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Blogs by Karen Harrington
One Week to Publication (Or, I'm slightly giddy!) 3/24/2008 9:01:27 AM
In a brilliant turn of events, last Friday, Amazon started sending out messages that copies of Janeology had been shipped. Friday was also one year to the day since Kunati Books called me – while I was mopping the kitchen floor, the tods safely ensconced in front of Sesame Street, singing along with The Count – and offered me a contract for the novel. (Forevermore, The Count will be tied to my happy memories of publishing.) The publisher even said, “We’re so happy to acquire Janeology because we think it’s a great summer read.” And now, copies of that book, once just some ideas in my head, are now actually being shipped. Amazing how one’s life can change in 12 months.
And in more full circle news, I sent my favorite writing mentor, Professor Robert Nelsen, at the University of Texas at Dallas a note, telling him about the publication of my book and that I would soon be sending him a copy. I don’t know why taking this step was a little bit scary. Perhaps my reverence for this teacher, who everyone always wanted to please and feared just a little bit played into it. His courses produce an astonishing number of writers who go on to be published. While I attended UTD, 25 percent of the students who attended his program went on to be published. Yeah, he’s that good. But he’s that tough, too. And he’d do the “Look to your right. Look to your left. Those people will not survive the semester because they don’t have the stamina to write every day,” speech each semester. (I took five of his classes over the years.)
I clearly remember the day all of us in the novel class got our first three chapters back from Professor Nelsen – graded and marked-up. At least three red pens must have given their lives in this effort. Like most writers, we were all too consumed by the remarks and comments throughout our masterpieces to concentrate on anything else in the class. He picked up a few of our papers and read aloud some of our work. Of course, this is meant to be instructive, but it is also intimidating. One of the papers he chose to make an example of was mine. Fortunately, one of the three comments he made about it was positive. Still. So I walked out of the class with the rest of my battered classmates. Professor Nelsen called my name out in the hallway. He told me something pivotal in my education, something that I probably already knew deep down. “Don’t interpret all those comments as if I’m telling you to stop writing. I’m not. I’m telling you to keep writing. And I don’t tell everyone that.”
So you can understand why, after all these years, when I go back to his office, hardback novel in hand, it will be a weighty, full-circle moment. I kept writing. And I’ll keep writing. Because I’ll tell you another Nelsen-ism that is 100 percent true: If you wrote today, you are a writer.
Janeology is available now on Amazon and Barnes&Noble
