Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Lifetime Movies present - A Writer's Dilemma: The Lola Mellowsky Story



I take every opportunity to post this photo. The power of visualization.

So, there I was---“writing.” When I put it in quotation marks it means I have the document on which I am supposed to be working open on my desktop but am instead engaging in “research”. ( For example, today it was integral to my “writing” that I watch the Jim Carrey/Emma Stone video ). (The Spanish subtitles made it somehow better for me.)

Then I got to thinking of the really important stuff.

I got to planning which, as any successful human knows, is something regular people think successful people do a lot of. (This is what I’ve heard. Being neither successful nor particularly regular, I can’t speak with any certainty.) So I’m sitting there and I’m doing my planning thing---if I write for a few hours before tomorrow’s dentist appointment and then return e-mails afterwards from the coffee shop then I’ll have plenty of time in the evening to check and see if Emma Stone made a response video (she really should). It was then that I realized that I have left the most important detail of my writing career---perhaps the most important detail of my life; perhaps the most important detail of all the details in the land--- completely unexamined.

What picture am I going to use for the book jacket of my as yet unwritten book?

HOW COULD I HAVE OVERLOOKED THIS?

This is way more important than unquotationed-marked writing.

Shall I hold a cup of coffee? French-pressed or cappuccino? Should I be snuggling with a dog? Do I need to get the dog now so it will like me enough by the time I publish to sit through the photo shoot? A well-bred black lab or an orphaned three-legged mutt with cataracts? Will a downtrodden dog upstage me?

Should I smile warmly from a riverfront porch or try for depth and intelligence against a backdrop of bookshelves and a Manhattan skyline? Do I put my chin in my palm? Should I be on a swing set laughing joyously in long braids? Should I start growing my hair out now?

Do I need to start working on my Blue Steel? Should I sleep with the photographer so he goes heavy on the air-brushing? Should I use a picture of Emma Stone instead?

Should I wear a vest?

Do you think vests will be in by the time I publish?

Are vests in now?

Should the caption under the photo say “The writer at her home in NH” or “The writer on a water slide” or the “The writer making a ham sandwich”?

And what of the “About The Author”?

This is Lola Mellowsky's first published work though she always wished she had come up with the idea for the Encyclopedia Brown books. She looks forward to embarking on her own young adult series, Thesaurus Blue.

And the acknowledgements?

I wouldn’t be here were it not for the generous spirit of a kind-hearted many who let me blow them to get published. And this book certainly wouldn’t have come together without the CVS clerk who let me blow him for the Scotch Tape.

Of course a shout out to my 11th grade PE teacher is in order for flunking me and thereby cementing my understanding that I would never play professional badminton but I was hoping to save that for my Oscar speech.

Now that I've identified this oversight I'll be sure to give it far too much undivided attention.

But not now. Now I must go and "write."

Thesaurus Blue isn't going to write itself.

Besides, I'm pretty sure I've found the perfect photo.



The writer after Nog-Bombs on Christmas morning.

9 comments:

Talk2mrsh said...

I like the ceramic testicle looking things that appear somewhat horn-like above your head. I have heard of tea-bagging but I am not sure what this would be called. They look warm, at least.

KJ said...

I just want you to know that I am "writing" right now.

Matthew said...

Does the stache match the carpet?

Sassy said...

Go for the VEST!

Jen V said...

Laura Ingles-Wilder with the long braids all the way!!
Maybe you can braid the mustache?
Or how about the picture of you on the beach eating a fistful of sand~writer being one with her material?
This is the something else that gets me just wanting to get your book even more!!
CAN'T WAIT!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm soooooooo excited for you, can't wait to read your book!!!!!

Nancy M said...

Nog bombs?? I need to talk to Bec about that recipe!
Oh, and if you go for the "dog" idea - I have a perfect one you can borrow that will like you and knows how to pose! (check Bec's summer pictures!) : )

Anonymous said...

Thought about it long & hard...for days on end....here's my vote...

All of the Spewsters get together, we stick you somewhere in the middle of the pack & do a "Where's Lola" style photo. Cause, ya know once that book hits the stands, life as you know it is over. No need for you to be hounded night & day by the fans. The Spewsters gotcha back, baby!

xoxo
BFYFM

becky.breslin said...

Janet....I love your idea!! How funny would that be and how great that bookish would have our mugs alongside Lola's!! I say we deserve a little ink, too! We did know her when....after all!