She’s Gone…oh why…oh why…
My favorite emailer in the world is Betsy Lerner. I don’t know what to call her…a blogger? She’s a writer, prize-winning editor, literary agent, prize-winning poet, umm…now that I read her various bios, I’m feeling intimidated.
But let’s put that aside. Lerner’s emails are short, unfiltered, and often extremely funny. I get a dopamine rush when I see one in my inbox and will drop everything to read it.
Betsy Lerner took a few weeks away from posting recently and I thought she might be on her deathbed or have something dire going on. Make that something else dire, since being on your deathbed is , let’s face it, already dire.
Well, she’s back. She’s BAAAAACCCCKKK!!!
Turns out the time off was so she could read War and Peace. (Get a sense of that experience here.) Now there’s a person with clear priorities.
If you like books, publishing, and weirdness, I recommend Betsy Lerner’s newsletter / blog.
If you are a writer or an editor, I HIGHLY recommend her book The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers. A review in the Chicago Tribune review describes it best:
“Remarkably generous about inviting writers behind the editorial curtain, [Lerner] sings like a canary the trade secrets of editors and agents, offering solid, insider advice on every step of the publishing process…with this book, Betsy Lerner becomes what every writer hopes for — a friend in the business.”
If you’re my friend on social media, you might have heard…IT WON IT WON IT WON IT WON IT WON IT WON IT WON IT WON
“IT” being my 2022 entry in the International 3-Day Novel Writing Contest.
I almost wrote “I” won, but I prefer to think it was the manuscript. First prize is publication with Anvil Press.
Am I excited? You bet.Do I think winning a contest will change my life? Yes, a little, and for a short while. I will have stuff to do. I might even get to go to a party, since Anvil is headquartered in my hometown.
Will anything change in the long term? Having known many people who get books published successfully, I’d say no. But I’m prepared to believe that I don’t know anything about anything.
Here’s a reflection from fellow finalist Tove Black on the weirdness of the 3DN experience:
“When I reread the manuscript [of her 2022 entry] a couple of months ago I couldn’t remember a single thing about what was going to happen next to the characters, although as I went through the scenes I kept thinking, oh yeah, this person, and oh yeah, this part.”
Same here!
YOUR TURN!
If the idea of writing a novel in three days scares you, I suggest that you register for the dang contest already–here’s the link: https://www.3daynovel.com/registration-3/And here’s a video by my friend and fellow writer Pam Bustin on how to prepare: https://youtu.be/B6VpzXUnG0s
Cheers,
Pat