I recently had a discussion with a gifted musician about a bizarre exchange he had with a chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. And, as it often happens, something that had bugged me for years was illuminated by another person’s experience.
“Don’t you see?” I asked. “He wants to talk to you about what you do, but he doesn’t actually understand what you do. I think this must happen to creative people a lot. After all, almost everyone _likes_ music, but that doesn’t mean we know how to speak to a musician and composer about what he does.”
And, yes, that goes for writers, too. In today’s New York Times, a writer named Caitlin Macy complains: “Or else I get, ‘Hey, how’s that book thing coming?’” as if she could just as well have a potpourri shop on Madison Avenue.” (Note: The reporter adds the comparison to the potpourri shop; I happen to think being a writer is almost exactly like having a potpourri shop. And “Hey, how’s that book thing coming?” is actually a perfectly fine question.)
My friend, the writer Maria Lima, recently pointed me to this wonderful entry from John Scalzi’s <a href=”http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/02/26/10-things-to-remember-about-authors/”>blog</a>.
And I’ll throw in, from my own <a href=”http://www.lauralippman.com/april06.html”>archives</a>.
Meanwhile, I had a nightmare about my new book last night. I dreamed my sister hated it. “You just feel it’s too close to home,” I said, which, in real life is not the case. “No,” my sister said, “it’s just not very good.”
“…lawyers, dentists and doctors are among those professionals who are treated far more rudely…”
But for them, it is a matter of proximity.
How many readers might have wanted to say something rude to LL, if she was personally reading her book to us when (fill in the blank) turns the storyline upside down? In fact, I bet Lippman books have flown across bedrooms from coast to coast.
Anyway, as for the nightmare wherein the straight-shootin’ sister pans the new book, this may well be the place to employ “the Whitman” defense, eh?
Laura, I like your work.
Thanks, Barbara! Now what’s up with you?
Normal people don’t understand the writing process and they don’t have a clue about the way publishing works. A few days ago I told a friend that it can take a year or more for a contracted book to be published after the writer finishes it, and she was shocked. I tried to explain about catalogs and ARCs and distribution, but I think I lost her somewhere along the way.
Some Sunday morning ramblings…
Something I don’t usually share in a public forum (and perhaps I am falsely lulled into a sense of security by Laura’s welcoming community) is that I was once the personal assistant to an actor. An Oscar nominated actor (which is as much as I will narrow down the field). I can not tell you how many people (clearly fans) would ask him, as he was also a stage actor, “How do you remember all those lines?”. Of all the possible questions to pose to a creative person, an actor, I always thought that this was such a lost opportunity.
However, I also understand being a loss for something pithy or intelligent to say when meeting someone you admire during a brief encounter. The word blithering comes to mind in meeting Laura as well as Laurie King and Deborah Crombie last October at Bouchercon.
I don’t think that asking how the book is coming is wrong. I would like to think that it shows that I have taken enough on an interest in an author to know that there is a book in the works and that I am looking forward to reading it when it is published.
So for knowing that Laura’s new book is being launched on March 10th, Laurie’s on April 28th and Deborah’s in October, I admit to being a devoted reader. And isn’t that why all of you published writers write? Do you not want to have engaged and enthusiastic readers? If you write a book and nobody cares enough to read it…well, what’s the point? Unless it’s a personal diary, you write it to have it shared with other people, right?
–Marjorie
Honey, i live with an artist. I have NO IDEA how he does what he does. I’ve heard authors talk, articulately, about the process which awes me, since it seems that at least some of what you do involves magic. Certainly some of what Stu does involves magic – it just goes from his brain, down his arm and out his hand and WOW. How do you DO that?
God, your poor sister! Have you told her yet? Family shows up in weird ways in my dreams too.
“Will I like your work?” is one of those i’ve heard, like WHAT, you’re supposed to know what I LIKE? It’s like “would I have heard of you?” one of my top stupid and/or rude questions. HOW would you KNOW?
My favorite e-mails, bar none, are the ones that say: “I like your work.” Yes, it’s also nice when people dig down and cite specific things — my interest in duality, for example. I also LOVE hearing about people’s favorite characters, especially in the standalones. But “I like your work” is lovely. And quite sufficient. Chances are, if I’m not at an energy ebb, I’ll then want to turn the conversation back to you — where are you from, what do you do?
And, yes, it’s fine to ask “How’s the book?”, although, as my archived web posting indicates, it’s good to specify if you mean the book under way or the book that’s on sale. Granted, prolific writers can make it hard for people to know where they are in the process.
Of course, if someone hasn’t read a writer’s work, what to say then? Well, either say, as some people have said to me, “I’m just not much of a reader.” Or, if you do like to read, say: “I haven’t read your work yet, where should I start?” It’s hard to go wrong either way.
Don’t say: “Ugh I don’t read” — fill in the blanks with “genre” “fiction” “women” “mass market paperbacks” etc.
And, by the way, I am well aware that lawyers, dentists and doctors are among those professionals who are treated far more rudely in our culture.
We also have a snow day here in DC. No complaints from me.
I was saddened to read your SO’s article in the Post’s Outlook Sunday. Some of the same problem exists now in the press room at the legislature in Richmond due to few reporters present, as well as in Annapolis. The lobbyists are taking over. Marc Fisher’s article on Sunday:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/28/AR2009022801889.html
How about when a sister says nothing when you send her things you write and then says, “Oh, that one I liked,” upon reading one particular piece?
That’s happened. It’s tough but sometimes one has to let one’s beloved sister’s comments or non-comments roll off like the proverbial “water off a duck’s back.”
Or else it’s impossible.
As someone wise once said to me, “it’s a question of taste.”
Kathy D.