You know, I remember when I wrote my first novel (the one that isn’t published and will forever live in my drawer somewhere), I thought once I finished it and edited and proofread, bang, I was done. Somebody would buy it and I would be an author. Well, that didn’t happen with the first book. I wrote a second, and only after about twelve overhauls, George Nicholson, my agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, read it and took me on. Within six months, he had Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged sold to HarperCollins.
The last novel, Chasing AllieCat, had a more circuitous path, and even more overhauls before FLUX bought it (again, George was the agent in charge).
This time, Slider’s Son has been perhaps the longest haul of all. I am not even sure when I started work on this book. I got a MN State Arts Board Grant to work on it, and to go to North Dakota to do research. I made two trips out there. That was before MSAB grants were limited to travel within the state. Anyway, now George wants me to find Native experts and people who can comment on the authenticity and/or lack of offensiveness in the way the Mandan Indians in the story are portrayed. I wonder how much longer this process will take. But…if it’s a good thing, I guess it doesn’t matter. I just get so impatient. I want the book out in the world!
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