I’m having one of those ‘why am I even bothering to try’ times. It might be because the skies have been grey and the rain and wind haven’t let up for several days. I could put it down to a combination of chronic arthritis and cabin fever…or it might be that I’ve been waiting to hear from the publisher for AGES. If I ever get a novel published it’ll probably be posthumously!
I don’t have tickets on myself. I realise I’ll never be the next J K Rowling. But, I’m a reviewer. In the past six years I’ve read several truckloads of books. And I have to say, compared to about 60% of them – maybe more – I write as well, or better. Of course, there’s the other 40% or so, who are much much better than me but even so, I’m talking ‘published books’ here. There have been a plethora of times when I’ve thought: How did this get into print? Who did they know, pay, do a favour for…? I bet you’ve had similar moments, when you’ve read the literary equivalent of the movie, ‘Ishtar’.
I know it’s a slow process. I know that for us non-Rowling types it takes a long time. But, I’m running out of life-time here folks! It’s so FRUSTRATING! I should be well on the way with book two in my junior fantasy series but I can’t get my head around it. I keep thinking: What’s the point of spending a year working on it, if I can’t get book one published?
Such negativity, hey? I warned you: grey skies, rain, wind, cabin fever, chronic pain, SLOW PUBLISHERS… It all adds up to a gloomy state of mind. And I’m on holiday for goodness sake. The frogs are singing up a storm, so they’re loving the weather. The fire is blazing, so that’s a comfort. We found some sugar free chocolate, so that’s a blessing. The Wonder Dog hasn’t had one ‘little accident’, so that’s a miracle. Really, I should be ‘counting it all joy’ my brothers and sisters. I’ll go read a paperback and tell myself I could do much better; that should cheer me up.