Buoyancy
The smell of bacon frying on a rainy morning. The toastiness of a wood fire after skiing. The chill of salt spray on your skin on a hot summer afternoon. The scratch of a fountain pen’s nib on the paper of a new book contract.
Oh, I could name many sensations that buoy me, but the last one rises to the top of any list.
Was it Holden Caulfield who hated people who used the word “grand”? I have to risk his ire, then, because soon I will experience that grand sensation of signing the contract for Traps. Given the stumbling economy that has tripped up the publishing industry along with everything else, the contract has taken a while to come to fruition, but I’m not complaining. That’s the book biz as it is today.
So once the contract is behind us, I will set to work on revising the novel—work I relish. The date when the novel will make its way into the world isn’t clear yet, but no matter: Concrete work lies ahead, and deadlines, and the prospect of a trove of sentences to hold in my hands when the writing work is done.
Add this to the list: That joyful buoyancy of working with an agent and editors who care about your book.