stage two - dec 21, 08

back in toronto, still learning how to post a blog. naomi is so far ahead of me in this blogstuff that now i have to get going.
okay. i have this novel. i turned it in to our editor here in canada before going to thailand, and also to our cookbook agent in the states. getting back to canada (ten days or so ago), i have now had a chance to talk with both people about the book. agent didn't like it. spent 30 minutes or so telling me such on the phone, telling me how the characters didn't work for her, etc etc.. but part of me never really thought she would like it. and i was aware while we were talking that she didn't read it very closely. oh well. not everyone will like it.

our editor here in toronto read it much more carefully, as a friend and as an editor. we talked several hours together about it, over lunch. she is not interested in publishing the novel, but was very constructive in her criticisms. when i got home from the lunch, i didn't feel bad. i've never written a novel before, so all this is a "first time" for me. when we work on our cookbooks, the process is very very different.

our friend Anne came over that evening, and we discussed it again. she has read the book several times (thank you! thank you!), and has read it extremely closely. so we talked and talked.

one thing that happens: one reader really likes a character, and for that person the character really 'works." another reader will dislike the same character, and for that reader the character "doesn't work." hm? i guess that my next job - stage two - or three or four - is to sit back, and read back through, now with more voices in my head.

meanwhile, in thailand recently i started on book number two. and already i am "missing" it, because here for a month or so there is too much other work to do, like paying overdue bills and all that garbage.

it's NO FUN when someone doesn't like my novel. but that's life i think. a little thick skin is always a good idea in a freelance life. fingers still crossed about getting this book into print.