I went browsing in the local independent bookstore yesterday, only to discover amongst the hardcover new releases a book with the exact premise of one that I've been working on for about six and a half years. (David Milch, the TV writer, once told of a meeting he had with HBO in which he pitched them the idea of a show following Roman Centurions operating as a police force in Ancient Rome. "Oh," said HBO, "we're already making a show like that." This is like that, but somewhat worse.)
Fair play, as I've put work on hold since the onset of our twins, and truth be told, I was pretty bogged down, but this was still a hard discovery. I have, in one form or another, about nine completed chapters, about 230 or so pages, and that work now has nowhere to go. At the moment, anyway.
This news is part sad, part frustrating, and still somewhat liberating. I can let it go now, and hope and trust that the research I've done, the notes and outlining, if not the actual writing, might transmute into something else. Like the river I'd been writing about, it's going to find its way to the sea somehow.
The real moral of the hare vs. the tortoise story, by the way, is not that "Slow and Steady Wins The Race." It's "Distract the Rabbit!"
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2 comments:
I vote for liberating. I saw the book and couldn't bring myself to ask you what the status was . . . figured you were not using a pen name . . . it all goes someplace, all that research. Trust.
with love from the wife of a novel being written through soon to be 3 presidents (and 1 pseudo-president).
I think I know what work you mean, and I commiserate. However, don't be so sure that it will turn out to be anything like what you would do. In other words, don't dump it!
Nevertheless, it was a fun trip and more!
cheers,
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