Not a ninja
Last night I discovered two things while sitting in the stands at Aidan's baseball game:
- NorCal weather is drunk. How it manages to go from perfectly reasonable light sweater weather to arctic blast in 10 minutes is beyond me. (Isn't our cost of living supposed to preclude us from having weather at all?!) With breezy gusts capable of reducing parents to a huddled mess, mumbling incoherently about how the snack shack needs a liquor license so we can warm our bones with hot toddys, I think it's time for the weather gods to take pity on us and cut that shit out.
- There is no incognito way to read a book about novel-writing in public.
Apparently one cannot be a ninja while reading something comment worthy.
Those who know me know that I am never without a book (or two or ten).
Exhibit A: My 50 pound purse. Conveyance for carrying necessities or substitute for arm day? You decide.
Whilst sitting in the stands at my darling son's little league games, I usually forgo the e-reader and pull out a good old dependable (and totally readable in sunlight) paper book. Most of these books have intriguing cover art and interesting titles, often spanning genres, and it's a rare day when anyone takes an interest.
Yesterday I took my new book, Writing Your Novel From Start To Finish, to the ballpark and it blew my mind that people wanted to talk about it. Like, really talk about it. I see these people all the time and have openly read things with properly witty and interesting titles in their presence, and always without interruption.
Things like this highly amusing sci-fi romp, Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain. (Recommend!)
Exhibit B: Read this book. It's rad.
So what gives?
My first thought was that nobody would be talking to me at all if I was wearing my tiara of darkness. My second thought was that my choice of reading suggested I might be writing something, and people apparently are interested in hearing about unwritten books.
My book is SO unwritten that I don't even know what it's about, and now people are asking me about it. Interesting. I wondered, "Does one need to have an idea for a novel to read about writing a novel?" And why did I feel embarrassed about not having an interesting book premise at the ready? Because, I kind of did feel embarrassed. So I decided to make something up.
I thought to myself, "What does one do when asked what they'll write and they don't know?" I went blank, but then I remembered Stephen King's advice from On Writing and figured I could bastardize it. I took "Writers read. A lot." and then I said, "Okay... what do I read most? That will be my book."
It was at that point that I declared that my novel to be a rousing adventure story featuring a sassy heroine that fights the patriarchy while having witty banter (possibly with supernaturals), drinking tea, stabbing people with hat pins, and possibly having dirty sex in libraries.
I wasn't exactly surprised when baseball mom #1 choked on her drink and smiled blandly, but that's alright. I smirked most enthusiastically in response. (Which is probably an asshole move because she obviously didn't expect me to use the words "dirty sex in libraries" at a little league game.) Yes, I probably smirked because I can't help being amused by the reactions to my often ridiculous (but totally honest) responses to perfectly tame questions. But I also smirked because I just owned (for possibly the first time) that I love those books. Books that I normally read on my iPad because it's awkward to sit next to someone reading a regency romance on a train. And I was only the teensiest bit embarrassed about it. And the best thing? After she stopped sputtering, baseball mom #1 still sat and talked with me about normal things for the rest of the game. No visible stigma attached.
So there!
It's my life's dream to regularly have people point to my book and ask me what I think, and that rarely happens. But I also realized something different... Maybe it's just as much fun to talk about books that I might write but haven't. Even if they're about things that make people sputter and inhale beverages.
