Sunday, June 27, 2010

The night before P day

Twas the night before P Day and all through the house ....... a bottle of red was consumed with a sticky date pudding chaser.

Yes, as of tomorrow THE OLD SCHOOL will be out and about on book shelves around the country. Lurking about like an unaccompanied minor, shuffling for space with all the other hopefuls out there, working hard to catch the eye of the browser, luring them into picking it up, reading the blurbs, scanning the back of book hook, perhaps reading the opening pars .... maybe deciding that yes, this one's worth laying down the cost of a couple of movie tickets for, this one looks like it'll be worth spending a few hours with over winter.

My job this week.

Stay at the task at hand - writing book 2. Putting one word after the other until I have a first draft that has a beginning a middle and an end - then rolling up the sleeves and really getting to work on it. Mental deadlines are to have a first draft ready for spring. This would be a full first draft for me - no one else is going to get a peek at it until we've been on many miles of walks and thinks and edits together, in the parks, by the harbourside and the pools around here. Pen and paper. Old school edits. Then hours spent at the screenface deciphering the pen marks, the lines and arrows and additions and subtractions of the edit.

So that's task one - task two is making sure I'm beside the phone at the appointed times to take the phone calls. Over the next few weeks I'm privileged to have the opportunity to talk to people in Western Australia, South East Queensland, Northern New South Wales, South Australia .... I get to come through the radio waves into people's cars as they wait in traffic, scoot home from doing the shopping or search for that car space. I have a few precious minutes to persuade them to stay a moment longer in their car, door open, one leg out, hands on the keys about to kill the ignition, listening right to the end because they suddenly need to know the name of the book.  They've been convinced that this book is going to be a worth a read.

I'm getting the chance to come into their offices, their workshops, their homes. To sit with them in waiting rooms at the dentist, the doctor, the physio. I've got a chance to distract them from the everyday world, to promise them the chance to shapeshift, to time travel, to make a journey in another's skin.

 I'm about to go to work in a way I never imagined.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Pam,
    Thought I'd drop you a line. I'm Kate O'Donnell, Michael's daughter (Maggie's niece!). I work at a little independent bookshop in Melbourne and we're really excited about your book. Nana has been telling me about it for ages, actually, but my boss loved it and we've ordered a lot. Come and visit if you come to Melbourne on your book tour.
    Congratulations!
    beantherereadthat[at]gmail[dot]com

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  2. Kate, Thanks for getting in touch and for ordering in the book! It's still all new and thrilling to hear someone has read it and liked it. Looking forward to catching up with Maggie and Nana Marie at the launch drinkies in a couple of weeks.

    I'm going to be down Melbourne way in October for a Sisters in Crime event, so I'd love to drop by and catch up.

    Shall drop you an email with details.

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