Release day for my favorite author, Pat Conroy!!
Pat Conroy’s new book!
Oh glory day! This one snuck up on me, I have to admit. I knew my favorite author, legendary southern novelist Pat Conroy was working on a non-fiction memoir entitled The Death of Santini. He’d mentioned it in several interviews I’d seen or read over the last few years. What I didn’t realize was that it was releasing TODAY!!
This news, however, got me running out to Barnes and Noble on my lunch break to pick up my own hardback copy. Although I’ve pretty much transitioned to e-books for most reads, there’s just something about buying Pat’s books in hardcopy and holding it in my hands, because he’s one of the few authors I’ll read over and over again, AND get something new from, with each reading.
If you’ve followed my interviews/blog posts, it’s no surprise to you that I’m a huge Pat Conroy fan. But for those of you who don’t know it, here’s a portion of a blog post published years ago that explains a little bit about what Pat means to me:
“This past summer, I was having a really bad time of it in my writing world. I had finished a manuscript in April, and had submitted it to a publisher in May. I had high hopes for it. I’d done my homework and thought I’d written this story to be exactly what this publisher was looking for. In July I was in touch with an experienced published author who offered to read the manuscript for me and offer her critique. I sent it off to her, anxious to hear her feedback.
Unfortunately, the critique was brutal. In her attempt to make my manuscript better, she ripped it to shreds. Every paragraph or so, her red pen circled and crossed out, asking questions in the margin, wondering why I did this, why I did that. In the middle of one particularly sensitive scene, she wrote in capital letters, YUCK.
I was destroyed. My confidence in my own writing ability was gone. I had no idea if I would get past this and write another book. To help myself feel better, I pulled out the seven books of my all-time favorite author, Pat Conroy. I devoured them one by one, soaking in each of his words, each of his scenes. Although I’d read them all numerous times before, this time they healed my broken spirit. They made me remember why I love to write books and tell stories. If I could touch one reader the way his books have touched me, it is all worth it. After four months, I went back to my own writing and started a new manuscript. The joy of writing had returned for me, and I had him to thank.
I sent him a long, heartfelt email and guess what: he wrote back to me the very next day! He was so kind and generous – he told me that his most recent book had robbed him of his confidence as a writer for 8 months. He said books do it to all writers, and he was glad that I’d weathered my tsunami. I jumped up and down in my living room for five minutes straight yelling at the top my lungs: “OMG! OMG! OMG!” It was definitely my most memorable fangirl moment!”
I’ll forever love Pat Conroy for his kindness to me, and for the beauty of the books he writes.
