Don’t lose your head
To gain a minute.
You need your head
Your brains are in it.
Burma Shave
Maybe I should put up Chapter One of Ebenezer’s Christmas Yarn on my web site – because that’s probably all you are going to read of it. My editor turned it down. She gave three reasons. First, statistics prove that mysteries set in the theater don’t sell nearly as well as other settings. Second, Christmas novels sell well – at Christmas, and this one will be coming out in the early spring of next year (well maybe not, now that I have to start all over again). Plus there wasn’t enough needlework in it. To that last, I plead guilty, I was carried away by the theater background. I personally find theater mysteries fascinating.
What’s striking me most odd of this turn of events is how undisappointed I am. I’m not sure why – maybe on some level I as aware of all the problems. But it does mean I don’t get to go to any more rehearsals. Shucks.
I wrote the above last week. Today, Monday, I’m thinking I might write it as a stand-alone. Maybe.
But also today, Monday, I am sitting here with very blurred vision. I had a cataract removed this morning and now, at about 2 pm, I am still swimming is a warm anesthesia fog and can hardly see a thing with my right eye – and my left eye seems to be suffering sympathetic vision problems. So please excuse the brevity of this entry, as well as any typos.
I took a photo of five daffodils on a table. I bought the daffodils on Sunday, and they seemed to brighten the whole room when I came home to them after the surgery. This morning, not so much – I think the brightening was an effect of my eye being very dilated.
6 comments:
Post the novel online. Let your fans decide whether that refusal was the right call or not. (For whatever it's worth, I trust in your talent enough to say it wasn't.)
I am shocked and surprised. I was looking forward to your next Betsy novel this spring.
Can you pack up Betsy and Jill (and Godwin, Doris, Conner, Phil, etc.) and move to a new publisher? I love both Christmas and theater mysteries. You can figure out how to add more needlework to the story somehow. I am heartbroken.
Sorry to hear that your story wasn't accepted and about your vision issues, Monica, but I'm sure you'll figure out what to do with your story--and hopefully your eyes will improve fast.
I'm sorry to hear your story wasn't accepted. But you can always put it up as an e-book.
I'm sure you will come up with another plot that will please your editor.
Probably by the time I post this your vision will be much better. It has to be scary.
I'm having a phone conference with my agent and editor on Thursday to talk about where we go next. There are elements of Ebenezer my editor likes a whole lot, so maybe we can use them in another novel.
I am having my first series, written as Mary Monica Pulver, re-published by a small local press - FTL Publications - and the owner said she'd love to buy Darned to publish it herself. So there's another option which I will hang over the head of my editor tomorrow.
I thought "Darned" was already published (Darned if You Do). I read it this week and enjoyed it.
If you go with another publisher your fans will follow you. Readers are not always aware of publishers names, but they know their favorite authors names.
I've been thinking about backstage wardrobe trunks where there are lots of old costumes and such.
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