Writing Those Books and Then Selling Them

Procrastination is part of writing, but this would-be-novelist seems to have taken it to new heights. Funny ones. (via MobyLives)

"51. google and then technorati some of my favorite authors

52. begin to feel a little tired and uncreative

53. look at my novel

54. tell myself to spend one hour straight only working on the novel

55. acknowledge to myself that it won't happen

56. check e-mail

57. tell myself one hour starting now

58. get up to use the bathroom

59. realize that the music i have on is getting annoying

60. turn off the music

61. feel really agitated and hopeless

62. threaten myself to work on the novel or else

63. begin to read the beginning of the novel

64. realize that that sentence i thought earlier was good is derivative and not even that good and go to where it is and look at it and then delete it

65. go to 'edit' and do 'undo-delete'

66. copy the sentence and paste it at the end of the manuscript

67. go over all the 30,000 words pasted at the end of the novel that i am not going using for the novel

68. find that some of those things are really good

69. try to re-insert some of those things into the currently 10,000 word novel"

Thomas Sheff of San Diego has finished his novel and is detailing his search for an agent in Media Bistro. He hasn’t been having much luck. Part 4 is at the top; scroll down to read in order.

The New York Times is licensing its name to open a series of bookstores; the first shop will be in Lexington, Kentucky’s Blue Grass Airport.

San Francisco readers, Rejoice! Cody’s Books is opening its largest store yet on Stockton Street near Market, in the basement of the Virgin Megastore. The store should be open by late September. Other nearby independents include Books, Inc. and Stacey’s. There is a Borders Bookstore further west on Stockton.

“We felt the Union Square area was underserved and would be responsive to a bookstore of our depth and quality,” says Leslie Berkler, one of Cody’s managers.

Mere Observation has been visiting the Romance Writers of America convention in Reno. Check out the pictures.