Tomorrow marks the start of BookExpo America 2011. Not much is certain about what will come of it, aside from my earnest attempts to meet people in the book world, get my name out there and garner interest in my writing. I’ll be showing off book reviews from Somewhere Over the Sun, as well as start the process of shopping around (getting in touch with agents) my second book, Bright and Blue. That means I’ll be telling people what it’s about. Which means you get to know what it’s about.
As a writer, I’ve been told to show and not tell, so let me just show you the very beginning of the book, which gives a fairly clear picture of what it is about. Enjoy!
Spout no longer knew anyone left on Earth.
All his remaining acquaintances; an ill-tempered cousin; a Chinese waitress whose name he couldn’t help but intentionally mispronounce; his very first girlfriend from elementary school, Lucy, whom he hadn’t spoken to in forty-eight years; they had all left on the very last flight twenty-three minutes before Spout woke up. Everyone that remained on the planet, the few of them that did, were all strangers to him. Even his daughter had left.
He had wanted to wake up early and say goodbye, but had not made it on time. Spout did not oversleep, nor did he intentionally miss the departure. He simply would not allow himself to leave the house without his keys, the habit engrained too deeply into the fibers of his fingers to be forgotten. By the time he finally found them in between the beige, pin-striped couch cushions that his wife had hated so long ago, the sky was already pin-striped by plumes of rocket-fuel smoke.
I have held this information back (the synopsis, in essence) because of something I call the reaction bias. Whenever you tell someone about an artistic idea that is in progress, their reaction will affect how you feel about the idea, and it is inevitable that it will cause some sort of change in your inspiration; it will make the idea less yours. You’ll adjust it to what someone else says, how excited they are or aren’t, and you start trying to please others rather than pleasing yourself until the idea is formed, and then making the necessary improvements.
That’s my theory, anyway. And now that the idea is pretty much done (I’ve finished the second round of edits, with more on the way), I feel comfortable disclosing it to all you lovely readers.
I read somewhere that authors live three books at a time. Promoting the one that came out, editing the one you just wrote, writing the one you’re…um…writing. It was more eloquently express by the guy I’m paraphrasing. Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is: I’m gonna go start writing my third book.
Cheers.
