Lines for my (not yet published) books...

I was joking with friends last week about our novels being published (for a couple of them, Spring 2011! For most of us, still a dream in the making...) and we agreed that yes, we most certainly want a line running out the door, down the street and generally wreaking havoc in any city we're promoting our book at the moment. :)

But of course, it's not that easy. I won't go into all that getting published entails, but suffice to say, writing the book is the EASY part. Er, well, mostly.

It's absurd to write a book for the fame. Or the money. It's 'morally wonky', says Stephen King. You have to have the passion for it. I remember when I wrote my first novel three years ago. I couldn't stop writing it. I had NO idea what I would do with it when I finished it or why I had to write this story, but every moment was about it. It consumed me. I have never had a story since to do that. It's not the greatest story, not written that well, but everytime I go to edit it, I can't do much to it. It begs me not to cut, tweak or change anything, that it's perfect the way it is (and of course, I know better, but still...). Every unperfect sentence is full of pure feeling. I might have to self-publish that one and pray for the best. But everyone who has read it, despite its imperfections, always wants to know what happened.

I hope I'm a bestselling author one day. I hope I have apartments in a few cities around the world (okay, apts small as closets are FINE with me, just so I can dig my toes in beaches and walk thru little European towns and American cities and call them mine for awhile). That would be what I did with the money, honey. But the GREATEST reward, and I mean it sincerely, would be to know that someone read my story, closed the book, and walked away aching from the story that was now a part of their heart forever. It's happened to me with books I love, and I pray I can give that to my readers.

Even if it's only one. :)