Ryan Field's Blog, page 585
November 7, 2010
Looks Like I'm Doing Another Christmas Novella....
I was outside all day blowing leaves. I have three wooded acres, and I do all my own outdoor work. From October to December I spend every weekend outside blowing the leaves into the wooded areas. And today, when I came inside to check my e-mail, I had an e-mail exchange with an editor about doing a Christmas Novella. The e-mail went like this:
Editor: Can you do a Christmas novella by December 1st?
Me: I'm not sure that's enough time. I already have one coming out and I have so much going on. But thanks for thinking of me anyway.
An hour later. I think I'm off the hook (smile).
Editor: We'd really like one. We can change deadline dates so you can work on this right now.
I hesitate before I reply this time. I wrote a Christmas story for an anthology last year titled, "Home for the Holidays," and I've been dying to develop those two main characters for a long time. So I reply fast.
Me: Okay. I'll do it.
Editor: Thanks!!
And I really am looking forward to doing this novella. Out of all the characters I've written, these two, Nathan and Lance, stick with me all the time...for some reason I can't explain. So I'll be posting about two Christmas novellas this season. This week blog posts may be scarce while I'm working on this new one.
Looks Like I'm Doing Another Christmas Novella...
I was outside all day blowing leaves. I have three wooded acres, and I do all my own outdoor work. From October to December I spend every weekend outside blowing the leaves into the wooded areas. And today, when I came inside to check my e-mail, I had an e-mail exchange with an editor about doing a Christmas Novella. The e-mail went like this:
Editor: Can you do a Christmas novella by December 1st?
Me: I'm not sure that's enough time. I already have one coming out and I have so much going on. But thanks for thinking of me anyway.
An hour later. I think I'm off the hook (smile).
Editor: We'd really like one. We can change deadline dates so you can work on this right now.
I hesitate before I reply this time. I wrote a Christmas story for an anthology last year titled, "Home for the Holidays," and I've been dying to develop those two main characters for a long time. So I reply fast.
Me: Okay. I'll do it.
Editor: Thanks!!
And I really am looking forward to doing this novella. Out of all the characters I've written, these two, Nathan and Lance, stick with me all the time...for some reason I can't explain. So I'll be posting about two Christmas novellas this season. This week blog posts may be scarce while I'm working on this new one.
November 5, 2010
If Truman Capote Were Just Starting Out Today...
It's no secret that in the past two years I've written a lot of m/m romance novels with storylines that have been based on either classic m/f romances or popular romance films with m/f characters. I didn't do this because because I'm a huge fan of fanfic. I did it because the lgbt community has been so starved for anything pop culture related I wanted to give them a sense of what the straight community often takes for granted. The simple things, like being able to walk down the street and hold hands, or kissing good-bye at the airport. Believe it or not, in spite of what we see in TV shows like Modern Family, most gay couples don't show any affection in public because they fear they are going to be ridiculed...if not bullied.
When I wrote THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE, I decided to revolve the storyline around Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. I wanted to do it with a contemporary take, and with two gay men as the main characters. In his day, Truman Capote was one of the most flamboyant gay men around...although I'm not sure if he ever actually admitted this openly. I've read his bios and his novels, and there's always a hint of homosexuality, but never anything distinct. It's the same with work that was written by Tennessee Williams, another gay writer who wrote mostly straight characters, with homosexual overtones.
But in Truman Capote's day and age, writing gay fiction would have been author suicide. He may have found a small cult following, but in a general sense he would have been rejected by every agent and publisher in the world if he'd queried them with a gay version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He probably would have been laughed at and mocked. And I often wonder what writers like Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams would have been writing today. For all I know, maybe they'd still be writing straight fiction for a mainstream audience. Though a lot has changed since their time, certain things have continued to remain the same. If you look at the mainstream bestseller lists, there aren't many lgbt oriented books. But I'd like to think they might have found an audience on some level with lgbt fiction. And I certainly would have enjoyed reading their works.
