Multiple Personalities

Can you believe it’s November already? That means my grandson is now a year old, Halloween is over and we’re officially into the holiday season. Will that mean the publishing/editing world comes to a standstill while publishers/editors are out wheeling, dealing, and celebrating with booksellers? I certainly hope not, but I think it’s a good possibility.

Since March, I’ve believed The Ride would be released by Christmas. Miracles happen and that’s still a possibility. At this point, however, Christmas 2008 is more of a probability.

The length of time it’s taking my editor to contact me, brings back bad memories of my disappointing experience with my agent who wouldn’t talk to me. (http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/2007/08/serendipity.html and http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/2007_05_18_archive.html for more on Susan Graham at the About Words Agency). What if I have this same effect on my editor? That’s enough to give me nightmares.

Recently, I read the book Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff. I’m not going to do a book review (because there are a zillion other blogs for that) other that to say I think it’s an interesting, well-written and thought provoking book. The main character, Andy, suffers from multiple personality disorder and meets a co-worker, Penny, with the same disorder. There is never a dull moment in their lives (or in the book).

While reading the book, I decided that we all are creatures with multiple personalities; though I think I’ll speak for myself here and not all humankind. I, much like a thousand layer pastry, consists of, well…a thousand very thin layers. The difference between Andy, Penny and me is that I have not been mishandled in a way that shattered the cohesiveness of the layers. In other words, my various personalities don’t go by other names, they all look and talk like me and are all the same age, (although it is tempting to think about a younger offshoot).

Normally I’m just easy-going Jane, but writing seems to bring out more of these other layers of personalities. In this blog alone, you can spot the worrier in the first paragraph; in the second, naivety peeks out, the optimist briefly appears and logical wraps it up; in the third paragraph there’s a glimpse of my paranoid side.

There’s also my serious layer and a silly one; a confident side and an insecure one; a polite side and a rude one (that mostly surfaces in reference to the current Administration); the neat me, the messy, the…well, I’m sure you have the idea and it’s not necessary to list all thousand layers.

If my layers continue to hold together for another week while I wait for word from my editor, I’ll see you next Friday.

Thanks for stopping by.


Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride (soon to be released (I hope), by ArcheBooks Publishing)
janekennedysutton@gmail.com
http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Susan Graham, About Words Agency, Set This House in Order, Matt Ruff, multiple personality disorder

Serendipity

Sometimes another struggling writer will ask me how I found a Publisher. My short answer is ”Serendipity.”

Horace Walpole coined the word in 1754 when he described The Three Princes of Serendip (Serendip being an old name for Sri Lanka). By definition, serendipity is having good luck for making unexpected and fortunate discoveries.

My longer answer is that I was lucky to have discovered the Florida Writer’s Association (FWA) http://www.floridawriters.net/dnn/ shortly after moving here.
True, it was through this very organization that I had the bad luck of meeting my first (and only) agent, Susan Graham with the About Words Literary Agency. How was I to know that her friendly, helpful façade would change so abruptly into a inactive, silent stonewall? (See my May 18,2007 blog http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/2007_05_18_archive.html for more whining on this subject.)

Perhaps if I had visited Predators and Editors http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/peala.htm, I’d never signed that contract, but that’s a subject for another day.

Still, I considered myself fortunate because I was in the Southwest Florida division of the FWA and Bob Gelinas of Archebooks Publishing http://archebooks.com/ is the regional director of the group.

Although Archebooks Publishing only accepts submissions from agents, I got lucky again. At one of the luncheons I revealed the sad saga of my agent experience and how I dreaded searching for another. Bob agreed to bend the rules and take a look at my manuscript. And…well the rest is history.

Looking forward to seeing you next week when I hope to have some progress to report on The Ride. The production list has been stagnant for a long time, it’s bound to start moving soon. Isn’t it?

Wishing you all a little serendipity of your own.

Jane Kennedy SuttonAuthor of The Ride (to be released by ArcheBooks Publishing)janekennedysutton@gmail.comhttp://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/

Tags: The Ride, Archebooks, Susan Graham, About Words, literary agent, serendipity, Florida Writers, Predators and Editors