Finishing is sad and horrible. NO WONDER WE AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS. I hate finishing. All I can see is everything the book was going to be, and isn’t.
By working, or pretending to be still working (and creating all these reasons we aren’t writing, right now, but really, we will — just as soon as….. ) we still have a CHANCE to make great things happen.
I have completely, from scratch, not looking not even peeking, rewritten this book three times. Three BIG times and many many little times.
Revision = life. Finish-ion = death.
Today I finished. And my dog cut his paw on the ice, there’s blood all over the snow out front of my house, my mom is very very very ill, I have no light bulbs and four bulbs went out, dead dead dead dead and darkness.
I’m not going to bike group. That’s how much I pity myself. I’m bookless! I’m bereft! I’m walking around on land. AND THERE’S NO KALE.
My job affords me the opportunity to listen to a lot of audiobooks. So many that I decided, finally, to buy a subscription to audible.com, a service that gives you a number “credits” per month to download programs in MP3 format: fiction, nonfiction, magazines, radio shows, etc. It’s easiest to listen to novels (they require the least concentration, and my attention is divided at work) but short stories are my passion and I seek out collections whenever I can.
Not too long ago I bought the Best of the South anthology and, seven stories in, was enjoying it so much that I took my personal laptop to a coffee house near my apartment so I could download it and listen to it at home, too. I hoped to hear two or three stories while I swept and dusted and cleaned the windows.
Halfway through “Fla. Boys” I had almost finished cleaning; the only thing left was vacuuming the rugs. But instead I sat down on the couch and listened. I kept telling myself, “Rewind this and write down the name of the author. Maybe she has a collection.”
And I did, and you did, and I bought it. It’s in the mail now. I’ve listened to “Fla. Boys” twice since that first time and I can’t wait to read more.
When I “discover” new authors I make a practice of fishing for interviews: I type things like “interview with ‘heather sellers’” or “‘heather sellers’ ‘fla. boys,’” or I use Google’s blog search to see if anyone’s posted about the author’s book, or met her, or been in a class with her, or whatever. And here you are, posting regularly. And I feel like I’ve arrived at just the right time, because now you’ve finished something new.
Anyway, this doesn’t help your book-bereftness, but maybe it cheers you up some to know you’ve got a new reader. I’m sure there are others like me. Congratulations on finishing your new project!
Günter