The Home Stretch... Or So I Hope

So, I've been working on a novel now for seven years. This is a different book than the one just released by Dipstick and I, which you can buy HERE.

For this work of fiction, which has been quite the labor of love, the first glimmer of inspiration came back in 2000. Notes mainly. In 2001, when I was in my creative writing program at Pacific Univeristy, it started to take form as my senior thesis.

I've completely rewritten it five times (that doesn't include the millions of revisions) and it's gone from first person to third person limited. Nearly every day of those seven years--save two patches when I was moving and when I was writing the L & D book--I have worked on this novel. Earlier this summer, I started looking for an literary agent. It was a grueling process, both emotionally and mentally. Just putting your work out there--especially fiction, for some reason--was a feat in itself.

Last month, I was picked up by a literary agent in New York, a woman I'm very excited about. I believe we've come together by fate. As an editorial agent, she's given me very insightful feedback that I've been applying to the novel for the last few weeks. I just got back from Kinkos, where I had the final draft bound so I could read it in the next fews days. I've also given a copy to Texas, Hoogs and Minx, who will be eagle-eyeing for me, too.

The novel, which is about two debutantes who fall in love, is a coming of age story that examines how fear, shame and money manifest in our lives. With it, like all artists, I hope to change the world--if only one life that's made easier because of the story.

Beyond the novel, I've also began adapting it to a screenplay, which is also really coming together. I'm about halfway done now. I will start marketing that in the next few weeks in tandem.

Send good creative juju in the universe for both projects. I could sure use it.

Cheers to the future.

Lip

PS: The picture is of me when I first started writing this novel. I kid; it's of me writing in high school at our kitchen table. How about that ponytail! I think I'd curled it with a curling iron.