Such a great year. Does any first-time novelist have any reckoning about what their first few month will really be like? It is hard to realize that Hooker & Brown has only been out for three months. It is like the birth of my daughter - it feels like an eternity since she was born (two years now) but it is all vivid.
So many ups and downs, but mostly ups. Even over the Christmas-party season here, I have been approached by people that I never would have thought would buy my book, and like it. But there it is… standing by a fridge (as you do) and hearing the softly spoken golden words .. “I love it, I can’t wait to get home to read more.”
I will say that I wish I could get more feedback, not only from readers (and I think I’ve made myself as accessible to them as I can, via the website and all) but also from magazines and reviewers. My publisher has told me that the Boardman-Tasker award proceedings actually have driven a lot of requests for review copies. Now this is to say nothing. The effects of this may take months. (No different from anything in the publishing industry!) But it will be interesting to see how that interest all pans out.
2009 was an amazing year for me. This time last year I was fretting over last minute edits, which would prove to extend into a four month-longer edit cycle. But for the best. The novel is all better for it, even though it predicted its almost death! And another, mostly solid, eight short-stories written. Considering that my goal is one solid a month, and I slaved over the novel edits so much, that’s not so bad!
And tonight I am sending off Christmas Presents - short stories, unpublished - to a select group of readers. It is a young but good tradition. Since I think that nobody reads this blog, post a comment and leave your email and I will grace you with my new work. Just like that.
The other thing about this year was getting dragged into the mill of publicity and publication, when really, we all want to stay writing. Gotta keep dreaming…