When I wrote THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE, I decided to revolve the storyline around Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. I wanted to do it with a contemporary take, and with two gay men as the main characters. In his day, Truman Capote was one of the most flamboyant gay men around...although I'm not sure if he ever actually admitted this openly. I've read his bios and his novels, and there's always a hint of homosexuality, but never anything distinct. It's the same with work that was written by Tennessee Williams, another gay writer who wrote mostly straight characters, with homosexual overtones.
But in Truman Capote's day and age, writing gay fiction would have been author suicide. He may have found a small cult following, but in a general sense he would have been rejected by every agent and publisher in the world if he'd queried them with a gay version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He probably would have been laughed at and mocked. And I often wonder what writers like Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams would have been writing today. For all I know, maybe they'd still be writing straight fiction for a mainstream audience. Though a lot has changed since their time, certain things have continued to remain the same. If you look at the mainstream bestseller lists, there aren't many lgbt oriented books. But I'd like to think they might have found an audience on some level with lgbt fiction. And I certainly would have enjoyed reading their works.
If Truman Capote Was Just Starting Out Today...
It's no secret that in the past two years I've written a lot of m/m romance novels with storylines that have been based on either classic m/f romances or popular romance films with m/f characters. I didn't do this because because I'm a huge fan of fanfic. I did it because the lgbt community has been so starved for material I wanted to give them a sense of what the straight community often takes for granted. The simple things, like being able to walk down the street and hold hands, or kissing good-bye at the airport. Believe it or not, in spite of what we see in TV shows like Modern Family, most gay couples don't show any affection in public because they fear they are going to be ridiculed...if not bullied.
When I wrote THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE, I decided to revolve the storyline around Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. I wanted to do it with a contemporary take, and with two gay men as the main characters. In his day, Truman Capote was one of the most flamboyant gay men around...although I'm not sure if he ever actually admitted this openly. I've read his bios and his novels, and there's always a hint of homosexuality, but never anything distinct. It's the same with work that was written by Tennessee Williams, another gay writer who wrote mostly straight characters, with homosexual overtones.
But in Truman Capote's day and age, writing gay fiction would have been author suicide. He may have found a small cult following, but in a general sense he would have been rejected by every agent and publisher in the world if he'd queried them with a gay version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He probably would have been laughed at and mocked. And I often wonder what writers like Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams would have been writing today. For all I know, maybe they'd still be writing straight fiction for a mainstream audience. Though a lot has changed since their time, certain things have continued to remain the same. If you look at the mainstream bestseller lists, there aren't many lgbt oriented books. But I'd like to think they might have found an audience on some level with lgbt fiction. And I certainly would have enjoyed reading their works.
When I wrote THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE, I decided to revolve the storyline around Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. I wanted to do it with a contemporary take, and with two gay men as the main characters. In his day, Truman Capote was one of the most flamboyant gay men around...although I'm not sure if he ever actually admitted this openly. I've read his bios and his novels, and there's always a hint of homosexuality, but never anything distinct. It's the same with work that was written by Tennessee Williams, another gay writer who wrote mostly straight characters, with homosexual overtones.
But in Truman Capote's day and age, writing gay fiction would have been author suicide. He may have found a small cult following, but in a general sense he would have been rejected by every agent and publisher in the world if he'd queried them with a gay version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. He probably would have been laughed at and mocked. And I often wonder what writers like Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams would have been writing today. For all I know, maybe they'd still be writing straight fiction for a mainstream audience. Though a lot has changed since their time, certain things have continued to remain the same. If you look at the mainstream bestseller lists, there aren't many lgbt oriented books. But I'd like to think they might have found an audience on some level with lgbt fiction. And I certainly would have enjoyed reading their works.
Santa Saturday
I'm working hard with my editors, Janet and Dalia, to get this Christmas novella out by Thanksgiving weekend. Even though digital publishing is easier than print publishing in many ways, there are still details that have to be handled in the same exact way. But I'm sure we'll get there.
