Philosophy Friday

GOOD STUFF
Umm... I'm thinking...
The scale says 161 if I'm totally naked
The boy child loved the PINK PANTHER movie
Mom's surgery went well, just waiting for lab results

GOOD ADVICE
In his book WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, Donald Maas says, "Novels are written one word at a time and the choices made along the way can as easily produce a mildly engaging midlist novel as a highly memorable breakout. I believe that the difference lies in the author's commitment to great story telling."

That's nice, Don. First of all I _am_ committed to telling a great story and I think the majority of authors I know are also. Yes, the best promotion is to write the best book you can. But what makes a breakout isn't always up to the author since it depends so much (I think) on publicity and publisher backing.

Frankly, worrying about writing a breakout novel is damned detrimental to my piece of mind. I already spend way too much time agonizing over word choice and sentence structure. I don't need the added pressure of trying to be the Next Big Thing.

Also not every author is at a place in her career to breakout. I've only written four books- currently working on number five- and I still have a lot to learn about the craft and my own talent. So for now I'll concentrate on what I can do well- commit to telling a great story.