Last week our formatter asked the author to fill out a new client form. One of the questions was very open ended — the bane of job seekers the world over. Tell me about yourself. But what this question read was three times as much: “What are three things you would like me to know about you? These things can be professional and/or personal.”
I’ve already hinted at my answer above, but the way our author responded shines some light on the challenges and rewards of writing fiction, finding a publisher, editing the manuscript and finding the book’s eventual place among readers. I’ll include it here in full. Whether this is an itemized list or a single thought split by paragraph breaks is up for debate.
I’ll give you four. First, every time I argue with my dad I feel like I’m 13 again. For some reason almost every sentence here feels just like that: an argument between a young boy and his father.
As both a reader and writer, I prefer to start in a dark room and add light sources here and there until the place is mostly lit, but not entirely. I believe that most of us share this preference, otherwise films like The Village would be named The Year is 2004 and They All Live In Central Park.
I prefer rhythm to grammar and diction.
As “Dogs and Baghdad” tries to make clear, I’ve been working on this collection for almost ten years now. I’m still not satisfied, although it’s time to publish something and move on.
We’re so close to announcing the book details that we can taste it. When we say “stay tuned,” we actually mean it this time.
zidi publishing 