April 29, 2017
Monthly Author Check-In: April 2017
What I’m Writing: The Private Life of Jane Maxwell
What I’m Reading: The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore / The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
What I’m Loving: NBC’s Powerless, which is vastly underappreciated.
WIP Excerpt
“Hey, but on the plus side,” Cal said, with entirely too much cheer, “you’re in for some great eats! Juanita makes a mean lobster bisque.”
Devin snorted. “You know that’s not really her name, don’t you?”
“What?” Cal said. For a terrifying moment, Jane thought that he was going to turn around to boggle at Devin—but just then a gray sedan with a pile of kayaks strapped to its roof swerved, cutting them off. Jane braced herself, but Cal had the situation well in hand.
“Yeah. That’s just what she lets you call her.”
Cal frowned. “Nah, man. I visit her all the time when we’re up there.”
“For the free food.”
“No! Well—yeah, sure. It’s damn good. But me and ’Nita, dude, we’re tight.” He took his hand off the wheel, crossing his fingers as he waved them in Devin’s direction.
“Uh-huh. Tell me, how many kids does she have?”
“Shit, you can’t expect me to remember something like that,” Cal said. He glanced over his shoulder at the approaching traffic, hopping lanes as he attempted to get back ahead of the kayak-happy sedan, which had greatly reduced its speed now that it was in the lane it wanted.
“Cal!” Amy shouted. “The exit!”
Research pile
I’m at the point in my book where I am doing a million things all at once. Researching the climatic sequences of superhero movies, and pouring over history books about comic franchises for Easter Egg names; trying to finalize the last two superhero names and one more villain’s name; reading my book out loud to get a feel for how the pacing and plot arcs progress; editing, editing, editing, as a result of my read-through; trying to figure out which ’90s girl-movie was Jane Maxwell’s favorite when she was a teenager. Some of these things are large-scale work, and some of them are the last tiny details; it’s funny how often those two get jumbled up right at the end. But this is a familiar feeling—it means that my book will be published soon. I already sent out the first cover reveal to my mailing list, and the public reveal on the blog is coming May 1st(!), so be sure to check back! Graeme is starting to work out details of the interior layout, though the bulk of that work is still waiting on near-finalized text.
I hope that this feeling never gets old. I hope that I am still publishing books in 10, 15, 20 years, the process as familiar as worn leather, and that it still brings me joy every time. Because 4 books in, it is still bringing me joy. So, so much joy. I hear all of the time how stressful publishing is, and I guess I can understand it, I mean, there’s a lot to keep track of. There’s a lot of work involved, especially when you’re doing it yourself instead of going to a publishing house. But, oh! It does not feel like work. At this stage I want nothing more than to work all day, stopping only long enough to eat. This is play. This is creativity and collaboration and expression. This is, quite possibly, my very favorite stage of the process.
Oh, who am I kidding? They’re all my favorite. Being an author is honestly the best job in the entire world.