Romany Arrowsmith
asked
Peter Derk:
Hi! I just finished and greatly enjoyed "Dear Runaway". Why did you choose that particular letter as the title of your book? Did you workshop other letters-as-titles, and why didn't the others work for you? Did you at any point consider naming your book something outside of the text of the book entirely? Thanks for your time.
Peter Derk
AH! A real question! Gasp. Hyperventilate.
Okay, stay calm, Pete. Don't blow it.
Ahem.
First, thanks for reading my book. And thanks for enjoying that. Although maybe you should be thanking ME for you enjoying it (stop it, Pete. You're blowing it!).
For a very long time, the project that became this book was a blog called Pete's Unsent Love Letters. And for a long time, that was the title of the book. I did get some advice in the form of a question from another writer I really like, and she asked me if I'd considered naming it after one of the letters, "Something like Dear Runaway."
I liked the idea a lot. See, I tried to get this thing published by a publisher. Like 20+ times. Trying to get something published is the worst. It's like job interviewing except you ACTUALLY CARE A LOT. And you can't console yourself by saying, "They probably just gave the job to the boss' cousin or something." Although I bet a lot of cousins of heads of publishing houses have novels in boxes in storage lockers in NYC.
I wasn't getting any bites, so I thought maybe my friend was right, and maybe I should try a change of title.
I looked at some of the other letters, but that's the thing about titles: when someone suggests one, it rolls around in your head for long enough that nothing else really sounds right.
So, that's how it ended up the way it ended up. Good advice from a good writer and a good friend. Or, to look at it another way, collapsing under peer pressure when I was vulnerable and at an emotional low.
I do think it helped with questions about what was fiction and what wasn't. When you put your name in the title, you can't really be annoyed that people keep asking about the truths and fictions of the letters.
Okay, stay calm, Pete. Don't blow it.
Ahem.
First, thanks for reading my book. And thanks for enjoying that. Although maybe you should be thanking ME for you enjoying it (stop it, Pete. You're blowing it!).
For a very long time, the project that became this book was a blog called Pete's Unsent Love Letters. And for a long time, that was the title of the book. I did get some advice in the form of a question from another writer I really like, and she asked me if I'd considered naming it after one of the letters, "Something like Dear Runaway."
I liked the idea a lot. See, I tried to get this thing published by a publisher. Like 20+ times. Trying to get something published is the worst. It's like job interviewing except you ACTUALLY CARE A LOT. And you can't console yourself by saying, "They probably just gave the job to the boss' cousin or something." Although I bet a lot of cousins of heads of publishing houses have novels in boxes in storage lockers in NYC.
I wasn't getting any bites, so I thought maybe my friend was right, and maybe I should try a change of title.
I looked at some of the other letters, but that's the thing about titles: when someone suggests one, it rolls around in your head for long enough that nothing else really sounds right.
So, that's how it ended up the way it ended up. Good advice from a good writer and a good friend. Or, to look at it another way, collapsing under peer pressure when I was vulnerable and at an emotional low.
I do think it helped with questions about what was fiction and what wasn't. When you put your name in the title, you can't really be annoyed that people keep asking about the truths and fictions of the letters.
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Aug 20, 2020 06:11AM · flag