Good and bad.
Yesterday I had a living room picnic with good family friends and we played a game called, "Good and Bad." We took turns saying the good things that happened to us. But we were only allowed one bad.
Only recently have I been able to look at the books I couldn't sell as good things.
For the record: I'm 4 out of eight (four published out of the eight I've written ... the novellas count as half a book).
Anyway, I've come to realize that the four unpublishable books are not wasted efforts. They're my organ donors.
For example, the scene when Isela dances with Sebastian in "My Favorite Mistake", came from a book I wrote six years ago. Isa Avellan's storyline in Hot Tamara served as the back story for In Between Men.
This morning, as I was thinking about a problem with a new story idea, the answer popped out of my subconscious. I realized I could finally use a part (my most favorite part) of Baby You're The One in this new story.
When Baby didn't sell, I grieved for weeks. Thinking it would be my triumphant entre into young adult fiction, the experience really shook me up. I questioned if I'd be a one-hit wonder. But now I see that one bad thing has given birth to so many good things. It restores my trust that things happen only if they're supposed to. Now I hope that when this new idea is fully born - with a fully functional donated body part - you'll finally get to read it.
Knock ... knock ... knock! That's was me knocking on wood ... just in case.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Mary
Currently reading: Pop! by Aury Wallington (it's like she snuck into my 17 year-old self and excavated all the things I'll never tell my mom ... read it!)
3 comments:
Oragan donors. LOL. I love that! I raid all of my old stuff, too. Never throw anything away!
Weez
I love that game! :)
And I love "Organ Donors". I've done it before, but now you're making me wonder what else I can cannibalize. Hmm...
And now I'm dying to know what scene you're taking from Baby!
I'm still sad about that one not flying. It's such a good story.
And I think it's so nice that you share these experiences...that just because your published doesn't mean everything is green-lighted.
But to me, it reminds me how this business is a crapshoot and I wonder how many other wonderful stories are out there by my other favorite authors that just never found the right editor.
Either way, I love how you turned something that could've been perceived as bad into a "good".
:) d
you give me hope girl... even when they don't sell, you can always write another!
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