Bobby’s Back is on the way to the agent.
Before I go any further I want to thank a bunch of people. First, Tom at Fedex/Kinko’s who neatly bound my work this morning at their store on South Robert Street. An engaging and nice man to work with on my project. Great customer service.
It's on the way to an agent.
Second thing – I am so lucky to have my friends.
I have been blessed with the greatest bunch of friends around. I handed my book to 7 people for review work. I got back 5 of the copies with copious notes, thoughts, corrected typos, suggestions, questions, and jibes. And all of it was glazed with love. These people took time out of their busy lives to help me with my book. I had wonderful advice on every aspect of the work from a rich and colorful group of people. Doug, Frank, Carol, Brian, Mary, HT, Tracy – thank you all for your contributions. Your help has made for a much better book.
I hang out with some smart people. They spotted everything from bad password protocols on server units to incorrect voltages for high power lines. Throw in the courage to tell me that my dialogue lagged, the details had gotten tedious, or that I needed more Amish gals and buggies…scratch the last. They are a phenomenal group and I love them.
I owe great thanks to my wife, Kip, for slogging through the myriad of stupid errors and overused words that I salt my books with on a regular (but decreasing) basis. She gets credit for making my gibberish readable. Honey, thank you for not killing me in my sleep with a bound copy of that mess. You made it work.
Now, a word about the creative side of this book. I started writing Bobby’s back over a year ago. It was more an outline and about ten chapters than anything else. I’d shelved it while I worked on revisions of my first book. It was good, but going nowhere given the strains and stress of daily life last year.
That changed when I went to Saint Louis for the ACFW conference. I met two really nice agents there and both expressed an interest in what I was writing. Not the first book. I had tied a millstone around that one with my poor pitch. They wanted to see the second book I mentioned in passing.
Well, one of the agents kept pursuing me, asking me to step out and get it to them. I did that and sent the rough draft of the first 50,000 words to them exactly three months ago. Instead of the expected four month wait and polite rejection letter they got back to me in about six weeks with a bunch of feedback, several phone calls, a request for more and about eighty tons of encouragement.
In the following three months I managed to write 77,257 words that I kept. God only knows how many went in and came back out. That time period includes a ten day mission trip to Belize and working full time while I wrote during those 91 days. It comes out to 848 words a day, seven days a week. That’s 5942 words a week. Who knows how many words per waking hour.
I was stretched thin during that time (although I gained weight from eating junk while I camped at the computer.) My lovely wife was used to coming downstairs and seeing me at the computer when she got up. My writing all night on Sunday nights (like, from 1 am until noon some weeks) and taking off early for work where I would sit in my cube and write for a few hours before work started. She gave up Saturday nights so that I could write. She gave up Sunday nights so I could get some sleep so I could write later that night. She gave up a lot.
Don’t ever be fooled about what goes into a book. It’s equal parts sweat, pain, deep thought, bits of your heart, caffeine and dog drool (they want pets when I’m at the computer and I cannot resist their little noses.) I don’t think you’ve written anything worthwhile unless you shed a tear or laugh along with your characters. They become so real that you have to make a strong effort to remember that they only exist on the hard drive. Honestly, I want to talk to a couple of them and see what they think about the way things worked out. One character in particular fascinates me. Aloof, brutally honest, demanding, beautiful, and a heart of gold under the steel. I’ll never have coffee with her, but I truly expect to see her walk into the room sometimes and upbraid me for some dumb thing I’ve done. That’s how real they become.
Finally, Thanks, God! I couldn’t possibly come up with all of this stuff on my own. My friend Frank told me the other day that I’m full of it (he meant it in a “good storyteller” kind of way.) Yes I am – and God put it there. Without his guidance I’d still be on chapter four of a book that would never be finished. With Him I shipped it off this morning. He is my King, my Ruler, my Lord and Savior. And I love Him as much as He loves me.
