Writing's Second Most Consistent Pleasure

June 5, 2007

Yesterday I received two copies of THE SERPENT'S KISS. One is pretty much a gift from The Great And Powerful WADE, my titles editor at Midnight Ink. The other is for me to read and mark-up if I want any changes, should we go to additional printings.

I was pleased--very--to find that I had picked up an additional blurb nobody had told me about. Here it is:

"I can't remember the last time a thriller made my heart pound and my hands sweat, but The Serpent's Kiss did all that and more. This is a tense, high-octane read!" —Tess Gerritsen, author of The Bone Garden

Thanks Tess! You rock!

There are many, many things about getting a book published that are anticlimactic or even disappointing. The world does not stop, by the way, when your book comes out. Even relatives, by and large, won't drop what they're doing and rush to the bookstore to pick up your new opus.

Holding your book in your grubby little paws for the first time is not one of those things. Holding your book in your hands for the first time pretty much lives up to all your expectations. It can be a bit emotional, certainly there's a sort of magic to it, and I hope all you aspiring writers get the chance someday to hold your own book in your hands. For that moment, at least, all the effort and rejection and frustration seems worth it.

Oh, and MI's copywriters did a great job. Here's the back cover copy:

Breaking News

Fifty-two persons are confirmed dead in a lethal sarin gas attack at a downtown Detroit restaurant, 8:00 A.M. this morning.

Detroit: 10:40 A.M.

I am the Serpent. Three million dollars must be in account 84-532-6887-263 by 11:45 A.M. or many more people will die.

Detroit: 11:47 A.M.

The Serpent will strike again. In five minutes. It is on their heads.

Breaking News

At noon, forty-three people were found dead at a Wayne State University lecture hall in what appears to be the second of several pre-determined bio-terrorist assaults on the city.

Detroit is running out of time.

And, I suppose I should mention writing's first most consistent pleasure. That's the actual act of writing itself.

Cheers,

Mark Terry