Month: April 2005

Busy Mills woman Likhaari took a moment to point out this NY Sun article on a Harvard woman who just hit the big time in publishing. 17-years-old, no agent, unpublished, her H.S. diploma still blank in the printing cue. Wow. Pomp and Circumstance must seem like nothing after getting a call from The William Morris Agency.

This topic is really germane to the conversation we had at Chat last week about ‘Chick Lit,’ and how that genre itself has proved so capitalistically viable as to have spawned its own imprints, including Harlequin’s Red Dress Ink, Pocket Books’ Downtown Press, Random House’s Harlem Moon, (a small romance imprint for women of color now trying hesitantly to expand into new avenues– anytime you read the word ‘Harlem’ it’s only gonna mean one thing in marketing, yo.); the imprint Strapless & the now defunct HarperCollinsUK imprint, Flamingo. A large part of the rousing success of the pastel, mass-marketed paperbacks publishers surmise, is purchase by readers who formerly didn’t like to read, but are finding that it’s not as bad as they thought, especially when often their novel is followed up by a blockbuster film. You can bet the film options are going to keep coming, strengthening once again the link between Lindsay Lohan and literature. Uh, yeah. Fashionistas and Gossip Girl to the rescue again.

While I wish Miss Viswanathan every success, I’m a little terrified for her. $500K and a two book deal for the germ of an idea on a college application… a plotline that’s part of a trend that may or may not be in its ascendancy by the time she’s through… It’s really risky for the publishers, and perhaps for Viswanthan’s future publications (although, to be fair, she had determined that she was going to be an investment banker when she grew up.) Also, ‘Chick Lit’ as a sub-genre seems to be written mostly for and about the young, white, urban, upwardly mobile career woman — and the YA equivalent about the children of same. Will an Indian woman find a way to fit, and retain her East Asian roots?

Stay tuned. This may be a story worth writing.

There’s the merry whine of a saws-all whirring downstairs, accompanied by the clatter of falling wood and plaster dust. Random thumping and hammering blends harmoniously with the assorted grunts of workmen. And I, trying valiantly to sit and create in this mess, am getting a headache. Yes, this is the I’m-trying-to-work-here,-people rant.

You’d laugh if you saw where I am — desk shoved back into a corner and half-covered by plastic sheeting. It’s chaos and drama, but I just had to sit down and write today. Aside from the really good reason of finally having an agent show interest in my work (what am I saying “finally?!!” I’ve finally contacted one! My fault no one showed interest prior to that!!), I wanted to write today because I realized that if I don’t write I feel… Disconnected. The ‘wrestling match with my Muse’ that began so long ago has become second nature. Email, essays, something — I’ve just got to write.

And — no! This isn’t meant to be one of those write-every-day things they tell you in Grad school that you sort of go grey just thinking about. I’m not trying to say that I never have a bad day — far from it! I think I’ve just slowly come to realize that a bad day writing is better than a good day… doing a whole lot of other things. I’ve had to enlarge my definition of what writing is, and what it does for me, and let myself be a part of the process of writing — which sometimes means reading, sometimes means thinking and letting my thoughts range wide into dreams.

And now I sound all esoteric and crap. So I’m going to stop.

Meanwhile, my creativity isn’t exactly sparking at this moment (due to the fact that it feels like one of those sledgehammers is crunching right between my eyes), and I have a bunch of files I’m supposed to go through for one of my many part-time jobs, but I’m here. Still hanging in there.

Hope you are too.

Can I just say OY, *!@#$ Daylight Savings Time? Right now, I’m completely jealous of Arizona.

Fantasy writers, creepy mystery novelists and ‘ghostwriters,’ you’ve got to check out Llewellyn Worldwide, one of the oldest publishers dealing with the paranormal — they opened up their publishing line to YA stuff about three years ago, and they’re likely one of the more open-minded about “creepy” fiction and paranormal mysteries than the average publisher. They claim that they publish stories on the ‘edge of teen culture.’ What struck me most about them is that they claim to prefer to deal with unagented writers — PREFER, my dears. Possibly they feel this is more authentic? I have no idea. Their YA guide is here, and is very, VERY specific, including a detailed questionnaire to be immediately forwarded to their marketing people. Efficient. If my fantasy novella weren’t in such a snarl, I’d get chattin’ with them immediately. As it is…

…back to the keyboard.