{"id":1269,"date":"2016-10-07T11:25:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T18:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1269"},"modified":"2016-10-07T11:25:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T18:25:47","slug":"a-day-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2016\/10\/07\/a-day-off\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday morning in Tucson\u2014sunny but quiet and still cool\u2014and I\u2019m having a day off. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because the book tour for Downfall<\/em>\u00a0is over, and last night I sent the manuscript for the next Ali book, Man Overboard, <\/em>to my editors and agent.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just say that finishing a book and being on tour at the same time is NOT RECOMMENDED. \u00a0As that old Helen Reddy song said, \u201cHasn\u2019t it been a long hard climb.\u201d \u00a0And that would definitely be a yes. \u00a0It\u2019s a little daunting to know that the publisher has already created the cover long before the manuscript showed up on anyone\u2019s desk to say nothing of on the screen in my computer..<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say a word here about publishers being unreasonable. \u00a0They are not! \u00a0The editor has not been hounding me to finish. \u00a0I think there\u2019s a general belief out in the world that editors are somehow slave drivers inflicting unrealistic requirements on hapless writers, not only in terms of delivering manuscripts but also in terms of what\u2019s inside them. In my experience, that\u2019s just not so.<\/p>\n

For one thing, I\u2019m the one who volunteered and signed up to write two books a year for two different publishers. \u00a0I\u2019ve also said yes to book tours twice a year. \u00a0In other words, the fact that my literary life is complicated is entirely on me. \u00a0A few minutes ago, also on my day off, I completed my registration to attend ThrillerFest in NYC next July. \u00a0That means that, once again, I\u2019ve just said yes when saying no might have been a: easier and b: less complicated. \u00a0And if I start whining about the schedule next summer, please feel free to remind me of what I wrote in this paragraph!<\/p>\n

Earlier this week a fan wrote something to the effect that she was tired of reading books containing too many \u201cpublisher-dictated\u201d sex scenes. \u00a0With a thirty year history of writing more than fifty books, I can say quite honestly that no editor has ever demanded that a sex scene be included or dropped. \u00a0Writing is an art, after all, and what goes in or is left out of a work of art is up to \u2026 well \u2026 the artist. \u00a0My personal decision to write books that are generally considered to be PG-13, is based on my own personal preference and on the knowledge that my kids and grand-kids would be reading my books. \u00a0My stories are the way they are because of who I am rather than due to requirements imposed on me by others.<\/p>\n

So now that I\u2019m almost finished writing this blog, what am I going to do with the remainder of my day off? \u00a0Read a book, that\u2019s what! \u00a0I started Dan Silva\u2019s new book on the way back from our cruise, but the complications of writing a book and being on tour meant that I haven\u2019t been able to look at it since. But now I can, and today\u2019s the day.<\/p>\n

As a child going to school and later, both as a student and a teacher, that\u2019s what summer vacations were all about\u2014reading books\u2014preferably one right after another. \u00a0Having the school library open one day a week back then was a real blessing for me, and I dragged wagon loads of books back and forth in the family Radio Flyer.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, some young person who is longing to write\u2014someone still in grade school or high school\u2014will ask me what they should do to get published. \u00a0I tell them that what they need to do first is become readers. \u00a0Readers become writers, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

And today, on my day off, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to be\u2014a reader not a writer.<\/p>\n

Enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday morning in Tucson\u2014sunny but quiet and still cool\u2014and I\u2019m having a day off. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because the book tour for Downfall\u00a0is over, and last night I sent the manuscript for the next Ali book, Man Overboard, to my editors and agent. Let\u2019s just say that finishing a book and being on tour at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[33,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-tour-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-kt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1270,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}