Writing Writing Writing

I’m in that stage in writing a book where I’m completely obsessed. It’s all I think about. While I’m doing the dishes, I think about how to tweak lines of dialogue. While I’m eating dinner with my husband, I’m planning what to write next. While I’m trying to have a nice little coffee date with a friend, I’m giggling about the scenes I wrote. While I’m walking the dog, I’m working out new paragraphs (and, if I am good and have remembered, speaking them into my voice recorder).

A lot of people emailed me the other day about the Harper Collins reorganization. I read the news on Publisher’s Marketplace and Gawker, but honestly, I’ve been so consumed by my book that I only heard about this late Tuesday afternoon when my critique partner IMed me about it. This is my second publisher in three months to experience a similar shuffle, with publishers leaving, imprints being dismantled, etc. When it happened to Random House in December, I was especially shocked, as I’d literally just returned from seeing my editor in New York. I am so sorry for those who have lost their jobs, editors, or imprints as a result of this reorganization.

As an author, there is little one can do in such a situation other than keep writing. My new book for Harper is still due in a few months. Tap & Gown is still being released in May. My secret project is barrelling along. I’ve got a new secret story coming out at the end of the week. This is a dual-pronged attack. The only way I can materially affect whether or not I have a book coming out is to write a book. Everything else — if a publisher buys it and releases it — is sadly out of my hands. Also, if I’m writing, I get into this absent-minded professor mode, where I really can’t think of anything else but this book.

I will be honest: this was not advice I followed in December. Rather, I wallowed but good. Didn’t write for ages. Grew a bit pessimistic about my future in this career. I haven’t spoken about this, but it was pretty pathetic. And all the encouragement, and — when that failed — friendly slaps across the face from friends really didn’t do much to snap me out of my funk. My battle against my own latent pessimism is an ongoing project. Writing helps. Being really, really excited about my writing helps a lot.

Cuddling Rio is also highly beneficial.