I Thought I Had Pickles

Instead of working on this book that’s due yesterday, I thought I'd write a little bit about FANS. First, I gotta say that writing for me is like this: You spend day after day alone in your small house/apartment/shanty (depending on how well your books are selling), but usually we are talking shanty, developing the habit of saying things out loud like "I thought I had pickles." You turn the book in to your editor and avoid your e-mail for a few days because you're not sure how one can get fired from being an author, but you're pretty sure it happens via e-mail. You sit on the stoop and look very cynical and world-weary, which you imagine is a writerly way to look. Then, if things are going well, your editor tells you your book is great and you feel really good until the idea occurs to you that because you are such a mediocre writer they must have stuck you with an editor who has no idea what he/she is doing (note to my editors: sorry).

So, you may ask, what does this have to do with fans?

Because somewhere between writing and the long process in which you begin to see your book in stores and wonder, who is the person who actually wrote that because I do remember something about someone in pajamas with crazy hair, but it certainly couldn't have been me, there is a genuine, bright, true and lasting moment, and that is when you meet (or hear from) someone to whom your book means something. I doubt many fans realize how much difference they make to the writers they like. I'm here to tell you, it matters more than just about anything else. So thanks for being book fans.

How do you feel about sharing your writing with other people?

Jodi Lynn Anderson
Author of The Secrets of Peaches