... emerging from the deadline vortex
what year is it again?
Well, folks, I did it. I met my deadline (after bumping it… twice… but that’s neither here nor there). I’ve heard countless author friends talk about the sophomore slump of Book 2, yet for some reason, I really thought I’d be immune. After all, I had a plan! I had an outline! I had momentum!
I had… trouble.
Granted, I don’t know why I ever think I’m getting anything productive done over the summer. Sure, the kids are off school so I don’t have to shuttle anyone to extracurricular activities, but also, the kids are off school. That means they are here. All the time. Unless of course, we are traveling, in which case I am not here either.
Summer is just one distraction after another. Wait, no, that would mean there’s only one at a time, and that’s not true. It’s one distraction leaping onto the back of another, while another clings to its ankle like a koala, and another sticks to the bottom of its shoe, and all of them are grabbing at me with their pinchy little fingers.
Anyway, writing a book over the summer was a challenge in a way I cannot fully describe. It wasn’t just the uneven scheduling or the cornucopia of distraction. There’s a weird brain freeze that comes with the second book under contract (because remember, this is not my second book overall, as I finished numerous books prior to selling I’ll Stop the World) where I knew what I had to write, and how long I had to write it, and yet my brain just… wouldn’t. I would sit down to write, open up the manuscript, and nothing would happen. Time would slip and hours would have passed and barely any new words would be on the page.
I don’t think it was the pressure of the deadline; I’m used to deadlines. Freelancing is nothing but deadlines, as far as the eye can see. It wasn’t writer’s block; I knew exactly what had to happen in each scene to get from the beginning of the book to the end. I had a spreadsheet with it all carefully plotted out. I’m a big fan of spreadsheets. In another life, I think I was a data analyst.
I think it was just the knowledge that this book will be published. It was kind of the opposite of the anxiety I felt around finishing I’ll Stop the World. I couldn’t make progress on that book for literal years, and after a lot of therapy trying to figure out why, my best theory is because no one can reject the book if it I never finish it. I’d come so close to selling a book so many times, only to fall short at the finish line, that I was scared to try again. In many ways, it was easier to just stall out, because then the possibility that it might sell when I finished someday was still alive. If I finished and it didn’t sell… well then I had to admit that it was just another failed attempt at being an author, and maybe I was never going to cross that threshold.
(No one ever believes me, but no, it seriously did not cross my mind as a real possibility that it would actually sell. I felt certain I was stuck in a Sisyphean cycle, always pushing that book-shaped rock up a hill only to have it roll back down and crush me. “King of the Sissy-somethings,” as Justin would say.)
With this one, it was like the film negative version of that (sidebar, do Kids Today™️ even know what film negatives are? Or is that another piece of once-common knowledge that is now relegated to “when I was your age” stories, along with VCRs and rotary phones?). Knowing it definitely will be published triggered a similar brain freeze. Is this word good enough? What about this one? Will people mark that line as a favorite in Goodreads? Will they think this joke is funny? I got a lot of criticism about [whatever] for I’ll Stop the World; did I sufficiently fix/avoid/subvert [whatever] this time so they won’t come at me again? Is this too much like I’ll Stop the World? Or is it not similar enough?
But even though it felt like shoving my brain through a ricer, I got there eventually. I typed “The End” (which always gets deleted from the finished version, but is still really satisfying to type when you finish the first draft). I sent it to my editor. It’s got a lot of revision and editing ahead of it (I’ll Stop the World went through three rounds of edits before copyediting, and that book was way more polished when it first landed on my editor’s desk than this one is), but it’s got a beginning, middle, and end, and is at least vaguely book-shaped.
One day, hopefully soon, I’ll get to tell you about it. I think we even landed on a title yesterday. But for now, the important thing is that it’s off my desk.
Since turning Book 2 in, my original plan was to spend the month of September completely slacking off and catching up on all of the TV I haven’t had time to watch for the past several months while I’ve been in the deadline cave. But instead, the day after pressing Send on my book, I went to pick up these two adorable little terrors.
