first picture book is now out of print. All my other print books are still out there I believe, but I am under no illusion that OOP can strike at any time. When a new book is launched it feels like it is everywhere and then the following month new books are launched and they are everywhere and your book not so much, and the honeymoon can feel, well, over. I am not complaining. I did get the chocolate on the pillow, the romantic pics on the beach, and the late wake up call. So it is rather nice to have reviews still wandering in for a book launched back in March. Thanks to Bookwitch for a nice review of A Winter's Day in 1939 here in the UK. And if you check that book's page on Fishpond NZ there is a great review there too. And I liked this one on Goodreads - short and sweet but quite complimentary really. Each one feels like another lovely surprise chocolate on my pillow.

And in breaking news, it seems a picture book of mine published a few years back may be translated and sold in another country. More news on that when/if it all comes together. Very exciting. I know of other folks whose books have been picked up overseas 5 years after publication. I never give up hope. A short story of mine waited 7 years from acceptance to print. Time becomes Einstein fluid in the publishing world, or perhaps publishing all happens inside the Tardis and who knows what time it is in the world outside. My one regret is that the eternal youth of the space traveller doesn't seem to be applying to me. Anyways... I digress. The answer to how long is the life of a book is patience. My patience has slowly become a well-oiled, efficient little machine: overworked but better at its job than it used to be. It hums along these days, now that I've switched it to the long game setting.

Fellow blogger Maureen Crisp linked to this wonderful piece by Libba Bray; wonderful and somewhat distressing. Ms Bray talks about 'writing despair' - the despair of failing to bend a story to your will and make it work. For all the times we feel this despair and work through it to end up with a story that we are happy with, we know there are no guarantees this will happen next time. We live in fear. We break through and then admonish ourselves for ever thinking we couldn't do it. And then we start all over again. In my writing, like Ms Bray, I am untethered by outlines and structure and Scrivener and rolodexes full of character eye colour, and background, and inside leg measurement. I wing it. Without a parachute. Sometimes this works better than other times. The biggest stumbling block for me is always fear - will I stuff up this great idea. It looks so pretty/smart/elegant in my head but turns in to a hoiked-up fur ball on the page. People who think series or sequels are such a great idea because you already have that world and those characters built be warned - you can no longer bend that world or those wills anew to your own purposes. You made rules last time and now they must be obeyed. And there are expectations. Expectations! If you ever wanted success, know that expectations come with it. And, apparently, fear. The key of course is patience. And I can only hope, for Ms Bray's sake and mine, that the length of the life of the book will be positively influenced by the length of its gestation.

Ideas are cats...

After my first picture book was published (Clever Moo in 2006) I suffered what I think is typical of all newbie authors - the dread fear of pirate Roberts being a one hit wonder (assuming that your first book is some kind of hit ... but that's another story). We've finally submitted something that ticked all the boxes and got the nod. It wasn't one hurdle, it was the 110metre hurdle race and we jumped every one and crossed the finish line. Could I repeat that feat? Thankfully I graduated past that fear. But fear, along with a good dose of insecurity and guilt, is the norm for writers (and I believe, illustrators). We just seem to graduate through a series of them. We are only as good as our last book. Folk seem a little taken with my last book (for which I am extremely grateful). and I have a new title out in Augustish (hmmm, waiting on illustrations) and another new title out July next year (so close and yet so far). But I have no ideas for new projects. If you want to apply for anything - funding grants, residencies etc... you need to show them your flash, shiny, must-happen, brand-spanking, new never-seen-before project. And knowing, as I do, the lead time from idea to writing, to editing, to submission, to rejection/acceptance, to editing and proofing and approval, to publication; a new idea soon would be handy. But my brain is an empty vessel. As I have discovered, you can't hurry ideas. They are like cats. They stand at the back door to go out...and come in...and go out... Cats have their own view of time. They have their own agenda and their agenda will always be more important than your agenda. They grace us with their presence. They only come when they are not called. You get the cat idea.

So I'm sitting here patiently waiting for the cat to come curl up on my lap.

Procrastinator's anonymous...

Just in case you've ever wanted to learn how to do a Standing Back Handspring, here is my eldest showing you how its done. If you are a novice don't attempt this without a trainer. Ideally you and the trainer should be in a gym at the time - preferably one with a sprung floor. There is a hint of an American lilt in my girl's voice. The venue for the video is the home of her host family in Homestead, Florida. Suffice it to say she landed on her feet in more ways than one. She is about half way through her time there.Things are going pretty well.

I have one child back at school and one not due back till next Tuesday. It is February tomorrow. It is fair to say that the fear of the year is now upon me. So many things I want to achieve and I am twiddling my thumbs instead. I am now an expert thumb-twiddler. Sadly there is little call for thumb-twiddling and none that pay. Ah well, off to put some wine in the fridge for later, work my fingers to the bone writing on all three of my current projects.

I'm sorry Madam, that horse was dead some time back...

Finished my last university assignment and posted it off. I had reached that point where I no longer wanted to look at it. It would have to do, as it was. As much as exams can be a drag, when you are writing hell-for-leather trying to show everything you know on the topic in 3 hours or less finesse flies out the window. This can be a good thing. Cos when the assessment is 100% based on assignments where 'theoretically' you have the time to massage and polish your work into a hard shiny gem all that finessing starts to wear you down. I get a related feeling about my creative writing. There comes a point when I feel as if I am polishing for the sake of polishing, editing because other people do 5 or ten edits before they submit it to a publisher, not because it's what the story needs. There are times when I observe other writers still polishing the same story year after year, trying to make it shiny enough to dazzle a publisher. Sometimes this is the right thing to do. A while back I linked to writer Steven Parrish who worked and reworked his story over a number of years until it was accepted. He had faith in his story and feedback he'd received suggested he was close to the mark. But other people are putting a lot of time and energy into polishing pumice - folks that baby is never going to shine. How do you know which group you fall into? It can be incredibly hard to tell. The kind of feedback you are getting might tell you but this is not foolproof. 39 publishers might pass with a form rejection and the 40th publisher will whoop with delight when they read your story and won't be able to ring you up fast enough. Or no amount of rubbing and cutting will make any difference. One thing I can be sure of is that if you want to have a writing career you will need more then one story. If you work on only one story till it is published you will have nothing to follow it up with. Sometimes working on something new will help you see how to fix something old. Sometimes it is your growth as a writer that makes all the difference. Try writing something fresh and new - a little holiday can make all the difference.

On the flip side of the coin sometimes we want to move on but can't get started. Writers are easily frightened by a blank page. They often get that manic stare, that possum-in-the-headlights look (which often precedes that flattened feeling), and have the five coffee jitters. Its closely related to the will-I-ever-get-published-again neurosis. I've been there and knew I needed help when I started looking for strait jackets in my size (10-12 with plenty of room across the shoulders). Experience has taught me that 'dithering' is a normal part of the process. Sure some writers are really disciplined, or like little sausage factories writing vast quantities of words every day and it works for them but I know I will have days where I have nothing to put on the page. And that's ok. Its only not okay when you fret about it. The minute you give your fear some attention it feeds on it and grows like Topsy (name that reference to win a prize of my choosing). Go watch some bad TV or read a bad book. You'll be back at the page in no time knowing you can do better then that.

BTW Nicola Morgan has had some fabulous advice on dialogue on her blog recently. Check it out here and here.