I'd say this is how I looked this morning when I opened my eyes, but I couldn't open my eyes.
Oh it was a great weekend, yessirree, a nice weekend in which I ate nine pieces of bacon at a Mother's Day brunch.
Then came the day of reckoning, the day I had to suck it up and start approaching (with a whip and a chair) literary agents to "represent" (I hope) my unpublished novel to publishers.
I've gone through this before. Yessirree and Bob. It wasn't exactly my idea of a good time. Unfortunately, my agent and my publisher got so tight with each other that they forgot all about me. It was too sad. I felt burned, not listened to, and sadly sunk back into my cave with scales falling off me.
Fortunately, during this time I wrote three books (two novels and a book of poems). The third one, I think, is the charm.
I wrote this book with the lifting heart of a lover, or of gull's wings scudding the horizon. I almost ran to my computer every day to work on it. Jesus, I loved this book! And given the fact that I had two "well-received" (read: remaindered) novels to my credit, I thought it would be a breeze to sell this one.
That is, until I began the process of trying to get noticed, and slammed into the same brick wall I first encountered in about 1987.
This is not to complain about my lot as a writer. Jeezly, no! What could be better! What could be more fulfilling than pouring out your soul on a piece of paper! To expect people to actually read it, then to expect to be paid for it is the height of arrogance, is it not? Yes, except for J. K. Rowling and Stephen King. We like it that they're famous and rich.
This is just the Mondays, the moondog-days that always follow after nine pieces of bacon. No doubt that many nitrates poison the brain. Are dreams punished in proportion to their majesty? Could be. Why do I keep on doing this? Because I'm good. Oops! Here comes the gorgon. . . arrrrghhh. . . aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
Well, dammit, you are!
ReplyDeleteI'm going thru the same dance, and none of my novels are published. And I hear this from everyone who's trying to break in. I wonder if a writer's co-op is worth looking into. I don't know of any, but if don't exist, maybe it would be worthwhile trying to start one. Some vehicles by which we can help each other find agents, promote each other, critique each other and stab each other in the back...wait, I dunno where that last came from...
How do you make these comments show up? My work is invisible! I'm so inept, I can't seem to deal with the tiniest differences from the salon blog (idiot simple to use, but - too many idiots!)
ReplyDeleteThis thing is still in its infancy, sucking its thumb or maybe not even out of the womb yet. We'll see.
Whattaya mean, Margaret? Yours showed up fine.
ReplyDeleteMy blog on Blogspot hardly got any attention. I've neglected it ever since I started up at Salon. The people who did visit were friends or people whose blogs I visited and left comments on. Dunno how to reach a wider audience. I'm pretty new to the blogosphere, too.