August 30, 2007

Father Land

On many of the writer sites I visit, I have been informed that not much goes on in publishing during the month of August. I can believe it.

As I believe I have pissed and whined about before, I don't do well when there's down time. I get frustrated because February feels a million years away, even though it will doubtless pounce on me before I know it, and I want to get all the publicity work done now now now. I do pause every now and then to remember just how fortunate I am to have these fancy pants authorly things to worry about and how many writers out there just said "Fucker..." into their cheap box wine when they read that.

I've been working on the new book to take my mind off everything else, and because apparently I do better when there's a little pressure on me (don't even ask how much of SCHUYLER'S MONSTER I still had left to write when I got the book deal), I made a little web site to serve as a little "git 'er done!" reminder to me and a no doubt breathlessly waiting world.

So go check out the teeny tiny little page for FATHER LAND. I wrote more about this project back on Father's Day, so if you've got ideas, or if you have an interesting father story of your own, by all means, drop me a line. I'd like to have enough material for a proposal by the end of October.

Oh, I'm sorry. Were you hoping for something interesting tonight? Yeah, sorry. I would have liked that, too. C'est la vie. Or "Tough titties", if you're not into the whole Frenchie thing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Be careful with the title, because a lot of people when they think of Fatherland, they think of Nazi Germany. In fact when I typed in fatherland to yahoo it says "Also try: fatherland novel, nazi germany, fatherland hitler, german fatherland"

And this is from Wikipedia:

Drawing from the Nazis' usage of the term "Vaterland", the direct English translation "fatherland" featured in news reports associated with Nazi Germany and in domestic anti-Nazi propaganda during World War II. As a result, the English word is now associated with the Nazi government of Germany (unlike in Germany itself, where the word means simply "homeland") The word is not used often in post-World War II English unless one wishes to invoke the Nazis, or one is translating literally from a foreign language where that language's equivalent of "fatherland" does not bear Nazi connotations.

But I know that your title is 2 words so it's totally different, but I'm just letting you know...

Robert Hudson said...

That's a good point, I'd always made that association with Germany, not so much the Nazis in particular.

Ironically, one of the stories I'm writing about is that of Rolf Mengele and his complicated relationship with his father. So it's not exactly a nazi-friendly book.

Unknown said...

I do pause every now and then to remember just how fortunate I am to have these fancy pants authorly things to worry about and how many writers out there just said "Fucker..." into their cheap box wine when they read that.

Talk about adding insult to injury... just because I didn't get a book deal doesn't mean I can't curse you into a nice bottle of Clos Pegase.

Fucker.

;)

Robert Hudson said...

I'm such a total narcissist, I just assume everyone's drinking the same cheap crap as me...

jennifergg said...

Oh Rob, good for you. The very best thing a person can do is to simply keep writing. More than a fancy pants book deal, more than any reviews that will/will not come, the measure of a writer, in my eyes, is how much he/she writes.

Good work!

Linda Ball said...

Tonight I'm going to be cursing you over some impossibly expensive old Burgundy and Bordeaux. (Not mine, someone else's.) Just kidding. About the cursing not the wine.