November 4, 2010
Two New Editors Hired At Ravenous Romance
Just heard that Ravenous Romance has hired two new acquisition editors. One I don't know much about yet, but the other is Jen Safrey, the talented person who does all the copy editing for my books at Ravenous Romance. Though Jen lives in MA and I live in Bucks County, PA, I like to think of her as a friend, too.
Here's the release:
Literary Partners Group, Inc., which owns and operates digital erotic romance publisher Ravenous Romance, has hired Russell Davis and Jennifer Safrey as acquisitions editors.
Davis has acquired and edited books for Tor Books, Kensington, DAW Books, iBooks, Five Star Publishing (an imprint of Gale Cengage), and Foggy Windows Books. Several of Davis's acquisitions have won major awards, including the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, the ARTemus Award - Book of the Year, Top 10 Romances from Booklist, and two of his acquisitions were finalists for the coveted RITA Award. Davis was also a nominee for the PASIC (Published Authors Special Interest Chapter) Chapter of RWA for their 2nd Annual Editor of the Year Award.
Under a variety of pseudonyms and in virtually every genre of fiction, Davis has written and sold more than twenty novels and dozens of short stories. He has served on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) Board of Directors, including two years (2008-2010) as President.
Safrey has been a copyeditor for Ravenous Romance since 2008, and is the author of four Harlequin romance novels, two of which won the Golden Leaf Award for best contemporary romance. She was previously editor at The Boston Herald and a past President of the New England Chapter of RWA.
"We are thrilled to have two such talented and experienced editors join Ravenous," says president Holly Schmidt. "By early next year, we will launch a brand-new website and announce other major initiatives, and we are confident Jen and Russell will be able to help us fuel our expansion and meet reader demand."
Both editors will be open to acquiring all subgenres of erotica and erotic romance, but Davis will focus on paranormal, ménage, and western, while Safrey will focus on contemporary, historical, and M/M erotic romances.
Here's the release:
Literary Partners Group, Inc., which owns and operates digital erotic romance publisher Ravenous Romance, has hired Russell Davis and Jennifer Safrey as acquisitions editors.
Davis has acquired and edited books for Tor Books, Kensington, DAW Books, iBooks, Five Star Publishing (an imprint of Gale Cengage), and Foggy Windows Books. Several of Davis's acquisitions have won major awards, including the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, the ARTemus Award - Book of the Year, Top 10 Romances from Booklist, and two of his acquisitions were finalists for the coveted RITA Award. Davis was also a nominee for the PASIC (Published Authors Special Interest Chapter) Chapter of RWA for their 2nd Annual Editor of the Year Award.
Under a variety of pseudonyms and in virtually every genre of fiction, Davis has written and sold more than twenty novels and dozens of short stories. He has served on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) Board of Directors, including two years (2008-2010) as President.
Safrey has been a copyeditor for Ravenous Romance since 2008, and is the author of four Harlequin romance novels, two of which won the Golden Leaf Award for best contemporary romance. She was previously editor at The Boston Herald and a past President of the New England Chapter of RWA.
"We are thrilled to have two such talented and experienced editors join Ravenous," says president Holly Schmidt. "By early next year, we will launch a brand-new website and announce other major initiatives, and we are confident Jen and Russell will be able to help us fuel our expansion and meet reader demand."
Both editors will be open to acquiring all subgenres of erotica and erotic romance, but Davis will focus on paranormal, ménage, and western, while Safrey will focus on contemporary, historical, and M/M erotic romances.
Is LGBT Fiction a Growing Genre? Is It Even a Genre?
I was reading a blog post yesterday by one of my favorite agent bloggers, Nathan Bransford. And in this post he was discussing various genres, with regard to what authors are writing for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). There was even a poll at the end of the post to see which genre is the most popular this year. As of this minute, over 1,500 people have participated in the poll. It was a fun post, I enjoyed reading it, and I don't want to sound as if I'm knocking it.
