I officially have a small handful of protégés. It's true. Three beautiful, young ladies who play soccer undefeatedly, bravely admit to fearing the dark and LOVE a good yarn, especially the kind that makes them afraid of the dark. The leader of this pack has decided that she can get them published when they finish writing their first novel, presently entitled Ghostville. Where does an eight-year-old get such confidence, one might ask. Well, unlike some other wanna-be authors in her class, SHE has connections. Or so she thinks.
This novel is still very excitingly in the conceptual, wow!-I-can’t-believe-we-didn’t-think-of-doin-this-sooner stages, and so I tried not to eavesdrop as they did a phone conference wherein they were deciding who was going to be in charge of what. Antonia, their fearless leader and “expert,” has determined that maybe they should leave Chapter 1 up to her since it’s the most integral part. I couldn’t really tell you much more about their dispersal of writing responsibilities because the focus of the conversation immediately switched gears… they NEEDED the sage wisdom of yours truly.
“Mom, can you tell us how to start our novel?”
Mom thinks about it here and decides that it’s a very loaded question and maybe we need to pow-wow or hold a small workshop over the weekend because it took her quite a few YEARS and several hundred novels read to figure this one out herself. But instead, Mom says, “Oh, well… start it with some action. Something that will make the reader excited to read sentence number two and three and so forth. You know, like the kind of stuff YOU like to read.”
I got a blank stare because Antonia didn’t know how to translate this to her co-authors on hold. “Here,” she says, handing me the receiver. “Can you tell them?”
“Sweetie,” I said, “You guys just do the best you can.”
“And it will get published?”
“Uh… I didn’t say that.”
“So, like, we need help getting PUBLISHED, Mommm.”
So, like, here is the deal, people. I am going to PUBLISH their finished story right here. On my website. For AAAALLLLL of the wide, computer-owning, internet-running world to see.
Stay tuned!!!
This novel is still very excitingly in the conceptual, wow!-I-can’t-believe-we-didn’t-think-of-doin-this-sooner stages, and so I tried not to eavesdrop as they did a phone conference wherein they were deciding who was going to be in charge of what. Antonia, their fearless leader and “expert,” has determined that maybe they should leave Chapter 1 up to her since it’s the most integral part. I couldn’t really tell you much more about their dispersal of writing responsibilities because the focus of the conversation immediately switched gears… they NEEDED the sage wisdom of yours truly.
“Mom, can you tell us how to start our novel?”
Mom thinks about it here and decides that it’s a very loaded question and maybe we need to pow-wow or hold a small workshop over the weekend because it took her quite a few YEARS and several hundred novels read to figure this one out herself. But instead, Mom says, “Oh, well… start it with some action. Something that will make the reader excited to read sentence number two and three and so forth. You know, like the kind of stuff YOU like to read.”
I got a blank stare because Antonia didn’t know how to translate this to her co-authors on hold. “Here,” she says, handing me the receiver. “Can you tell them?”
“Sweetie,” I said, “You guys just do the best you can.”
“And it will get published?”
“Uh… I didn’t say that.”
“So, like, we need help getting PUBLISHED, Mommm.”
So, like, here is the deal, people. I am going to PUBLISH their finished story right here. On my website. For AAAALLLLL of the wide, computer-owning, internet-running world to see.
Stay tuned!!!
I found you! Thanks for the email. I was so excited to find your new blog that I never finished e-mailing you back. Just wanted to get over here as quickly as possible. You'll have to tell me sometime what made you make the switch over here to Blogger. I got a domain name for Christmas from the hubby. Wasn't that nice? Pretty soon I'll be blogging on my OWN site.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to still read your book. It sounds wonderful. Take care...I'm writing you during the awful halftime show of the Rolling Stones during the SuperBowl and it's almost over. See ya round the blog.
Hey Kelly,
ReplyDeleteGlad you made it! Yes, the halftime show had much to be desired, didn't it?!
As for why I switched to Blogger, I didn't like that a person had to be an MSN member to leave a comment. And I think (if a person knows how to run template jargon) there are lots more options in terms of what you can do with your blog.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by!