In 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, I started a new book in January. Each year I finished that manuscript by December. About three weeks ago, I sent off my latest to my agent. What does that mean? I reckon that I should get started on something new. Right?
Like most writers, the most common question I'm asked is "Where do you get your ideas from?" I do have an idea for a book and like my Dot Dead and Smasher, it's set against a Silicon Valley background. Weirdly though, this time it's non-fiction. Here in the Valley, history is written and rewritten every day. Way back before I was a software guy, I was a history grad student. Maybe I can combine both those earlier callings with my current one as a writer. I'm going to call an editor friend of mine who specializes in business books and see if my idea makes sense to him. Wish me luck.
Any other resolutions for 2011 besides to get going on whatever comes next? One more is to read more books. I've stopped subscribing to The Economist, which I love, but reading what a mess our world is in doesn't seem to help in fixing it. So I'll escape this world for a couple of extra hours a week and spend the time in another world some author has created.
* * *
BTW, I did want to mention the book that had the greatest impact on me in 2010. The memoir, Serenade to the Big Bird, reminded me of Anne Frank's Diary. The author, Bert Stiles, was a B-
17 co-pilot in his early twenties during World War II. As with Anne Frank, you know before starting to read the book that he didn't live to see the end of the war. His language is stark and moving and cynical. He gets a medal and reports, "The citation was mimeographed, with my name typed in. The mimeograph was just about out of ink when it got to mine. The exceptional gallantry part was pretty thin.... We were late for chow and all the seats were taken." But like all the best American heroes, under the cynicism runs a streak of old-fashioned idealism:"There are all kinds of people: senators and whores and barristers and bankers and dishwashers. There are Chinamen and Cockneys and Gypsies and Negroes. There are Lesbians and and cornhuskers and longshoremen.... And some day we are going to catch on that no matter where people are born, or how their eyes slant, and what their blood type, they are just people.... They are not masses.... And until we call them people, and know they are people, all of them, we are going to have a sick world on our hands."
* * *
As I've mentioned, I'm sending out a literary quote each weekday on Twitter (@writerkeith) and here are two for the new year with slightly different outlooks . A wonderful 2011 to you all!
"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." Edith Lovejoy Pierce
"Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual." Mark Twain
"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." Edith Lovejoy Pierce
"Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual." Mark Twain
13 comments:
Good luck with your non-fiction book, Keith. Like you, I need to start my next book. I've been mulling over plot for the last month or so, procrastinating with excuses like a houseful of company, family wedding, Thanksgiving, Christmas, blizzard, New Year's. I think I've run out of excuses. It's time to write.
I started a new book in the back seat of the car, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, while my husband, daughter and I drove east for the holidays. It's always exciting, even though I usually don't have a good idea where the project is going.
Good luck with your new project! Write whatever is calling to you.
Go get 'em, Lois.
Kathleen, I wish you'd taken me along on your road trip so I could have gotten inspired, too!
Wishing you the best, Keith, on this new endeavor. I think it could be very exciting.
My resolution is to hit my deadlines without making myself nuts in the process. I'll be finished with my current WIP by the end of Feb. just in time to start the one due in June.
I look at the new year more like Edith Lovejoy Pierce than Mark Twain. It's a fresh page, even if some of the old ink stained pages of the prior year spill into it.
Good luck with the book idea, Keith. And all the best in this new year! I'm totally looking forward to it!
Good luck with the new book, Keith!
Sue Ann, I thought I'd offer a quote for both the strivers and cynics. Thanks for your good wishes Darrell and Alice. Am sure they will come in handy.
Love your quotes, Keith, and best of luck on the new book project! Just before I left to visit relatives for the holidays, I jotted some ideas down for my third RM Outdoor Adventures mystery that I need to start in a month or two. However, I'm still busy editing the third Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery now, so I'm not ready to shift gears yet.
Great post, Keith.
Did you see the footage of Anne Frank they discovered? It's a movie of someone's wedding, and Anne is in the window for about two seconds. It's very moving--you can see it on You-tube.
I'd better start looking for your quotes. Good look with this year's book. I'm editing... should be writing too. And I'm reading... should be more organized.
Beth, you are amazing.
Julia, I have seen the clip. Just think what the dead in the War might have done if they'd lived. Sobering and sad.
Sheila, sure looks like you're pretty productive (at least for a Cantabrigian).
Keith, awesome post. Grteat quotes :-) It's amazing where some of the most sage wisdom comes from...
Best of luck with the book!!
I'm a day late to post but I wanted to add my wishes of GOOD LUCK to you Keith. I enjoy writing non-fiction -- it is very different than writing fiction but still satisfying. Thank you for the book recommendation. I'm going to look for it for my uncle who loves history.
I haven't made my writing resolutions yet... but the house project list is getting longer...
Post a Comment