June 21, 2005
Writers have audiences, of course, unless you never get published. But the actual act of writing, sitting at the keyboard, is generally solitary. In my case, Frodo, my dog and office manager and all around pain in the butt, is generally my audience, curled up on the futon in my office, ever alert to the possibility I might make a move to the refrigerator or pantry. It's summer now, though, and my kids are home, ages 7 and 11. The 11-year-old for some reason decided he wanted to camp out in my office this morning, working on a crossword puzzle. It's ever so slightly unnerving having him there. Anyway, Ian (my eldest), has some thoughts of being a writer, though he says he can't decide if he'd rather be a director. Or a teacher. He's a very self-motivated writer for an 11-year-old, always scribbling stories down in one of his spiral-bound notebooks. I suppose it's good for him to see what the life of a real writer is, as I make a bunch of phone calls to people to try and set up interviews for an article I'm writing, and hacking away at articles with deadlines, etc.

Well, I guess it's intermission. My youngest just came lurching down the stairs requesting Ian's presence at the Playstation 2 console for a rousing game of Battlefront, which Ian apparently felt was more entertaining than dear old dad. For that matter, so did Frodo, who whoofed very loudly and chased them upstairs. Of course, he might have misunderstood and thought they were going to take him for a walk (or feed him).

I wonder if I ticked off my agent, Irene. I've had a manuscript with a publisher/packager for 2 months. Irene knows them, but was never actually involved in marketing this project, it's all been through me, so since they said they'd get back to me in 4 to 6 weeks and it's been about 8, I e-mailed them asking for an update. I cc'ed the e-mail to Irene, who came back saying, "Next time ask me to deal with it." Sure, whatever. Irene has read this project, a Theo MacGreggor novel, and liked it pretty well, though her interests in marketing it had a shorter half-life than some of my other projects, for whatever reason. Which probably is why I've been nudging it along, somewhat surprised at the industry's interest in it, given that it lay fallow for sometime during a lull in my fiction marketing.

Ah well. Time to get back to writing and phone calls... no curtain calls or bowing to the audience (at least until lunchtime).

Best,
Mark Terry