But I was surprised to see that LGBT fiction was not on the list. I probably shouldn't be surprised, given the fact that LGBT fiction of any kind is usually ignored in anything that resembles mainstream information. Until recently, LGBT fiction was just considered Gay/Lesbian, and the B and T was totally ignored. And Nathan's Blog, as far as blogs in general go, is about as mainstream as you get, so this is understandable.
I do find it interesting that only one anonymous person on Nathan's comment thread even asked about LGBT fiction as a genre. As as far I've been told, and from what I see from my own book sales, LGBT fiction has been growing by leaps and bounds for the past few years. I post about the wonderful straight women writing m/m romance all the time. I check out the bestseller lists on amazon and see more LGBT fiction than ever before. And all these authors writing LGBT fiction are selling far more books than ever expected. So there's a market for it, but I guess it just doesn't deserve a genre or classification yet (smile).
And yet no one is writing LGBT fiction for NaNoWriMO? No one thinks LGBT fiction is important enough to have its own genre? Of course LGBT can be lumped into many other genres...which is what usually has been done in the past. In this respect, LGBT fiction is a lot like Multi-Cultural fiction and all the wonderful books written by authors of African descent. Which, incidentally, I didn't see a genre listed for Multi-Cultural either in this poll either. At the end of the poll there is a box for people to click "other."
But what I find most interesting is that LGBT fiction is drawing new readers and authors every day. This, from what I've seen and read, is also true for fiction written by authors of African descent. Of course Nathan thinks like an agent, and when he's listing genres I'm sure he's thinking about how books are categorized on book shelves in retail stores, and about what he personally reps as an agent. All agent bloggers do this when it comes to categorizing a book. In the past, it's always been the easiest way to go about the process.
Two summers ago I had the pleasure of having lunch with Elisa Rolle, an internationally known LGBT book reviewer. I've written about Elisa on the blog, and I'm very active in The Rainbow Awards, which Elisa started for LGBT fiction. During lunch, we talked about publishing, books, the LGBT market, and other things related to LGBT fiction. And Elisa told me she was surprised when she stopped in a few US book stores and found such a limited amount of LGBT fiction. Again, I was not surprised. Just like I wasn't surprised to see Nathan Bransford ignore the LGBT genre altogether in his poll.
It's been like this for a long time. The only difference is that now things are changing, and have been changing in the past decade. (And, there are authors like me out there with very big mouths who aren't afraid to mention this issue openly. ) These book stores that don't have an LGBT section are struggling (clawing) to survive these days because readers are either shopping for their print books online, where they get current selections, or they are only reading digital books. And I just can't help wondering when everyone is going to notice that publishing has gone through many changes lately. With those changes new genres have emerged, especially online with the digital markets. Will LGBT fiction ever be the most popular genre? I doubt that. But I do think, at the very least, it deserves its own classification with regard to NaNoWriMo.
But I was surprised to see that LGBT fiction was not on the list. I probably shouldn't be surprised, given the fact that LGBT fiction of any kind is usually ignored in anything that resembles mainstream information. Until recently, LGBT fiction was just considered Gay/Lesbian, and the B and T was totally ignored. And Nathan's Blog, as far as blogs in general go, is about as mainstream as you get, so this is understandable.
I do find it interesting that only one anonymous person on Nathan's comment thread even asked about LGBT fiction as a genre. As as far I've been told, and from what I see from my own book sales, LGBT fiction has been growing by leaps and bounds for the past few years. I post about the wonderful straight women writing m/m romance all the time. I check out the bestseller lists on amazon and see more LGBT fiction than ever before. And all these authors writing LGBT fiction are selling far more books than ever expected. So there's a market for it, but I guess it just doesn't deserve a genre or classification yet (smile).
And yet no one is writing LGBT fiction for NaNoWriMO? No one thinks LGBT fiction is important enough to have its own genre? Of course LGBT can be lumped into many other genres...which is what usually has been done in the past. In this respect, LGBT fiction is a lot like Multi-Cultural fiction and all the wonderful books written by authors of African descent. Which, incidentally, I didn't see a genre listed for Multi-Cultural either in this poll either. At the end of the poll there is a box for people to click "other."
