as some readers may have guessed (and most folks in my phone book have been told), i have been offered a contract with UQP for the publication of my novel, The Diamond Anchor.
I’m thrilled to bits. Over the stage where I can’t stop punching the air, but still distractingly excited. The relevant bits of paper have to be looked over, but the formal offer has been made and accepted.
It feels right to be settling down with Queenslanders at this point. It’s my least visited state and I’ve been growing curious about it lately. This right-feeling is good and rare and probably an irrational principle by which to conduct your business dealings, but a book is more than business (and also less). And I always go with my gut. Saves me having to think.
It really astonishes me that this story I’ve lived with since 2004 will be brought to life and sent out into the world in a nice new jacket. That these people I know like my own family are coming true, in the best sense. Is this what it’s like when your children go to school?
Actually I feel more like I have made something very unlikely, like a ten-storey tower of plastic drinking straws, stand up all by itself.
Lots of work ahead now. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
The New Yorker recently published some correspondence between Raymond Carver and his editor – it’s very engaging, but reading it gave me an awful feeling (in both the olden-day and the modern sense of awful). He just seems so fragile. And such a pain in the arse.
Some people are not that good at being vulnerable. I’m against it, myself. Opening up the writing process to collaborate with an editor is daunting. It’s a big risk – of almost marital proportions, I think – but it’s a thrilling one. I am determined to enjoy the process (far more than i would a marriage).
So it’s Anchors aweigh – or as they say in this part of the world, Awaye! (that’s Arrernte for your-attention-please)
Oh, and happy wolf moon to lycanthropes everywhere. is it wrong to listen to the blues when your luck’s so good?
never!
5 responses to “the good news is”
UQP = Unrool, Qwool & Powerfool!
Fantastic news – UQP are awesome publishers with a reputation for having a great editorial process. Well done, can’t wait to read it!
L.
Congrats. I knew this news but I thought I’d say that anyway.
Congratulations Jen! That’s completely fantastic.
I wish you a wonderful editorial process. Speaking from experience I’d say that your editor will develop feelings for your ms as tender as your own and that together you can make it the very best book it can be.
fantastic news! congrats.
you might just have to come in AGAIN and talk about it!!
– your local radio stalker