That's what Mr. B. recommended I call my Great Wisconsin RV Book Tour. Since when is driving around Wisconsin in a 1973 RV with your parents uncool? Chicks and Hicks my ass. I am very excited to bring May Day to the people of The Cheese State. And for those of you who say Wisconsin is just Minnesota Lite, I say pah (in my naked-but-for-my-yellowed-underwear-old-man, fist-shaking voice).The other day I got an email from William Kent Krueger in which he apologized for not making it to my last Saturday signing at Once Upon a Crime and said that he thought I was the best writer he'd ever read and that I was really fun to be around, too. Or maybe he just said to stop calling his house and asking for Cork O'Connor. I dunno. It all gets so jumbly in my head sometimes.
Yesterday, as I was beginning revisions on the first full draft of Knee High by July with all the enthusiasm I usually save for pap smears, church, and dentist appointments, I had a thought: "How do authors know how long a book should be?" My mainstream fiction (which isn't published, thank you for asking) novel is about 300 pages, but darn it if I can get a mystery past 220 pages. I get to to 200 pages and I think, "done." I race to that 200 pages, and that's where all three have ended. I push myself, push push push myself to get it to 210, and then take feedback from others to get it to 220. Is that me, or is that just the natural arc of the story and I am just a whittler on the wood of the plot, uncovering what was there all along?
I'm beginning to think Mr. B is a bit of a snob!
ReplyDeleteI think 200 pages is about right for us chicks in the hicks. It's got to be GOOD to get past that (and I'm sure yours always will be!). Seriously, don't worry about the # of pages. As long as it gets published, sells copies, and you're proud of it, that's what matters.
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