On Publishing, Philosophy, Expectations, And Cookies
Commence bitching: Please…I wish people would stop leaving comments about how “close together” the Valentine series is. What people don’t realize is that it took me five years to write those books, if not more. They’re being released close together, sure–because Orbit is launching stateside and they wanted a fully-grown and developed series to launch with. Plus, they liked the books. Go figure.
A lot of people don’t realize that when one writes a book, it can wait up to three years to get into print even if it’s bought right away. There’s editorial and production and art schedules to take into account. Traditional publishing is not for the impatient.
I know people may not understand why the books are appearing so quickly, but I really kind of resent the implication in a lot of the comments I’ve seen that I cranked these puppies out one after another in order to profit from them. No, my ducks, each book took a minimum of a year and a maximum of three years to write, and they were mostly all written concurrently, in a strange overlapping pattern. I got better as I went along, I hope, but each book took an overly-decent amount of time to create. That’s because they were hard on me emotionally–not as hard as the Kismet books, but very stressful nonetheless. I needed a full year minimum to deal with each book.
End bitching. I suppose I’m just being thin-skinned. But it does kind of cheese my buns. If the commenters knew how long one has to wait to see one’s book in print, mayhap they would not comment thus.
On another note, much more pleasant in my humble opinion, while driving home last night from picking up the UnSullen One Sarah McLachlan’s Fallen came on the radio.
Heaven
Bend to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight
Truth be told I tried my best
But somewhere long the way
I got caught up in all there was to offer
But the cost was so much more than I could bear
Though I’ve tried I’ve fallen
I have sunk so low
I messed up
Better I should know
So don’t come round here and
Tell me I told you so…
I realized that the song pretty much sums up the whole Valentine series, or at least Dante’s journey throughout. I listened to this song obsessively from Devil’s Right Hand through the finishing lines of To Hell And Back, especially while out walking at the track and processing more scenes in my head. If there is a song that encapsulates the whole series, that one’s it. I have sometimes remarked that everything one needs to know about Danny Valentine can be found in that song.
Kind of funny when someone does in three stanzas, a chorus, and a bridge what you took five books and however many drafts to do. No, I’m not jealous…not one little bit…me? No way. *grin*
When Danny started out as a character she was very black-and-white. If you betrayed her once, she was done with you. There were lines she had drawn that framed her whole world.
Then Japhrimel happened. And a whole underlying theme of the series is Dante moving into these situations where, increasingly, there is no right choice. It is an education in shades of gray for this character, who started out emotionally stunted and pretty rigid in her conceptions of how the world should work.
I’ve known a lot of people, especially teens, that way (and was, I must admit, one myself.) In many ways I think the process of growing up is learning about shades of gray and those situations where there is no “right thing” to do, or the “right thing” has such horrific consequences a different way has to be found. Learning to deal with those situations with nuance and flexibility is a hard balancing act, one that human beings rarely get consistently right.
I have not yet decided whether this is a bad or a good thing. It certainly creates both opportunities for learning AND for angst. On the other hand, pain seems to be the learning tool most often utilised by humanity. As Todd McCaffrey said to me this weekend, “Screwed is subjective.” Which rather neatly sums up the whole damn deal.
The UnSullen One is taking a philosophy class this quarter–something about how to use logic. It is fascinating to see him learning this whole new language and figuring out that defining one’s terms in this way is the first step toward talking to other people rationally and in an adult manner about philosophical questions. Without the definition of terms, the debates can’t go on.
It strikes me (rather roughly sometimes) that many interpersonal problems spring from a lack of clearly-defined terms agreed upon by both parties. Expectations are really little good if they’re not communicated clearly and thoroughly, and unless both parties agree the expectations mean the same things trouble will loom on the horizon sooner or later.
Eh, enough deep thoughts. There is a reading lesson for the Little Prince to get to, and math for the Princess, and cookies I promised to bake today.
Philosophy is nice, but I’ve got cookies to bake. Which just goes to show that I’m more of a practical utilitarian than a philosopher.
And glad to be one.
Over and out.
