Blog On, Garth!

At Last! A Moment For Blogging!

And if only I had all the moments I want for writing. You know, as an agent sometimes writers tell me they don’t have enough ideas, and I have to admit, that’s not the problem for me. My problem is all about that self-duplication principle. Wish I could put it into practice. Right now, I’m juggling at least two good YA ideas that I can’t possibly write—not with a clean conscience since I have a book due in March. I also have about four or five wonderful women’s fiction ideas. Again, no dice. The good news, as I was recently celebrating with my sister and agent (Pamela Harty), is that we sold a series that is just so fun for me to write, and not because it’s “simple” (as some would say of romance, and we who write—and read it—know that’s far from true.) Rather, it’s fun and easy to write because it comes, at least I think, most naturally to me.

It’s been an interesting year. Our agency is exploding, quite literally, with sales double what they were at this exact point twelve months ago—and those sales were already way up over previous years. We’ve bought office space, and are moving into the new building in about a week… a number of new employees, too, who are all doing a marvelous job, but who also require training. It’s as if this fantastic machine just gained a whole new level of power and traction. But juggling the machine’s “evolution” with my personal life, my writing life, and my sanity sometimes has its moments, and frankly? Sometimes I feel tired. This week I’ve had this horrid sinus complex, and it was the last straw. Yesterday, I’d completely lost my voice, and today—just as a “for instance” I was talking to an editor who kindly asked about my weekend and so forth, and I had to say, “Ohhh, gotta (cough, cough), probably (cough, cough) gooooo!” Nothing like being struck dumb by a dreadful cough, is there?

But back to the company growth factor. The neat thing about hiring a number of new people (TKA has added four new employees this year) is that it shakes off the predictability of your job. I mean, of course agenting isn’t predictable, by any means—that’s what I love about what I do, that ever-changing aspect. But you hire new people who are fully invested and excited, and it’s like moving to a new town: everything looks shiny and new again. The people we’ve brought into our team are all so vivacious and gung ho, it’s really a breath of fresh air… so why do I feel tired? Probably because I have come to the pitiful conclusion that I’m not capable of replicating myself, and I am only ONE person. It’s the modern woman’s dilemma, isn’t it?

On a totally unrelated note, tonight my daughters and I made popcorn (hubby is at the American Christian Writers Conference in Nashville—I’m a conference widow), and we decided that we would not eat any until the movie actually started. Well, this level of discipline is a wee bit of a challenge for my three year old daughter, and at one point I looked over and she’d shoved her entire face down into the bowl. Only the blonde curly back of her head poked out, as she apparently gobbled as much as she could get while “bobbing for popcorn.” I swear her little hands were even poised behind her back!

I’ve been sad not to have more time for blogging, and I almost feel like all of you, who have been such generous readers and posters, have had the patience of old friends. I do promise to come around more, and not always with a “why-god-why” style of whining about my time issues.
Hugs to all!