I got a call the other day from fellow writer, Cathy Salustri, asking if I would mind if her book club used my book for their next meeting (check out her blog here.) Of course, I don’t mind, nor do I think I have the power to prevent any book clubs from reading my book if I wanted to. This club is a little different in that it is connected with one of St. Petersburg area’s literary organizations (Wordier Than Thou) and has unofficial ties to Creative Loafing, which is the free (and very well done) entertainment weekly. While it might not be the bump that Oprah can give, it’s cool to network with local writers. In honor of this, I’ve temporarily dropped the price of my book to 99 cents. If you want to come see a writer get critiqued by a bunch of other writers he doesn’t know, here are the details:
Cathy’s last blog post has a funny quote: “Asking a writer about his work is like asking a cancer patient about the status of his disease.” – Jay McInerney. I wouldn’t go that far, but I understand the sentiment. Someone I’ve only met once just came up and asked me if I’m working on the sequel. I’m more than half way done with the follow-up to The Grandfather Clock, but I had really hoped it would be in my editor’s hands right now. I’m about to go into high gear and knock out the rest of the book…. gimme 4 weeks. By the time I stand before the Critical Drinkers, the draft will be DONE. I’ve be re-reading some of it and I’m feeling like it is far more polished than the first draft of anything else I’ve written. I’ll feel that way until I get the notes back. Circle August/September for the release of book 2… whose title will be announced soon. I said it would be out this summer, even if that means Sept. 20, it’s still summer.
Speaking of my editor, the other night she was beating me soundly at billiards, and I started giving her a preview. Explaining an unfinished novel is sort of like telling someone about a dream you had. My wife and I have a rule (that we don’t follow) that we don’t tell about “the dream we had last night”. It is never as interesting as it was when you first woke up, and you will not possible be able to tell it in a way that is interesting to the person who didn’t have the dream. I re-proved this rule the other day when I told her that I dreamt that she’d hired a babysitter – who happened to be Taylor Swift with gray hair, although my dream-wife didn’t seem to notice that she’d hired a pop superstar. Not only was this dream not interesting, but now my wife thinks I have a thing for Taylor Swift, which I would readily admit if it were true. The purpose telling you this story is to get the SEO hits for “Taylor Swift.” I didn’t mention Oprah for no reason. #41yearoldmanknowsnothingaboutSEO… (Caitlyn Jenner, Kim Jong Un, Stanley Cup, Lebron James, Amy Schumer, Josh Duggar, Apple Watch, Song of the Summer). Whew.
Thanks for reading! Drop me a note at jkilewrites@gmail.com.
P.S. An earlier version had the date of the book club incorrectly listed as July 8 because that’s when Facebook told me it was.
Jonathan Kile - Well Oiled Writer 