Good morning, everyone! I'm up bright and early on this rather warm Sunday morning and trying to get a few things online taken care of when a book jumped out of its pages and made me want to jump up and down for joy. For lots of reasons.
To back up, I have books up the ying-yang in various stages of development and really, I'm trying to get back to them. I've concocted all sorts of ways like leaving one of them in my browser so it's the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning. The plan is if it's the first thing I see, it just maybe might be the first thing I take care of. Well, nope. My responsibilities to my clients calls to me first and foremost and before you know it I'm knee deep in work and the book still sits. All by itself and looking pretty lonely and neglected. Oh, sometimes I give it a wee bit of attention but it doesn't last long because there's so much work and not enough hours in the day to give to my responsibilities, much less my own books. A Catch-22 as they used to say. Between a rock and a hard place others might say. So if anyone mentions, "So how are those books coming?" I say, "They're coming." Best I can do. I wouldn't want to lie, so I don't.
Besides workloads, procrastination and all that fun stuff, I'm struggling with word count on one of them. My fictions are all over 200 pages, but not so my nonfiction. Here's the thing with my nonfiction. There is no fluff. Since it's more or less a relationship-style book, I didn't want to fill it with unnecessary garbage just to fill the pages. I am making a point with this book and what word count I have now is the point where the point has been made. Get my point?
It's barely over 100 pages. My gut tells me it needs to be longer, so if my workload could cut back a bit, I may just be able to work on it but...what I have so far is perfect. Or I think so anyway. Since it's nonfiction, can I get away with that kind of word count? Or will I regret later on down the road having the book called "short."
So the book sits. The older the book gets, I get too. I mean, come on let's get with the program and get the darn thing out there.
But still...that word count.
Well today I came upon a book quite by accident called "So Late in the Day" by Claire Keegan. It was published by Faber and Faber in 2023. It's fiction. And yes in the review section, some are mentioning it's "short." But...Grove Press put out an earlier book (2021) by Claire titled, "Small Things Like These" which was Oprah's Book Club Pick 2024, New York Times Book Club Pick 2024 and now a major motion picture starring Cillian Murphy.
It had 64 pages.
64 PAGES AND ON THE NEW YORK TIMES LIST.
So you know what...I believe these books were to come into my life today because if anyone ever brings up the fact my book was "short," now I can say, "Yeah, but it still has potential."