But what I find most interesting is that LGBT fiction is drawing new readers and authors every day. This, from what I've seen and read, is also true for fiction written by authors of African descent. Of course Nathan thinks like an agent, and when he's listing genres I'm sure he's thinking about how books are categorized on book shelves in retail stores, and about what he personally reps as an agent. All agent bloggers do this when it comes to categorizing a book. In the past, it's always been the easiest way to go about the process.
Two summers ago I had the pleasure of having lunch with Elisa Rolle, an internationally known LGBT book reviewer. I've written about Elisa on the blog, and I'm very active in The Rainbow Awards, which Elisa started for LGBT fiction. During lunch, we talked about publishing, books, the LGBT market, and other things related to LGBT fiction. And Elisa told me she was surprised when she stopped in a few US book stores and found such a limited amount of LGBT fiction. Again, I was not surprised. Just like I wasn't surprised to see Nathan Bransford ignore the LGBT genre altogether in his poll.
It's been like this for a long time. The only difference is that now things are changing, and have been changing in the past decade. (And, there are authors like me out there with very big mouths who aren't afraid to mention this issue openly. ) These book stores that don't have an LGBT section are struggling (clawing) to survive these days because readers are either shopping for their print books online, where they get current selections, or they are only reading digital books. And I just can't help wondering when everyone is going to notice that publishing has gone through many changes lately. With those changes new genres have emerged, especially online with the digital markets. Will LGBT fiction ever be the most popular genre? I doubt that. But I do think, at the very least, it deserves its own classification with regard to NaNoWriMo.
November 3, 2010
Ricky Martin on Oprah Yesterday
I rarely ever have time to watch Oprah at four o'clock in the afternoon. But I made the time yesterday because I'd heard Ricky Martin was going to be her guest. Not just because I'm a fan of his music, but also because I've been following his story as a gay man for a long time.
When he did the Barbara Walters interview years ago and didn't admit he was gay, I knew he was side-stepping. And I didn't blame him either. As a writer and journalist I knew what Babs was doing and I think Ricky Martin held his own very well during that interview. I know a lot of gay people were disappointed. We all would have bet money he was, in fact, gay. But he obviously wasn't ready to come out to the world, and we should all respect that.
His interview with Oprah yesterday was honest, and I think it came from the heart this time. Evidently, it took him years to accept himself as a gay man, and he seems to be doing well after such a long struggle. How do I know he was being honest? Because I'm gay and I've experienced every single emotion, feeling and struggle he spoke about yesterday. I also noticed the signs of discomfort in his eyes at certain points during the Oprah interview. I've seen and experienced that same discomfort myself on many occassions.
But he said one thing that was of particular interest to me, both as a gay man and a writer. He mentioned that gay people should only come out when they are ready to come out. They shouldn't be pressured...or bullied...by anyone to come out before they are ready, not even by gay people. It's a sensitive issue and there shouldn't be any rules set by anyone, especially not by other members of the lgbt community. Something like this happened to one of my nephews last year. He was pressured into coming out of the closet by some pushy little facebook queen who should have been minding his own business. Luckily, my nephew has two gay uncles he can go to for support. But I didn't think he was ready to come out yet, and he went through a huge struggle because he wasn't ready. It's all calmed down now. But it could have been much easier for him if he'd waited a while and taken the time to really understand the magnitude of coming out.
I receive a lot of e-mails from readers about this topic. I know the straight liberals, whom I love dearly, like to think everything is coming up roses and daffodils for gay men these days. They tell me about all the options gay men have and about all the opportunities that weren't around a long time ago. But what these liberal well-wishers fail to realize is that accepting and admitting you're gay is still a huge life altering experience, for men or women. It takes time and a whole lot of soul-searching to reach the point where they are ready to admit they are gay. And no one should ever feel pressured into coming out of the closet.
