This is where things stand (podcast): Tuesday was exactly seven weeks to the release of JACK WAKES UP. Seems like it’s really getting close, doesn’t it? At the same time, I feel like I’ve been talking this up all year (school-year) and turning your ears blue with my excitement about it all. Truth is, the excitement isn’t fake. You can tell that. At the same time, I think it’s safe to say I’ve talked it out to the point where I’m even tired of saying it, a bit. What happened here this week was that I slowed down. I’ve kept up the teaching schedule, but knowing that April, May and June… now planning things into July… things are going to be tough. Fast and furious like no Diesel’s business.
So this has been my week to stop and look around, Ferris Bueller style. You know, if you don’t do it once in a while you don’t ever appreciate life? That whole rap. But it’s true: this book release, tour, readings, notoriety of having Random House behind me, it’s all about to get real, people. Real real. And there’s nothing like that. It’s a goal I’ve worked a long, long time for and in the past few years you’ve seen me work at it really hard. You’ve supported me with encouragement and your fanship (it’s a word, now!) and those things have meant so much. I really would’ve never been able to work this hard without them. Totally true. Sure, a writer works at the desk in solitude and relative obscurity, but knowing you guys were out there, fans, listeners, readers, it made all the difference in me wanting to get to the desk every morning to crank out the day’s pages. It’s a process and a part of my life that I LOVE, and in many ways you guys have given it to me, just as I’ve given the products of it to you. We’re mutually beneficial, symbiotic even. ;-)
In any case, I’ve been writing all over and teaching out there about how good it’s been for me and my career to find you. I found you by podcasting and that’s the word I’m preaching in these classes but the goal of it was audience building, and even I had no idea how powerful that achievement would be. You guys have sustained me so much more than just being something to feature on an agent query letter. You’ve been the big, strong brassiere that lifts my Bette Midler man-boob wings every day and gets me to be as excited as you guys hear I am every week when I drop an episode.
True. All true. (But I don’t have man-boobs, thank gawd! – Ask Sigler about what it’s like to have those.)
