Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Interesting timing.

The April edition of Writers’ Digest (and thanks, Christina, for the gift subscription!) tells in their “Book Buzz” section about a novel that’s presented as fiction, but is really more memoir.

Their comments include this sentence:

"Who could blame a writer for opting to write her memoir in a roman a clef style—taking the essence of the story, dressing up the details and changing the names just enough to call it a novel?”

It’s also described as “a stunning success,” as would any debut novel that was named one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 best books of the year.

Well, gee. Guess what MY debut novel is! Ooooo, right! It’s a memoir dressed up a bit and presented as fiction!

Any chance I can climb on that bandwagon and ride?

On the off chance that lightning might strike twice, I found out who the author’s (Curtis Sittenfeld) agent is and just queried her, making a point of the Writer’s Digest article and the (I hope) similarities. Oh, by the way, Ms. Sittenfeld’s novel is titled simply Prep.

I can see lightning in the distance tonight, off to the west of here. You never know.

4 comments:

Karyn Lyndon said...

Good luck! May some agent or editor "fall in love with the project."

Emmy Ellis said...

Good luck!

:o)

Monica said...

Friend,

You do realize they claim that most first novels published are "autobiographical". Consensus seems to be that the reality hidden within makes the story more believable. The CD with the song I wrote about my son; the novel coming out touches upon the family of a soldier in Iraq and has several autobiographical moments in it, including a tribute to my cat Pumkin.

Good luck and may an agent/publisher see you for the talent we all know you are!!

Candace said...

Keeping fingers crossed for ya, John.