I'd like to thank Ricky Martin for having the courage to come out the way he did in public. And, for having the courage to remain in the closet until he knew he was ready to come out. At least now when I receive a letter from a gay man who is confused about coming out, I can use Ricky Martin as an example. And trust me, there are plenty of gay men and women out there who are still struggling with this issue and the last thing they need is more pressure than they already have.Hope Barbara Walters understands this, too. Because the next time she badgers someone into coming out of the closet on Oscar night they might just turn on her. I know I would have, and I would have done it with a great big smile, too :)
November 2, 2010
Self Publishing: Purpose of a Book Signing
Though I've never self-published anything of mine, I do admire the tenacity of those who do self-publish their books. And when I read this article in The Self-Publishing Review, I decided to share it with those of you who are self-publishing your own books. It deals with author book signings and getting the book into the community through storefront exposure. I'm not an expert in this field. I can, however, add a few tips to those who are self-publishing and looking to get exposure by doing book signings.
I think it's important to know the markets, especially these days. And if a new self-published author thinks he or she is going to sell books by sitting in a book store, they may be sadly mistaken. People in the author's community tend to be more critical than anyone else. And these people won't mention this to the author, they will murmur behind the author's back. I've seen it done more than once in my own community, when authors have tried to promote their self-published books. And this is the kind of criticism an author doesn't want. Aside from that, instead of trying to promote print books in bookstores that are hanging on by a thin strand of thread these days, it might be wiser for the author to start promoting a digital version of the book online. Online communication is cheap, it's effective, and it sells books these days far better than any book signing by an unknown author. And the target market for self-published digital books seems to be higher than the print market.
In other words, if you are self-publishing take the time to learn your market well. Don't listen to me or anyone else. Things are changing daily in publishing and what used to work a few years ago isn't working now.
Other than that, self-publishing can be a rough road. But I admire those who do it and I've often thought about doing myself.
I think it's important to know the markets, especially these days. And if a new self-published author thinks he or she is going to sell books by sitting in a book store, they may be sadly mistaken. People in the author's community tend to be more critical than anyone else. And these people won't mention this to the author, they will murmur behind the author's back. I've seen it done more than once in my own community, when authors have tried to promote their self-published books. And this is the kind of criticism an author doesn't want. Aside from that, instead of trying to promote print books in bookstores that are hanging on by a thin strand of thread these days, it might be wiser for the author to start promoting a digital version of the book online. Online communication is cheap, it's effective, and it sells books these days far better than any book signing by an unknown author. And the target market for self-published digital books seems to be higher than the print market.
In other words, if you are self-publishing take the time to learn your market well. Don't listen to me or anyone else. Things are changing daily in publishing and what used to work a few years ago isn't working now.
Other than that, self-publishing can be a rough road. But I admire those who do it and I've often thought about doing myself.
November 1, 2010
A Typical Day for a Writer...Fifteen Years Ago
So much has changed in the past ten years it's almost hard to imagine. I've been writing fiction and getting published since college, so writing and working in the publishing industry for me has never been a life change or a creative release. It's what I do, and always has been.
For writers, life has become much easier than it was fifteen years ago. On a typical Monday morning fifteen years ago, I'd open my art gallery, set up displays and lighting, and then I'd sit down at my desk and start working on another short story or magazine piece. After working as an editor in publishing for Conde Nast, I decided to open my own business...an art gallery...so I'd have the time and the freedom to write my own work instead of editing someone else's work. It wasn't always easy running a business seven days a week and juggling a writing career. But it worked for me. The business was unrelated to the writing, and switching gears all the time was a good thing.
