Everybody should write a book.\u00a0 Wait \u2013I think they already have.\u00a0 There\u2019s\u00a0too much to read these days.\u00a0I can\u2019t keep up, I can\u2019t read half of what I\u2019d like to, and still the words keep coming!\u00a0\u00a0Everybody knows somebody who has written a book.\u00a0 Can this be a good thing?<\/p>\n
Absolutely!\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful thing.\u00a0\u00a0Everybody can publish a book these days.\u00a0 Our forbears would be amazed.<\/p>\n
But who is going to read them all?\u00a0 Who has the time or the desire?<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s not the quantity of books we read, but the quality.\u00a0 We should read what compels us.\u00a0 Which may or may not be what our friends are reading or what the bloggers are blogging about.\u00a0 Or what the New York Times says are the best-sellers. \u00a0\u00a0Or what the ladies in the book club vote to read (which is almost never the book that I want to read, but the majority rules.)<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a fast reader.\u00a0 I could never be a professional book reviewer.\u00a0 I like to read slooooowly, savoring every sentence.\u00a0 What I like best is to read a page and then reflect on it, maybe the rest of the day.\u00a0 The stack of books on my nightstand has long overflowed to the floor and continues to grow, like stalagmites, surrounding the bed.\u00a0 My e-reader contains hundreds of books, quite a number of them free downloads, that I can\u2019t possibly read, because I keep adding more.\u00a0 Not to mention, all those old favorites I\u2019d like to read again, and some of the classics I missed along the way.<\/p>\n
I always read my favorite contemporary novelists, but sometimes their new releases disappoint me in a vague way.\u00a0 Like they were trying to produce a best-seller instead of what they were compelled to write. \u00a0And then there are the new voices, what we used to call \u201cthe literary brat pack,\u201d who are no longer brats, but old men\u00a0 now.\u00a0 What happened to them, I wonder?\u00a0\u00a0Did they burn out on cocaine?\u00a0 Did they run out of words?\u00a0 No time to look them up.<\/p>\n
I try to stay current with the new releases, but I’m hopelessly behind. Often, I start a novel, find it good, but don\u2019t finish it.\u00a0 Because it didn\u2019t really engage me.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t speak to me, I didn\u2019t connect with the author, or give a shit about what happened to the characters. \u00a0Sometimes I give these books another go.\u00a0 Sometimes I just give them away.<\/p>\n
As a writer, I find the surfeit of books and blogs to be daunting.\u00a0 With so many people writing and publishing, who is going to read my<\/i> books?\u00a0 Many of my author friends voice the same sense of insignificance.\u00a0 What do we do in response?\u00a0 We all become social hucksters, hawking our product on facebook, twitter, tumblr, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and every other virtual street corner that pops up.\u00a0 Most of us are spending\u00a0way too much\u00a0time shouting to the universe, READ MY BOOK!\u00a0 I\u2019LL GIVE IT AWAY IF YOU JUST READ IT AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND POST A REVIEW!\u00a0 LIKE MY AUTHOR PAGE!\u00a0 LIKE LIKE LIKE.\u00a0 I\u2019m guilty of this too.\u00a0 It\u2019s pathetic, really, when what I really want to\u00a0do is write write write.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it feels like I\u2019ve managed to get myself invited to\u00a0a swanky party where everyone around me is talking at the same time, and I\u2019m trying to decide who to listen to, but nobody cares if I’m listening or not.\u00a0\u00a0So I gulp my\u00a0wine and make my way to\u00a0the powder room.\u00a0 Sometimes I go outside, looking for the little klatch of smokers, even though I don\u2019t smoke.\u00a0\u00a0Among the smokers, or\u00a0in the privacy of the ladies room, I invariably run into another soul, somebody with a nicotine habit, or social anxiety, or maybe they just needed to use the toilet.\u00a0 It\u2019s in one of these\u00a0places, away from the deafening din of the party, \u00a0where I often have a brief but meaningful exchange with another human being.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot a light?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBrrrr! \u00a0It\u2019s freezing out here!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me, but this stall is out of toilet paper, can you hand me some under the door?\u201d<\/p>\n
