Back in the early ‘80’s, I was living in Boston and rooting for the Red Sox. Management had broken up the “Lumber Company” of the late ‘70’s and it would be a few years before the ’86 team would make a run of it. This is a nice way of saying that they fairly sucked.
It was near the end of the season and the only reason to keep watching games was to see if Carl Yastrzemski would become one of the only players to hit 400 homers and get 3,000 hits. Yaz was getting old and the closer he got, the longer it seemed to take for him to reach his goal.
One day, a Boston sports writer (if someone knows the name of this guy, send me a comment and I’ll print it and thank you forever) started off his column with the line, “It’s lonely out on the Yaz Watch.”
My first novel will be released in a matter of days and I am reminded of that line. Author Brian Freeman once said to me, “The month before your first novel comes out will seem like an eternity.” Truer words never spoken. I sit around waiting for something to happen, yet nothing ever does. It’s simply not supposed to. Not yet. Soon. It reaches a point where friends ask “So, when’s the book coming out?” and I imagine that Yaz felt the same way when sportswriters had nothing better to do than ask every day, “Do you think you’ll get the record tonight?” You’re happy for the attention, but part of you wants to hit them with a book after a while. This is far kinder than hitting them with a baseball bat, although I am coming out in hardcover. But still…
Peace,
Kerry