Monday to Thursday in the gallery were slow days, so I had plenty of time to write, get manuscripts out to publishers, and talk to editors on the phone. I was late coming to computers. I didn't actually start writing on a computer until 2000, and all the work I submitted to publishers was hardcopy up until 2005. But I wasn't the only one, and I know for a fact there are still agents and editors who prefer hardcopy to electronic pages. And, I didn't even work on a word processor. I wrote everything on an IBM electric typewriter, from fiction to magazine pieces. I had shelves with stacks of ink cartridges, rows of white out, and all kinds of correct ribbons. When you made a mistake on a typewriter you either tried to correct it as best you could, or you just started over again.
That's why I'm always a little amused when I hear writers talking about edits now. Fifteen years ago edits were revises and re-writes. And you either learned how to be a proficient typist or you spent days picking at keys trying to get it perfect. Editors wanted neat, perfect manuscripts. If you submitted something with corrections and white out, they didn't even bother to read it. If you weren't a great typist, you paid someone to type a manuscript for you, which wasn't cheap. Of course nowadays with Word Documents it's simple to get things right with just a few clicks and edits. But with the old ways, it took time, energy, and attention to detail. In other words, writers wrote and re-wrote. And nothing was actually edited until it went to the publisher.
Thanks to computers and everything going electronic, all this has changed. I can get a short story written, edited, and submitted within a week. A novel can take anywhere from one month to two months in most cases. I even wrote one novel I had pubbed under a pen name in three weeks, which would have been impossible to do fifteen years ago.
But the interesting thing is I miss the old days sometimes. If computers disappeared tomorrow and I had to go back to working on a typewriter I wouldn't have any problems at all. I could live without social networks, e-mails, and all the other things I'm come to depend on daily. I miss the folks at the post office, too. I used to know them by name. These days I'm lucky if I get to the post office once or twice a month.
For writers, life has become much easier than it was fifteen years ago. On a typical Monday morning fifteen years ago, I'd open my art gallery, set up displays and lighting, and then I'd sit down at my desk and start working on another short story or magazine piece. After working as an editor in publishing for Conde Nast, I decided to open my own business...an art gallery...so I'd have the time and the freedom to write my own work instead of editing someone else's work. It wasn't always easy running a business seven days a week and juggling a writing career. But it worked for me. The business was unrelated to the writing, and switching gears all the time was a good thing.
Monday to Thursday in the gallery were slow days, so I had plenty of time to write, get manuscripts out to publishers, and talk to editors on the phone. I was late coming to computers. I didn't actually start writing on a computer until 2000, and all the work I submitted to publishers was hardcopy up until 2005. But I wasn't the only one, and I know for a fact there are still agents and editors who prefer hardcopy to electronic pages. And, I didn't even work on a word processor. I wrote everything on an IBM electric typewriter, from fiction to magazine pieces. I had shelves with stacks of ink cartridges, rows of white out, and all kinds of correct ribbons. When you made a mistake on a typewriter you either tried to correct it as best you could, or you just started over again.
That's why I'm always a little amused when I hear writers talking about edits now. Fifteen years ago edits were revises and re-writes. And you either learned how to be a proficient typist or you spent days picking at keys trying to get it perfect. Editors wanted neat, perfect manuscripts. If you submitted something with corrections and white out, they didn't even bother to read it. If you weren't a great typist, you paid someone to type a manuscript for you, which wasn't cheap. Of course nowadays with Word Documents it's simple to get things right with just a few clicks and edits. But with the old ways, it took time, energy, and attention to detail. In other words, writers wrote and re-wrote. And nothing was actually edited until it went to the publisher.
Thanks to computers and everything going electronic, all this has changed. I can get a short story written, edited, and submitted within a week. A novel can take anywhere from one month to two months in most cases. I even wrote one novel I had pubbed under a pen name in three weeks, which would have been impossible to do fifteen years ago.
But the interesting thing is I miss the old days sometimes. If computers disappeared tomorrow and I had to go back to working on a typewriter I wouldn't have any problems at all. I could live without social networks, e-mails, and all the other things I'm come to depend on daily. I miss the folks at the post office, too. I used to know them by name. These days I'm lucky if I get to the post office once or twice a month.
