Talking to the Press
Today there is an interview with me published in the Somerville News. I ran to get a copy. (Literally--I was starting to run when I remembered I'd forgotten to pick up the paper so I ran toward Davis Square to get one). Ahem. It was fine, good stuff. Except there was a bit about the book I'm working on now, and when I read it my stomach tightened. My gut didn't like that bit. Not because the reporter got it wrong (she got it right) but because I realize that if I had been interviewed midway through writing My Summer of Southern Discomfort and I'd been asked to describe what I was working on the synopsis I would have provided then wouldn't have been accurate as of print time. Things change in drafts. Plus, I don't want to give too much away.
I know some authors who don't discuss their works in progress because they feel that once they've talked about it there's no fun in writing it. Talking it out ruins the suspense for them, destroys the feeling of discovery. That's not the case with me. I've been talking about this work in progress with friends and writers since I began, but somehow that's different than seeing it put in print.
So from now on when I'm asked about what I'm working I'm either going to say, "My twelve steps" and if they persist I'll say, "A story. It's going to be good, I hope."