| About fifteen years ago, I sat cross-legged on the living room floor of a small apartment near my home. Around me were members of the Writer’s Critique Group I’d just joined, including some who would become lifelong friends (Bev, Bruce, Vance, Kim). But this night was my very first time sharing pages with them and I was quickly regressing to my high school days when I was too shy to read aloud in class. Anyone who knows me now will find that last sentence nearly impossible to believe. But it's true.
In my hands was the first chapter of a story I’d written the prior year in my creative writing class at Pasadena City College. The title? The Snow Globe. I cleared my throat a few times but after a while, one of the women in the group sensed my unease and kindly asked, “Would you like me to read them?” I did. She did. Her name was Hilaree, and I will forever be in her debt. Because of her little nudge, and the support of that little group, that story got enough wind in its sails to carry it on to a full-length novel. As for the writer? He, too, got some wind in his sails. Enough to carry him to his seventh novel now.
In one week, on November 6th, the audiobook of The Snow Globe will release on downpour.com. (if you’re thinking of getting it, please pre-order it now by clicking the book cover below, as they seriously track the early demand for new writers). It’s going to be SUCH a trip for me to hear someone reading those pages aloud again. This time it will be the wonderful Kate Mulligan, who was chosen by Downpour for the job. I’ve heard a sample already. Chills.
You can never underestimate how much your support can mean to someone. A kind word, a shared gesture, a little of your time. They add up like fall leaves, bright and colorful, a testimony to what is and a promise of things to come. Beyond my Crit Group, there is my Proust Group. Beyond them? Team One, my Advance Reader Group. Mixed in are my fab editor, Sophie, and all my beta readers. Every one of them giving me a little push. Every one of them worthy of a big thanks. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about YOU either. Thanks for your support, too. After all, what is a writer without a reader?
I hope you get the audiobook. It would mean a lot to lil’ ole me. Meanwhile, I continue to work on finishing One Gray Day, the final book in The Parker Trilogy (for all those who keep writing me to ask, hang in there, I’m over halfway done!).
Then? It’s time for a certain literary novel I’ve been working on.
But that’s a story for another day 🙂
Tony
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