VIETNAM, REVISIONS, AND WHAT TO DO WHEN WAITING

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!!

Devoured: If you put me on the spot and demand to know my favorite author, I'd say Kristin Hannah. I fell in love with her books in my early twenties, and as I've matured so has her storytelling. Over the last week, I ripped through The Women, her latest release. It tells the story of the women in Vietnam, following the experiences of one nurse, Frankie. It's captivating. Devastating. Heartwarming. The beginning slowed down a bit with feelings of “ugh, how will Frankie's life get better???” but had me sobbing happy tears by the end. I love reading historical fiction to feel the events I'd once learned about. This one had me thinking a lot about my own family history, and how until reading this book I couldn't really feel what my Pops (my mom's dad) went through as a Marine in Vietnam or coming home to an America that didn't see his sacrifice – and the residual affects of that for me my aunts, uncles, granny and mom, too. This is why we read!!!

What I'm writing: Well, after almost 3 years That Novel is officially out of my hands and into her next stage of life. I'm not going to go into the details (yet) about what this means and what's happening, because it's too vulnerable of a process...but, say a wish, prayer, light up a candle for me that there's good news in these next few months for my writing. In the mean time, I'll share with you what I wrote to my writing coach yesterday when I submitted the manuscript to the next part of her voyage, “We had a saying in my old volleyball days to “leave it all out on the floor” - because that way whatever the outcome, whether you win or lose, you can feel good about how you showed up for the process. I can say, with complete confidence, that I gave this f*cking thing everything I had. Whatever happens from here is whatever happens from here. And I’m making time today to celebrate that :)”

WOMEN'S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history. A few for the canon: “If you like where you are why regret how you got there.” – Jeannette Wells At the Savannah Book Festival (my favorite weekend of the year!) Jeanette Wells gave a keynote address that was entertaining and inspiring. She said she wrote Glass Castle (which spent 9 years on the bestseller list) in 6 months and revised it for 5 years. It reminded me that good things take a lot of time, even though we're used to responses and feedback and outcomes now now now. Slow down. Keep going. And then keep going some more.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine: That last two weeks of my life getting That Novel ready for submission have been grueling amounts of work (but exciting). 100% of my free time was devoted to these tedious changes. Like doing a command+F to see how many times I started a sentence with “Luckily,” (it's more than I'd like to admit). Or catching when I wrote “OK” here but “okay” over here. Or why in gods name I'm using “theatre” (the British spelling) instead of “theater” (how we Americans write). Which says nothing of the important work I was doing on varying chapter openings, handling all of my agents editorial notes, writing in character descriptions (because apparently I need to tell my reader what they look like, but what they look like should say something of their character too) etc etc etc. SO, this weekend after I printed it one last time, and read it one last time, and fixed what I found one last time, I pressed send. Then poured some champagne, and reveled in what I'd accomplished these last three years. I took myself on a walk the next day, thinking about my main character and going to a spot in Savannah to visit with her spirit (she was a Southern woman of historical consequence) and as I'm thinking this, I look up, and I see a man running by with “Helpful Hands” written on the back of his shirt, the same name of a club she started in her youth (and in chapter 3 of my book). My main character is very with me, and I love how much she happy-haunts me in all the best ways ;) I can't wait for you to meet her!

xx