So, I did all those things my To Do list told me to do and
I’ve ended up with three book club presentations/readings, three readings in
pubs (handy for enticing friends to show up), two workshops in retirement
residences, and a possible multiple-meeting workshop booking with the local
library. Amazing what a starred review can do, energy-wise.
I presented my first workshop this week at a fine retirement
residence, attracted five folks much my age, who have either written in the
past or who may now write with the encouragement of a writing group. It took me
a while to understand that those folks didn’t give a hoot about Graffiti Grandma; they were there to
begin writing. Several weren’t sure what
they’d write, several knew but were stuck at the first sentence. I shut up and listened, finally, and I may
now belong to a writing once again. I
hope so.
I quit my other writing group a few weeks ago when I
realized that I was too old to hand out twenty pages of my novel each month. I
would be senile before we ever got through it. My writing partners seemed to
agree. So, for the first time, I have hired an editor who will take a look at Edith, line-wise and arc-wise, and tell
me (for a fee, of course) what she thinks I should do with this story––a new experiment
backed by my latest idea of trying new things as long as my PERs check will stretch cover
them.
Then, just as I was deciding how many pairs of pants, tops,
jackets I should take to my trip to India, a trip planned eleven months ago
(thanks to PERS), I get another email. Graffiti Grandma has gotten another
starred review, this time from Publishers’
Weekly.
Shit. Just when I
thought I was finished with her, Graffiti
Grandma rises again. I get an email
from a New York publicist, anxious to help me use this great news to sell my
book. I respond, intrigued, and learn that they charge about
$6,000 a week for their services, which they reveal that when I explain that
I’m a retired school teacher with only PERS to back me.
But then Publishers’ Weekly checks in. They carry
advertisements, all shapes, all sizes, all prices, for their starred books. A
starred review is really important, I’m told, an important selling point. An
advertisement might be okay, I say, since PW sells to libraries and big buyers
like Hudson airport stores. Maybe? I have a few days to decide if GRGR will be
in the Best Books section in November.
I also have three days to decide how many pairs of pants,
which shoes, do I wear a fleece or my quilted jacket, and how does all this fit
in a small bag that can’t weigh over thirty-three pounds. And is a skirt really necessary even if many
of our toilets will be the squat variety?
Too many decisions. I
tell my PW guy that I love to write, don’t expect fame or fortune from the
activity, that I think I need to develop some sort of marketing plan besides going to
retirement residences, and besides, I won’t be here for a month.
My new editor says five pants, five tops. I’m listening to her--and dreaming of the Taj
Mahal in moonlight..