Yes, that is a bowl made out of bacon. I can think of few things more perfect than a bowl made of bacon, particularly this morning.
First, I want to give a massive shout out to Simon Larter for getting a short story published in this Friday’s upcoming edition of Short Story America. Congrats, my friend.
Second – had an awesome lunch yesterday with Sara McClung, a local writer that I’ve been meaning to get together and hang with for ages. She is awesome and I just want to thank her for the company and awesome conversation over dumplings at PF Chang’s. (And can’t wait to do the David Garrett Meet & Greet with her in Feb!)
Third, I’m unfortunately going to have to announce that Danielle Poiesz is no longer my awesomesauce editor. (She’s still full of awesomesauce, actually…just not in the world of editing.) I won’t say I’m not upset by it, because I am. I’m only bringing it up here because I can already see the tweets flying and I’m a big fan of disclosure.
Danielle called me yesterday to tell me that she was moving on to a different position in the industry. (To Penguin, in fact. She’s going to be working on a project with my old agent, Colleen Lindsay, who also moved to Penguin earlier this year. Somewhere there’s a story here. Maybe I should be charging Penguin a finder’s fee?)
At any rate, from a professional perspective, I get it. Jobs are jobs – if you’re unhappy with your job and you can find a new one, then that’s what you need to do. Sometimes it isn’t even unhappiness so much as needing a change or a chance to find something that fulfills you. And I’ve been there. I’ve done it. I’ve never been a huge fan of personal change for myself – being a creature of habit – but when it comes down to it, I’m always the advocate for pursuing the dream, whatever that dream is. Even aside from that, an editor that no longer wants to edit doesn’t make for good books, and eventually that hurts everyone involved.
On a personal note, it really, really sucks. It is a bit frightening for me – my second book is due very shortly and now I will have to go through the process with someone new. It’s hard, especially given that Danielle and I had fallen into a good rhythm and an easy way of communicating. She understood my writing style and what my vision was and did everything she could to help mold it into something successful. And I can’t help but wonder who the new editor will be…and will they like/understand what I’ve done? What if we don’t mesh? What if they hate this current draft? What if we have clashing personalities?
What if, what if, what if.
Obviously, I won’t know until the new editor is assigned to me (sometime in the next two weeks or so.) The good thing is that the first book is nearly out. Any potential editors will be able to read it and get the polished version of my writing style (and hopefully fall in love with it.) And as much as it will suck to have to relearn someone else’s editing style, it’s probably better that it happens now with a newly written draft than one that’s already gone through a set of revisions that might not mesh.
So, I guess that’s about it. Thanks for everything, Danielle. Godspeed and good luck, my friend. 🙂
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
–Mark Twain
