I’m Not Dead…Yet

Another reminder to keep on submitting to the St. Martin’s “New Adult” Contest! Remember, contest closes tomorrow, Friday, November 20 at 11:59pm EST.

In other “New Adult” related news, check out this interview I gave to Jodi Meadows with my thoughts, hopes, and projections about the category.

Kettle of Fish Bar

I have rather unfairly developed a reputation for being sick “all the time”. I’m not; my immune system is decent if not spectacular. When I was a child, I just had the propensity to get sick on holidays. Admittedly I’m one of those people who is very good at denying impending sickness–”I’m not sick, I’m not sick, I’m not sick! What do you mean? I’m totally fine! It’s just a flesh wound!“–but it ends up catching up to me sooner or later. What I thought was just a little tickle in the throat is actually a full-blown chest cold. Goddammit.

So I went gallivanting off to Kettle of Fish to hear my friend Russ (to whom I shall henceforth refer as “Stephen Icarus”–10 points to anyone who can guess the reference) read from his work-in-progress, along with Emily St. John Mandel and Marty Beckerman. The reading was great and I hope to work with these people in the future.

This morning I came into the office, unwilling to leave my desk for fear of–I’m not sure what. That the entire engine of publishing would fall apart with me or something (which is totally silly, but I never said my fears were rational). There’s no doubt that this job is stressful, but I’m amazed to find it a good sort of stressful. Boss takes me to meet different agents, to help him sell our pitch, and it’s nice to hear people compliment me on my passion for books and tell me that “[I'll] go far”. This passion (but more like obsessive-compulsive tendencies) also leads me to come into the office early and leave at least an hour late every night. I won’t lie–since starting this job 2 weeks ago, I have lost 6lbs. (Sweet! Only 9lbs more to go before I get down to my idealized weight.)

But the human body can only take so much. Boss is sending me home now. “If you get me sick, I’ll kill you.” I suppose I could take this time to catch up on submissions and the manuscripts we’ve gotten in to review. (If only the IT department would give me that damned e-reader already…) That’s the nice thing about publishing–going home to read is part and parcel of the job description!

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