in print

When people ask me what it takes to be a writer - or rather, after I get my first book published and my publisher sends me on a book tour of small midwestern towns and some moon-eyed community college student asks me what it takes to be a writer - I think I will probably give the stock answer: read a lot of everything and write every day.

It sounds pretty straightforward, but it leaves out the part about rewriting. I spent this past week rewriting (for the quadrillianth time) my book and I have to say that it does not feel like writing. In fact, it feels a little bit like putting on nice clothes, hopping on a bicycle, and getting caught in a water-balloon rainshower. It's not that it is all that unpleasant - it's still writing and it's still fun - but it has more than enough of those, "I can't believe I'm doing this again!" moments.

Nonetheless, I think I have finally reached a point where my baby is almost-sorta-kinda starting to really show something without just telling it. Now where's that publisher?

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