oliver yeh

For the Pulitzer, the selection of a winner is a two-tiered process. There is a small jury (in this case made up of three people) who read all of the submissions to boil it down to the finalists. They present their recommendation to the Board who makes the final decision by reading these few writers who have made the cut amongst their peers.

So my question is, wouldn’t this gap, this lack of reading ALL submissions, handicap the Board’s ability to choose a winner? Because the work involved in reading provides a better perspective of what’s out there. And while the Board can ask the jury for additional potentials in a case where no finalist stands out, I doubt by receiving another one or two books, this will close this gap of a larger understanding of the field.

At the potential expense of being banned by the Pulitzer Prize and other prizes in all arts, I vote for one-tiered voting processes. No committee or Board should have it too easy when it comes to a proper selection process especially for a prize so prestigious and ultimately so lifting of an art form.

Someone learn me if I’ve got this all wrong.

I’m sitting in the parking lot of a Barnes & Noble. No, I’m over here in the gray Jetta Sportwagen.

I did not travel south for the weekend. I cracked. However, I told the family they’ll see me when they see me. I intend to work as much as possible. Break for food and cycling. Have head down for most of the weekend. Won’t be easy, but I really need to sort out my discipline because this cold weather has my body and mind all screwed up. I don’t know if I should be hibernating or springing about.

How do you work? How do you keep yourself in the seat? And do you stick to a strict schedule, or do you write when you can?

Kristin Nelson’s, “Starting A Novel In The Wrong Place,” is a good read.  It’s humorous in that I’m certain she’s thinking to herself, “Shit… nothing changes.”

The two main issues displacing the proper start?

1. Back story
2. Minutiae (overelaborate “set-the-stage” before the story really begins)

If you’re thinking to yourself after reading the above, “Check, and check,” you might want to put your pencil down, and toss out the first few pages.

In a recent Chip MacGregor blog post, he talks about what an author needs to expect when it comes to marketing a book.

I dare say, while the information is important to ingest, nothing in the post is new.  The way I see it, the process of writing a book and seeking publication necessitates forethought into the actions required post-publication.  You’re quest, dear writer, doesn’t end when the book hits the shelf, right?

So my egg for the morning is: do not think of this road as strictly linear.  While you are writing, editing, and preparing for the query process, it’s okay to set aside a bit of time to think forward: how will you get people to buy the damn thing?  While you scour the ‘net for writing information, keep all this in the back of your head.  When it comes time, you will have a jump on it.

Just remember: if there is no completed and edited book, there’s nothing to market.

Funny thing happened today that, in retrospect, paralleled a major event that occurred in my writing life last week.

I had to travel down to my parent’s beach house in Maryland to check on a roofing job.  On the way down, on Route 113 just before the sign that says that I’m entering Sussex County, I approached a traffic light that had just turned green.  I drove in the left lane of a two-lane road about to pass under the light.  In the right lane a line of cars sat motionless.  And in the turning lane to the right of that, a woman ran back to her car (the first one in the line).

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