March 1st is the read-by date for the novel I’ve been working on, and the beta readers have, thus far, been very kind.
It’s a fantasy novel. The kind of thing that spins (conceptually) in the same orbit as Princess Mononoke, also a road trip movie, and there’s a depressed talking bird.
Assuming the end of beta reads has me feeling the same sort of way, I will likely do another editing pass and then start to submit the book places. Perhaps it is my literature-oriented upbringing, perhaps it is vanity, but I want to throw myself at the traditional publishing world rather than self-publish. I just really like getting emails that say, in so many nice words, “no thanks.”
I had a couple of people mention that they’d see the novel as nearly a YA book, and I’ll admit my first reaction was not one of joy. Talking animals aside, the subject matter is pretty intense. But I’m trying to be open-hearted about it. The Hobbit was a children’s book, after all.
[in this moment I would rather die]
the next thing!
In the time I gave my beta readers to read, I decided to fiddle with a new idea. This fiddling led to what is now a second novel, which I finished on the 9th of February.
That book, whose elevator pitch is essentially “it’s Everything Everywhere All At Once meets The Once and Future King + John Constantine,” has just been printed for $42.38 and I will probably give it a read in a couple of days.
If the whole thing turns out to be an indiscernible mess, I won’t be too upset (I will be). After all, I didn’t intend to write this one when I started it, and I’m not too attached (I am) to the characters or the idea or anything. Writing 1,000 words a day (a thing I have copied from Neil Gaiman) is a great way to crank things out, I guess.
Right now, I’m feeling really good about the new book. Especially because Nic Cage is in it. Always a good time when you can put him in something.
Let’s see, what else is new.
I have an ear infection.
I’m fiddling with the next novel idea because I have a problem really enjoy writing things.
In my endeavor to become an old man, I have recently purchased a subscription to the New York Times. Just the Sunday edition, and the first issue was lovely in the sort of way something full of terror and pain and crosswords can be lovely. I have written down a line from this opinion piece by Ammar Azzouz that I think will become a poem soon:
“I lost an entire city once.”
That’s probably all for now.
I am, allegedly, going to attempt my next novel manuscript with a fountain pen and paper. Updates on that as it goes on (I guess I will ruin 2 pairs of pants by the end of this)
(Neil Gaiman is to blame for that idea, too)