The old waitin’ game
I had hoped to tell you my big secret this week. I had a lot of fun last week teasing everybody and figured I could tell you more this week. Unfortunately, things aren’t wrapped up. All I can say is that an offer has been made in Hollywood for one of my novels and that my agent is negotiating.
Will it all end nicely? Who knows? I’ve had both screenplays and books pitched out there in the past, but this is the first time an offer has been put on the table.
So, I have been as nervous as a kitten up a tree this week waiting to hear something. While checking my email every two minutes I’ve been working on the new novel. I finished an important scene that has a major character killed during the real-life May Day Riot in Cleveland in 1919. It came out dandy.
Tuesday night I spoke at a library in the Cleveland suburb of Parma. Had a nice crowd and sold some books. Parma, by then way, while considered a Cleveland suburb, is actually a pretty big city in its own right. About 85,000 people . . .
Wait right there . . . I’m going to check my email . . . . Nope. Nothing.
Anyway, Wednesday I taught my first “Write That Novel” class of the winter at the University of Akron. Looks like I’ve got eight good students. This is an evening continuing ed class, so the students are all working adults, many with advanced degrees in this, that or the other. It’s always very stimulating.
Not only has the book deal thing kept me on edge this past week, the upcoming primary election has my mind wandering, too. I’m a real political junkie. It looks like the Mrs. and I will be splitting our votes this week. But you can bet I’ll be at the polls Tuesday morning even though my vote is being cancelled out. I love to go to the polls. Chit-chat with the workers. Ask them a lot of questions about the turnout. See my neighbors. Write my name in the big book. Cast my ballot. Get the sticker. Stick the sticker on my dog’s forehead when I get home.
I don’t like the early voting, vote-by-mail trend. I like the idea of everybody voting in person on the same day. Going to their neighborhood school or fire station. And I don’t like the media calling the elections so damn early! I used to love it when you had to stay up all night and watch the results trickle in.
Hold on again . . . Better check my email . . . Nothing.
So, this week is going to be crazy. The election. The book deal thing. And Monday it’s supposed to get into the upper 50s, which means I’ll feel like a bull moose in rut. And then the rest of the week it’s going to get cold and snow again. And what if my candidate loses on Tuesday? And what if I don’t hear anything about the book for another week?
Speaking of the election, I got a call from Zogby this week. It’s one of the major national pollsters. They do a daily tracking poll. So after being polled about my intentions, and where I demographically fit into the scheme of things, I couldn’t wait to read the next morning’s tracking poll. And according to that poll, Obama is leading 51 to 49 percent among middle-aged white male writers waiting to hear from their agents about Hollywood book deals.
I realize this is the dumbest blog posting I’ve ever done, but, hey, I’m going nuts here–have a little compash, Jack!
