Plei, you're a wise woman.

Yes. I liked that a lot.

I'm with Erika. I just realized that I'm much more comfortable with sorrow than with rage. "Damn, I really wanted things to turn out differently" is much more palatable to me than "Damn, I was SCREWED!". As writers, we're all screwed. Better to light some candles than to scream about it.

Yeah, we've most certainly got a POV difference. *grin* I don't do sorrow. To Ralph Wiggums it, it's unpossible. Sorrow, to me, is endlessly more irritating than a rage-on. It's just so... passive.

Betsy, did you read the article on chick lit from Ireland? It left me blinking. In the first place, the woman who wrote it had such a nasty snarky tone that I wanted to smack her. But the idea that a 22-year-old kid writing a weepy could get $1M for a first book just sent me into despair.

Not for myself; but there are now 20 or 30 writers who may not get offered a deal of any kind, because Hyperion has tied up so much in this child's book. I find that infuriating, and depressing.

For me, it makes about as much sense as the Cleveland Cavaliers offering a kid out of high school $103M over five years to sign with them. Guys, the poor brat hasn't played one minute in the bigs, going up against seasoned B-ball players. What in hell are you doing? Other than making sure there's not enough in the budget to hire backup?

Seems a similar situation to me.

Plei, you're a wise woman. It's a pity she managed to be so damned irritating about it, because I felt the same sort of irritated sympathy toward her that I would to a spoiled kid who, good at heart, was suddenly confronted with something he/she couldn't get just by wanting.

Oh, I can totally see that. To which my mother's respose, btw, was always a shrug and a "life's not fair."

Yeah, we've most certainly got a POV difference. *grin* I don't do sorrow. To Ralph Wiggums it, it's unpossible. Sorrow, to me, is endlessly more irritating than a rage-on. It's just so... passive.

I don't mind the sorrow or the rage, although I'm disinclined toward a pure version of either - mine tends to be a sense of shocked outrage at a perceived injustice, and then I steamroller. As you may have noticed, I'm neither passive nor passive-aggressive.

She just managed to phrase things in a way that would easily ping the "uh-oh, whingeing self-entitled yuppie brat, here!" buttons. A pity; as I say, I do think the story is valuable, in its base information.

probably ensuring a cocaine problem.

I'm not a huge fan of that level of starry-eyed naivete, and I don't think anyone ought to go into this business with their eyes scrunched up.

Yes, this. I think the $150K first-time advance may have sort of encouraed her to be starry-eyed, though -- I know it would me.

And I agree with Plei that the article sounds like it was written by someone who doesn't much feel like writing, lately.

And AmyLiz, not worries on the comments on my comments :-). It took me long enough to get the chapters back to you in the first place.

Betsy, did you read the article on chick lit from Ireland?

I missed that. Salon?

Yes, this. I think the $150K first-time advance may have sort of encouraed her to be starry-eyed, though -- I know it would me.

Oh, thoroughly. Thing is, she's had ample time to come to terms with the reality of the Monolith That Is American Publishing - and she needs to learn how to deal, at least if she intends to continue writing.

So, Dear Jane: either put this experience to use and keep writing, or give it up and maybe just write about why you gave it up.

I think I just mean that she's got no business being crushed and disappointed after this little go-round.

LJ, I think it was in the Toronto Star online, last Thursday or Friday. Entitled something like "Chick Lit Invades Ireland" or something.