Dear Literary Loves,
Well, lots happening on the writing front. One agent has the full manuscript and now, two editors have asked to review the full manuscript as well. Here's the thing: So I'm out having lunch with my husband, The Brewster, yesterday and we are chatting about everything and my mother. I tell him I am soooooooooo disappointed with one of my formerly favorite authors. And he's like, "What happened to her? And by the way, did you hear what happened at one of my former tech companies?" "Well, no", I say, "But first, I really liked this author when she was living among the cheap seats, barely scraping by, and selling her Gucci handbags on eBay to pay her rent. THEN, I picked up her next book which had come out in paperback thinking oh, this is going to be a scream".
No it wasn't a scream; in fact, I was mortified because now that she's got a couple of books under her belt, she's becoming Ms. Self-Entitled. "Really", says the Brewster. "How?" he questions "Oh, for crying out loud, she's lamenting about her Cadillac Escalade, buying a house in a ritzy suburb, and for heaven's sake, she's hiring people to come pick up her dog's poop in the yard!" "Damn", says the Brewster, "that's just asinine arrogance". So I hand over the book to him so he knows which author I am speaking of and he randomly starts reading from the book. "Well", he says, "she's definitely no-nonsense like you, but really, her pretentiousness gets on my nerves so I see why you think she is losing her edge." "Losing her edge?! She's not only losing her edge; she's lost the whole damn knife sharpener!" I return. "Plus", I say, "she's losing her feel for being of the people, by the people, and for the people for crying out loud!" "Well,"says the Brewster, "she's definitely becoming snarky. So if she can make loads of sales on books with this kind of stuff, you should have no worries". I'll believe that when I have an agent and a book deal I think
So then the Brewster is telling me about how the tech company where we met has just laid off another 120 employees. "That's not shocking", I begin, "because they are headed in the WRONG direction technically and they needed to diversify their product base twelve years ago when you left. Have they done that still? No; therefore, they are seeing their market share circling the drain." "I couldn't agree more", says the Brewster. "I tried to help them be open-minded about the need for immense data that people would want via their phones and laptops, but who am I? Just an electrical engineer with a PH.D who knows the market so really, what the hell do I know?" he says laughing. "Do you think they will find their way back?" I query. "Only if they get the right people in the right positions; you can't build quality product without experienced engineers and you ain't getting this experienced engineer without forking over some serious moolah, you know what I mean?" says the Brewster. I hold up my sweet tea and we toast to being a rebel, an independent, and in my case, deuces are wild.
So anyway literary loves, I am keeping myself above the hoopla, understand? I am keeping myself among the people because if you ever get to the point where you think you are so good that you no longer need to be among the common folk, you are probably going to lose your edge in publishing or that's my opinion. The Brewster asks me about "the author" in Atlanta. Now we know who "the author" is because that's how we refer to her. "Well, here's the thing", I lament, "she's a year and a half late on her next book for crying out loud!" "And how does her editor feel about this?" asks the Brewster. "I don't know how her editor feels, but I am royally pissed and you know why? Because in the year and a half that she has been late on her next book, I have written two books and am still awaiting a publisher!" "Life is so not fair", says the Brewster. "You are telling me baby because I am on writing like butter on bread; like my Mustang on I-85 north/south, understand?!" I lament. "No worries", says the Brewster, "you'll smoke their asses once someone does discover you". "Ahhh, Brewster", I say, "you really know how to make a girl's day".
That's it from the literary trenches for today lovies!
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