Pause to Reconsider

“This is the book that won’t let go/no it hangs on and on my friend….”

There are so many parts that I love about D:F, and only a few that I don’t – maybe letting it go is not as easy as I thought. Sure, ideas are coming for book two; but ideas are coming for book six, too. I’m sure I could pick any point in the series and start writing.

There may be recourse: my academic advisor has already assured me he would be thrilled to read my manuscript and give me advice (an advisor who advises? Where do you find such people?) on not only the book, but on crafting a query letter as well.

The problem, loyal followers (and those just passing by my street corner), is that book one is the start of the series. In case I get published, I can’t say much more than that. But there are some very important things in D:F that carry through, that’s rather important for the reader to have before moving on. Let me put it another way: I get the sense that, if one reads D:R first – and then D:F – D:F will sound like a prequel. And the plot of D:R doesn’t really, really allow me to move the info from D:F to D:R.

Another problem is, I’m just not cocky enough to think I got this thing right. I know people like that – and not the annoying people who are just loud and stupid, but people who actually are that good, know it, and have the chutzpah to move forward. Me? I’d rather get someone else who should know what they’re talking about tell me in a very objective manner: “yes, you are most likely on the right track.” Saying I’m definitely on the right track might seem a bit easy: “most likely” sounds more reasonable, especially where writing and publishing are concerned.

So, before Christmas/Winter Break, I’m going to be fixing up a few majorly problematic areas, printing the entire MS, and seeing if my advisor might read it over by spring semester. And maybe, on some levels, I might have been dreaming too big – like, maybe I can send this to some small independent presses. Not self-publishing: I will never, ever go that route. We’ll see what happens.

See you tomorrow.