January 12, 2006
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Well, we’ve been working our Triple Goddess butts off here and getting a lot done. We’ve worked out a starting structure, figured out a fantastic climax, had lunches with editors, and managed not to kill each other, although I think both Eileen and Krissie are tired of hearing, “When Bob and I do this . . . ”
It’s a very different process we’re doing, but there are some similarities, mostly in the way I annoy them, too. Eileen and I had lunch here in the Village with Jen Enderlin, our fabulous editor (Krissie of the multiple publishers was off having lunch with a different editor), in a great little French bistro (and yes, I AM the luckiest woman in the world, don’t think I don’t know it) and Jen said she’s going to market the book as a novel, not an anthology, which is exactly what it is since the stories are interwoven and interlinked. I am SO excited about this book, about the story and the way it’s being written.
One thing I’ve learned from writing with Bob (Krissie and Eileen moan in the background) is that writing with somebody else forces you to move outside your comfort zone and try new things. And while Krissie and Eileen and I have much the same value systems, we have very different voices and story worlds. So this will be a book about three women who really are three different women because they’re written by three different women, plus I’m going to have to accomodate my plotting to theirs, so it’ll all be new. I’m jazzed.
Another way this is similar to the work I do with Bob is that we disagree, occasionally heatedly, but it’s never about who has the most words or about ego, it’s always about what’s best for the book. Eileen and I were going round about structure, and she said, “If we do it that way, we’ll lose readers.” I didn’t agree, but it’s the kind of argument that’s about the best way to tell the book, not about who gets her way. And Krissie the peacemaker says, “Let’s try it both ways.”
Which is funny because she’s writing Lizzie, the peacemaker middle sister. Eileen is writing Dee, the caring, efficient, bossy older sister who mothers everybody (have you MET Eileen?). I’m writing the reckless, distracted, impulsive, erratic, really annoying younger sister. Funny that their characters are so reflective of their personalities and mine is nothing like me.
So tonight Eileen is going to see O’Neill because if you’re Irish in New York and O’Neill is playing someplace you have to go. I’m staying in because if you’re German in New York and O’Neill is playing someplace, you’d rather be dragged through a hedge backwards than go. And Krissie’s staying in with me, so we’re going to work on our homework (Eileen’s is done already, of course, and made into packets) and then send out for pizza when Eileen gets home.
Really a lovely night in NYC. Nothing but good times ahead.
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