It’s About Time

With just over 1 month left before Falling for Hamlet hits the shelves, I thought I’d deal with the issue of time. I started writing the book in 2007 and finished my last revisions in 2010. As I close in on the end of this journey, I reflected on the mathematics of the writing.

And so with no further ado (or much ado), here are the numbers:

23 years on Earth before I told anyone I made up stories

1 year after that I started writing down the stories

3 more years before I told friends I wrote

2 more years before I showed people anything I’d written

11 years spent on my first manuscript, which is still not quite right

4 years ago I saw the Hamlet that inspired my story

3 months spent on first draft of Ophelia’s tale

1 ½ years polishing and getting feedback

17 months searching for an agent

3 times (at least) I gave up trying to find an agent

1 definite decision to stop writing

5 minute inspirational conversation with musician-friend who convinced me to try again

2 months after finding agent, manuscript sold (unusual, but true. Yay, Joan)

0 times my agent and I have met in person

1 great conversation with editor (Yay, Alvina) that told me she was the right one for me

3 lunches with fabulous editor and her team in NYC

1 week of stressing before being able to face my first round of post-contact revisions

1 box full of drafts, which led to not printing anymore (go green!)

1,000 hours telling myself I couldn’t do it

1,001 hours of husband saying I could

81 titles thrown around before it became Falling for Hamlet

1 redesign of skirt for cover

96,941 words in final manuscript

21 months between acceptance of manuscript to date of publication

80+ times friends have asked, “Isn’t your book out yet?”

1 month left before publication (YAY!)

1 very excited writer who never thought she’d be an author