Meet Madelyn (L) and Tophey (R), two border collie (mix?) puppies who were rescued in August from a horrific hoarding situation in Kentucky. Animal control recovered 79 dogs from absolutely disgusting and inhumane conditions. These two were brought down to the rescue we foster for here in Middle Tennessee, along with their mom, two of their littermates, and another two adult dogs.
For the first few weeks, all four puppies were kept together with their mama in a foster home as they underwent extensive treatment for their myriad health issues. You can see in the photo that Tophey still has some bald patches on his legs, and Marilyn was missing hair on the end of her tail, making her look like a little rat. They were both smaller than they should have been, and extremely skittish. The first couple days they were here, Marilyn immediately hid under the blackberry bushes every time she went outside, and they both took refuge under the couch every time Astrid barked (which is… a lot. She’d make a very good herald).
Now, though, they are both much healthier and have come such a long way from those scared little pups that first arrived here. They still are more bonded with each other than with our dogs, but have both decided they like Fezzik very much, and will even boldly attempt to play with Astrid every now and then.
They’re currently both available for adoption, and while we’ve had some interest, if you’re in Middle Tennessee and think you’d be a good forever fit for one of them, the rescue is still taking applications. Border collies are very bright, very energetic, and are bred to be herding dogs so they need to be given jobs in order to feel fulfilled. They are wonderful dogs, but need a home where they’ll get plenty of exercise, intellectual stimulation (did you know that sniffing stimulates a dog’s brain?), and training in order to be their best selves.
That said, Marilyn is absolutely the feistier (and smarter) of the two, and also a little bigger. I love her, but she’s a handful, and will do best with a canine companion (or two) to engage with her and wear her out. Otherwise, she will keep you constantly on your toes with her boundless curiosity and adorable-yet-infuriating problem solving abilities (a smart puppy is basically like a chaotic toddler. Have trouble getting ice out of the dish? Dump it all on the floor! Problem solved!).
Tophey, on the other hand, is… let’s just say that if Marilyn is a knife, he’s more of a spoon. He was the runt of the litter and so he’s smaller, got the worst of the health problems (he’s fine now, though; just needs his hair to finish growing back), isn’t quite as energetic, and just not quite as quick on the uptake. But he’s extremely sweet, loves being cuddled (he is sitting in my lap as I type this, trying to add his two cents to the newsletter), takes to new people right away, and would do well as an only pup or as part of a pack.
Of course, he is still a border collie, and will therefore still need all of the things border collies need. He just won’t need quite as much of them as Marilyn. But let’s just say, there’s a reason that most of the pictures I have of the two of them are of them sleeping. When they’re awake, they just… never stop.
You can see Tophey’s page on Petfinder here and Marilyn’s here.
Anyway, the puppies are why I have not made much headway on my “watch all the TV” plan. It’s really hard to sit down and watch anything when you’re constantly chasing around little furballs who are determined to chew literally everything you own the second you stop paying attention.
I have, however, made progress on books! Audiobooks especially, since I can listen to those while I chase puppies around the house (made slightly more difficult lately by the fact that I cannot for the life of me find my AirPods, which may be a casualty of The Deadline Vortex, when my brain was either Writing A Book or Doing Its Best Impression Of A Cauliflower at all times and there was no in between. Who knows where I put them. They could be under the seat in my car, or at the bottom of a pile of laundry, or in the pocket of a coat I have forgotten I even own.
I recently finished listening to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (just as creepy and fantastic as I hoped it would be) and Feed by M.T. Anderson (effectively unpleasant YA sci-fi satire that pictures a world in which we all have the internet algorithmically fed straight into our brains and nothing else matters, even though it’s slowly killing us… yeah, I thought it felt far-fetched too 🙃).
The latter was for a local book club I just started attending, which I’m very excited about. I have wanted to join a book club for literally my entire adult life and just have never been able to make it work, but now it’s finally happening! Our next book is The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, which sounds like fun. Have any of you read it?
