Writers can be a selfish lot, true. Sure we are, don’t shake your head. We like to spend time alone, creating entire worlds where the fate of every citizen is in our hands. This can be a bit self-destructive (read Misery) when left unchecked. But there are those magic times when you sit down and write and you feel like you’re already connecting with the audience that hasn’t read the book yet. Where you and the future reader are making every discovery at the same time…ah, I must towel off my drool now. Yes, it’s quite a good feeling. I highly recommend it. So what on Earth could parallel this kind of feeling? Well. Lots of stuff, sure. But I’m compartmentalizing here. Shutting off the outside world from my world as a writer. The feeling I speak of is when you send something to somebody, just an excerpt, a query, an idea, a “hey, I exist” kind of thing, and they send you back a letter that says “thank you…we’d like to see more.”
I just had that feeling recently! The Totem has legs, as they say in the Hollywood biz, but I’m not letting my ego run away with me. No, this monkey is riding a rocky and bumpy chariot like Ben Hur in the arena. I’m expecting to fall off at any moment. But for now, I’m experiencing the equivalent of completing a lap (or whatever those gladiator types could do that would make them pause and look around and say “neat.”). So, I am polishing a larger excerpt and sending it off again and keeping my fingers crossed. O, loyal webmonkeys, cross thy fingers as well, sayeth the main monkey.
Who knows? By the end of next year, this site could be talking about the publishing of The Totem…
By the way, if you don’t know, you can read more about The Totem on my Stories page. Go check it out! Y’all like the new web design? I’m curious to see how it works for everyone? Graphics okay? Links working? Let me know!
So, here is the new-look monkeywright.com. I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves. Look around, have a good time, and most of all, tell a friend!
PS- Coming soon (I hope, if I get the pictures), a post about a momentous meeting between myself and one of my absolute childhood icons…stay tuned…