Mark Terry

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Be Careful What You Wish For


March 15, 2007


Yeah, I'm juggling. This isn't a complaint, merely a somewhat bemused observation. Here's the deal:

I sent off the manuscript for the kids' fantasy novel to my agent. She sent it off to 8 publishers simultaneously. Yikes!

Then she alerts me to the fact that the 25 page proposal for a kid series was at another publisher and they were on the fence and wanted to read more. How long would it take me to write another 25 pages? Gulp, says I, a week to 10 days. "Get to it," says my agent.

Meanwhile, we're still awaiting word on another sent to Forge, that editor I had lunch with back in January.

I'm proofing the galley for The Serpent's Kiss.

I'm supposed to be working on the 4th Derek Stillwater novel, whose manuscript is due in October. (I am, Barbara. Really. Right on schedule.)

I've got a big business report due June 1st. I've got two articles due next week, one which is a big pain-in-the-tush benchmarking article requiring me to scour company annual reports in search of data they don't like to talk about (like bad debt expenses).

I commented to Irene that it would be cool to get all these contracts, but if I did, when would I sleep? She said I'd enjoy the checks and besides, sleep was overrated.

Well, it's an exciting time, anyway, even if I feel a little bit like the lady with the axes up there.

Best,

Mark Terry

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Everything's happening! A problem with writing is that publishing success doesn't necessarily translate into making a living success. It's OK to say sleep is overrated but, realistically, there are only so many hours in the day and you can't risk rushing to the point of producing crap either fiction or non-fiction. I hate to say it, but the way things are going you might find yourself needing to make the leap to full-time fiction, with the idea that you'll then be able to make a living at it, but there's no way to make a living at it (or be abslutely sure you can) until you're full-time. Worked with the non-fiction!

9:11 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Don't even think this gets you out of OMS band concerts. Let me know if you need to farm any of that out. I can make up numbers on a comany report as well as anybody. Remember, I worked for Ford AND Chrysler.

9:25 AM  
Blogger Mark Terry said...

If wishes were fishes...

Just because there's so much going on doesn't mean it'll all come through. I'm very confident about the new kids' book, less so about the proposal and totally up in the air about the thriller at Forge. In a couple weeks I could just be shrugging and saying, "Well, that's how it goes." But for today, anyway... I've got to get to work.

9:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like you need to join these guys:

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Whoops, I shouldn't be distracting you... get back to work!

10:47 AM  
Blogger Mark Terry said...

I love the Flying Karamazov Brothers!

10:55 AM  
Blogger Spy Scribbler said...

That's awesome! Good luck!

12:54 PM  
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