I also finished an advanced copy of Ghost Tamer by my friend Meredith R. Lyons, which releases TODAY! It is a very fun book that is equal parts suspenseful, heartwarming, and creepy, with a creative take on ghosts that I found tremendously cool.
Listen, I know that no one is objective when it comes to their friends (is anyone actually objective when it comes to anyone at all? I would argue no, but that’s a discussion for another day), but literally all of my writer friends would tell you that I do not sugarcoat just because I like you. I have developed a reputation for being a bit of a ruthless critiquer. This is not my intent! I actually try to be very gentle in my critiques! But apparently my “gentle” setting is most people’s “harsh” when it comes to writing criticism. Fortunately, I still have friends.
But anyway, all that to say, I would not tell you this book was good if I did not actually believe it was good. But it is good! It is the kind of book I would enjoy even if I had no idea who the author was. The writing is sharp, the characters are well drawn (including one who made me want to hurl him through a window, who Meredith later told me was based on an ex-boyfriend, which is why you should never wrong a writer because they will absolutely eviscerate you in fiction), and the plot moved along at a quick clip without ever feeling rushed. The resolution was satisfying and bittersweet and surprising and earned all at once, which is a tough thing to pull off. If you’re into fast-paced urban thrillers with brilliant characters that braid in the supernatural, pick up your (signed!) copy today!
Or if ghostly suspense is not your thing, you can still support Meredith by requesting Ghost Tamer from your local library! (And hey, why not request I’ll Stop the World while you’re at it, if your library doesn’t already have a copy?) Library purchases help out authors a huge amount, and all it takes for most libraries to purchase a book is just for a patron to request it! If you’ve never suggested a library purchase before, most libraries make it very simple. Here’s a post on how to do it.
I’ll even make it really simple for you by giving you all the information you’ll need to make the request for Ghost Tamer right here:
Author: Meredith R. Lyons
Title: Ghost Tamer
Publisher: CamCat Books
ISBN: 978-0744302790
Publication date: September 19, 2023
If your library already has a copy of a book you were going to recommend, you can still support the author by checking it out! Or placing a hold, and then checking it out. Even if you already own a copy, checking out books from the library communicates to the library that there is a demand for those books, leading them to perhaps order more. Also, it helps show public interest in the library, which helps libraries get funding.
So really, even if you have no intention of reading all of them or don’t think you’ll have time to get to them all, always check out library books that interest you, preferably as soon as they come out. It’s a simple thing to do that benefits both the author and the library itself, and there is no Reading Police who will tattle on you if you if you don’t actually read it.
(But of course, as authors, we always want you to read it, and then to leave a review, because reviews feed The Algorithm, and The Algorithm is what actually sells books. The more reviews you get, the more The Algorithm decides it likes you, and the more it likes you, the more of your book it will try to sell. Even if the reviews are bad! But please, if you write me a bad review, do not tell me about it. I promise I do not want to know.)
Hey, speaking of wronging writers (please pardon the clunky transition; my brain is still like 74% cauliflower), SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America are STILL on strike until they can receive a fair deal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. If you would like to learn more about what striking workers are asking for, you can read about the WGA proposals here, and the SAG-AFTRA proposals here. To support them, you can donate to Entertainment Community Fund (tax deductible!), or take any of the actions outlined on the WGA or SAG-AFTRA strike sites.
I technically do not have a horse in this race, but the things the writers and actors are asking for are things that have repercussions for all artists, including novelists. Existential threats for screenwriters, actors, and film crews are also existential threats for authors. We just don’t have a union or the capacity to organize on such a massive scale (yet). But rest assured, your favorite authors are paying very, very close attention to these strikes, because we know we could be next.
I just realized I did not create any sort of subheadings or helpful division to help you parse this newsletter, and now I’m in too deep to go back and add them. Mea culpa. I point, once again, to my cauliflower brain. Maybe next time I’ll be more organized, but for today, I’m just glad I finally managed to write words.
Until then, here’s to libraries, puppies, and hummus.
You know, for the cauliflower.