I made it up to 85,000 words.
You who have been reading past posts know that I took an agent's advice with my Hawaii book. “Bring it up to the ‘sweet zone,’ of 85,000 to 95,000 words,” she said, “and I will review it.”
Okay, after much head banging and hang wringing, I stood up and took opportunity by the—what shall say? “Nuts?” Too coarse. “Horns?” Too common. “Hand?” Yes, I took opportunity by the hand and she walked with me and told me that now I could write about what I really want to write about.
Throughout this Hawaii experience there has been an undercurrent of motivational thought, of how to have a dream and go for it, of how to be happy, of how to be successful. What is “Being in the Flow? What is living an authentic life? I suppose if there is any theme to this book it would be “The Search for Happiness.” Yes, it is our story of moving to Hawaii, yes, and it is more…
When I read Steve Jobs comment on attempting to get his Apple computer into someone’s hands I thought of the many people who had a dream and went for it. I thought of the people who had faced opposition, but did it anyway. Steve Jobs, the founder of the Apple computer said, “Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you” And they said, “No,” so then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, “Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.” This was in response to his and Steve Wozniak’s attempt to get Atari and HP interested in their personal computer.
Here I am typing on one of those magic little devices people said would never go. Don’t you love it?
I am still running titles through my head for the Hawaii book: The Frog’s Song? Some people like that. Life Beyond the Horizon? No. Running Between the Raindrops? I don’t know. Out of Hawaii? After the book I love so much, Out of Africa? Dream, Believe, Live? Rain, Rain, Rust? Rain, Rain, Sun?—after Oregon, Hawaii, California, the three parts of the book, and in three parts like Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. My latest mind dropping is this: Frog on a Leash.
Last Sunday I attended a seminar in Palm Springs by the book marketer John Kremer (1001 and One Ways to Market Your Books). He said that a book ought to be like a puppy, when you pick it up you want to take it home. I love puppies, but a puppy didn’t seem quite right for this book. A frog, though, does. A frog’s song, so they say, calls the rain that settles the dust for our journey. Our journey began in Oregon, ended in California, but right now I am thinking of those little Coqui frogs of Hawaii, tiny brown frogs who come out at night and sing their little “Ko-ki” song sounding like birds chortling. Coqui’s out in the wild, calling a mate, eating mosquitoes, eating bugs, and through the open window of our little Hawaii house came their song drifting in on the breeze, sounding like a jungle out there, and we slept to the tune of it.
Hey, maybe It’s a Jungle Out There…
Any comments?