And for a moment we are intimate.\u00a0 We hear each other, we connect.<\/p>\n
Which is what writing, for me, is all about.<\/p>\n
These day I\u2019m not just a writer, I\u2019m a publisher as well.\u00a0 My latest novel, Looking for Redfeather<\/i>, a coming-of-age road trip story, was recently released under my own imprint, Fiction House, Ltd.\u00a0 I had an agent who believed in Redfeather<\/i>, but he was unable to find any of the major players in today\u2019s publishing society who liked it as much as he did.\u00a0 We had some good feedback, like, \u201cI loved the author\u2019s voice\u201d, or \u201cwell-written and engaging,\u201d but when push came to shove, there were no zombies, no S&M \u2013there wasn\u2019t even a body in the trunk!\u00a0 The big houses he pitched it to were looking for high concept novels, the more shocking and\u00a0outrageous, the better.<\/p>\n
Like the coming-of-age movies, American Graffiti<\/i> and The Diner<\/i>, Looking for Redfeather<\/i> is somewhat episodic and contains no special effects.\u00a0 It’s just a story about some kids living their life on a typical Saturday night.\u00a0 Only Looking for Redfeather<\/em> takes place over two weeks instead of one night. \u00a0Spoiler:\u00a0 Unlike the American road trip movies, Easy Rider<\/i> and Thelma and Louise<\/i>, no one\u00a0dies in a fiery blaze.\u00a0Ramie, Chas and LaRoux live through the book.\u00a0 They don\u2019t kill themselves and they don\u2019t kill each other.\u00a0 Yet they are changed.\u00a0 The three teens, each on the run, have an experience on the road that changes them forever.\u00a0 It\u2019s called growing up.\u00a0 Coming of age.<\/p>\n I loved these three characters, Ramie, Chas and LaRoux.\u00a0 It took me nearly six years to write their story and I was not willing to forget it.\u00a0 I wanted these kids to have a chance.\u00a0 Their story is, in some ways, a tribute to my own children; to my nieces and nephews and grandchildren\u00a0\u2013to myself \u2013for playing the cards that fate dealt us.\u00a0 All families are\u00a0fucked up, but there are varying degrees.\u00a0 I think people relate to that.\u00a0\u00a0I do.<\/p>\n In 2007 I wrote the first draft of Looking for Redfeather<\/i> in thirty days, during National Novel Writing Month, which happens every November.\u00a0 At the time, I was on the road promoting my first novel, Star-Crossed<\/i> \u2013nautical historical fiction Knopf had published as a young adult novel. \u00a0\u00a0Star-Crossed<\/i> had taken six years to complete, so writing a novel in 30 days sounded terrifying, in a thrilling sort of way. \u00a0\u00a0I had to do it.\u00a0 In writing the first draft so fast, I was able to capture\u00a0 the exuberance of the characters and the energy of the story.\u00a0 The re-writes and editing would take me another six years. \u00a0Six years seems to be my time frame.<\/p>\n Apparently in this brave new world authors\u00a0 have to be marketers, event-planners, and sales people as well as writers.\u00a0 I’m doing it, but it’s wearing me out.\u00a0 I refuse to spend any more time and energy in the social media marketing scene.\u00a0 I find Goodreads to be overwhelming. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ve got a giveaway for Redfeather <\/i>on Goodreads now, but I have a feeling it won\u2019t reach the right readers.\u00a0\u00a0(sighs and shrugs) We\u2019ll see.\u00a0 \u00a0Facebook is fun –but\u00a0it’s mostly for looking at my friends\u2019 grandkids and cats,\u00a0and reading political rants.\u00a0 I tweet, yes, but who hears me?\u00a0 Who cares?<\/p>\n After much trial, error and a lot of wasted time, I\u2019ve decided I\u2019m going to market my books the same way I try to buy my food.\u00a0 Locally.\u00a0 I\u2019ll market to my family and friends, and to the community \u2013including my local independent book stores, which I, in turn, support. \u00a0Buy local, eat food in season, read local \u2013that\u2019s my new motto.\u00a0 You’ll see me on social media, but not so much.\u00a0 I’m going to avoid the big parties.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have the right clothes and\u00a0I don’t know the right people.\u00a0 From now on, I’m making my own party.\u00a0 We’ll see who shows up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everybody should write a book.\u00a0 Wait \u2013I think they already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-publishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1716"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1719,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions\/1719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}