"The notion that such persons are gay of heart and carefree is curiously untrue. They lead, as a matter of fact, an existence of jumpiness and apprehension. They sit on the edge of the chair of Literature. In the house of Life they have the feeling that they have never taken off their overcoats."
- James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Where was I?

Oh, yes, I was strutting around, calling myself an author, even though I've only got one book published. I can hear the catcalls now:



"One measly little book, is that all? FREEZER BURN's a year old. What have you done for us lately?"



Thank you for asking. As a matter of fact, on July 7th, I finished the second book. I locked myself in the kitchen with the puppy for three solid days and wrote about 18,000 words. It was difficult. It was glorious. It was done.



At least, the first draft is complete. I'm now cooling my heels until August, when we leave on vacation and I take the draft with me to begin editing. I love editing - the hard building work is complete and now it's time to mop the floors, dust the endtables, get the cobwebs out of the corners.



Wait - maybe that's my house.



But I'm not just resting on my laurels. Actually, my laurels haven't rested since my son was born, but let's not go there. I'm doing Other Stuff.



Stuff like putting together a book of my columns. It's composed as a memoir about my first few years as a columnist. I'm calling it, "What Would Erma Do? Confessions of a First-Time Humor Columnist." Since I have the whole community platform thing going, I thought I'd try self-publishing this one. Also, most publishers I've approached with this idea have said, basically, "We know humor essays sell. We just don't know how to sell them." Meh. I'll do it myself.



I'm also re-editing and polishing a short story I did for an anthology. It's about Peri in her housecleaning, pre-investigator days, solving a crime for a client. I'm not certain where it's going to end up, but it will be available for sale or rent, or possibly even a free teaser, like Joe Konrath, who is soon going to have more money than God because he gives stuff away. Yea, I dunno how it works, either.



Lastly, I made a new video trailer for FREEZER BURN. It's probably sheer madness on my part, but I spoofed the Old Spice ad.







Tell me what you think... and please be kind.


4 comments:

~ Babs ~ said...

I had to watch it twice I was laughing too much the first go around. The my kids wanted to know what i was laughing at and my youngest wants a horse now. I think it was great it catches your attention. I know I am looking forward to reading the book.

Gayle Carline said...

Sorry about the horse thing, Babs. I have that effect on children.

DeAnna Cameron said...

Congratulations on finishing that second book! I'm finding No. 2 to be even harder than No. 1, so you are inspiring me to persevere :-)

Helen Ginger said...

I love that video. It totally made me laugh.

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