A little background, because my writing career owes much to Douglas. When I completed my first novel, I sent it out to some authors whom I greatly admired. Douglas was one of them. He was also one of the two or three to generously give this debuting nobody some of his time. He read the first Molly Fyde book, and wrote a blurb that blew me away. Mostly because it said enough to let me know there was an 80% chance he read the thing.
It was my first big break, and it gave me a tremendous amount of confidence. I’ve always felt as though my writing career has been intertwined with his, but in the way a small thread wraps around a much thicker rope. (Not calling Douglas fat! He’s quite svelte. Just saying my career warps to his more than his to mine [obviously])
Yesterday, I had the impulse to reach out to Douglas. We’d only ever exchanged e-mails, but I thought we were friends in the way that when you’re at a rock concert and the lead singer drips sweat on you, you figure the two of you are best buddies forever. Turns out Douglas had emailed me four hours earlier to ask if we could chat. I feared he wanted his blurbs back.
We chatted today, and as I suspected, Douglas and I agree on far more than we disagree. We both want what’s best for writers. The confusion is on how to achieve that. I don’t know that I have any better answers than I did before. We would both probably write similar pleas a second time around. But we’d probably do even more to assume that the other side is seeing the world differently but with the same generous spirit. The only thing this solves is my cognitive dissonance when people I admire have differing opinions. I hope the same is true of Doug*.
*I can call him that. Totally saw him at a convention once. Looked like he was adjusting his sunglasses, but it was a wave.
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