- Joined
- Jun 8, 2012
- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 3
Well hello...
I am new to all of this and just wanted to now formally say hello.
As a technical writer, I have never had a problem. We (my collaborator and I) have just signed with a major textbook publisher for a fairly large advance on a new textbook.
But I have a hobby in writing fiction. A few of my essays have appeared in newspapers - family humor kind of stuff.
At the late age of 42 I became a father. And I wrote a novel for my young daughter. It was kind of like Harry Potter, but it used science, not magic to drive the fantasy. And it was for girls. And it failed. But it failed an ugly death with me in denial for about five years. Finally I realized the plot was deficient. And I really wrote it for my daughter.
Then my son was born. And for a few years I worried that I did not have a story for him. But I did. Oh boy, did I.
I am one of the very unfortunate men who did not realize how good a man his own father was until it was too late. (When my father was dying, he called me from NY to California, and apologized. But I was too arrogant to return the apology, too. It is my scar.)
So, I began to sketch a story for my son. It was modeled on my relationship with my own father. The sketch has been in my head for years.
I am now on sabbatical in Norway. And in between my many jobs (teaching on line from here to US, research project, textbook), I spent two hours a day, for six months, to knock off this fiction.
It has been extremely painful for me to revisit things. This has not been easy. The most difficult part is to make sure the novel is not so personal that it does not have appeal. But it is done. (I suppose that is what one agent meant when he said the discussions between the father and son in my story is so real and vivid. It is based on an extremely personal and painful memory.)
Anyway, now I wait to hear what the agents say. I sort of expect they will reject it to. I sense a few more flaws in the story.
Anyway... this is who I am... Just wanted to say hello and set the records straight.
(These last few months have been very painful for me as I see my relationship with a man who I never knew I loved so much until it was too late, so I am sorry if things came out the wrong way.)
So I know there are typos in what I just typed but I am just going to submit it.
Hi...
I am new to all of this and just wanted to now formally say hello.
As a technical writer, I have never had a problem. We (my collaborator and I) have just signed with a major textbook publisher for a fairly large advance on a new textbook.
But I have a hobby in writing fiction. A few of my essays have appeared in newspapers - family humor kind of stuff.
At the late age of 42 I became a father. And I wrote a novel for my young daughter. It was kind of like Harry Potter, but it used science, not magic to drive the fantasy. And it was for girls. And it failed. But it failed an ugly death with me in denial for about five years. Finally I realized the plot was deficient. And I really wrote it for my daughter.
Then my son was born. And for a few years I worried that I did not have a story for him. But I did. Oh boy, did I.
I am one of the very unfortunate men who did not realize how good a man his own father was until it was too late. (When my father was dying, he called me from NY to California, and apologized. But I was too arrogant to return the apology, too. It is my scar.)
So, I began to sketch a story for my son. It was modeled on my relationship with my own father. The sketch has been in my head for years.
I am now on sabbatical in Norway. And in between my many jobs (teaching on line from here to US, research project, textbook), I spent two hours a day, for six months, to knock off this fiction.
It has been extremely painful for me to revisit things. This has not been easy. The most difficult part is to make sure the novel is not so personal that it does not have appeal. But it is done. (I suppose that is what one agent meant when he said the discussions between the father and son in my story is so real and vivid. It is based on an extremely personal and painful memory.)
Anyway, now I wait to hear what the agents say. I sort of expect they will reject it to. I sense a few more flaws in the story.
Anyway... this is who I am... Just wanted to say hello and set the records straight.
(These last few months have been very painful for me as I see my relationship with a man who I never knew I loved so much until it was too late, so I am sorry if things came out the wrong way.)
So I know there are typos in what I just typed but I am just going to submit it.
Hi...