It is amazing what happens if you just ask the Internet, in part my journalistic career (if you can call it that) is thanks to this blog and the lovely people who read it. It's a testament to asking the universe (or at least the interest) for things and seeing what happens. And since I'm a bit stuck at the moment I thought I'd give it another crack.
I want to write a book, well another book. A book about my father, cancer and motorbikes. It would be a moving book about the tricky relationships between fathers and sons - especially estranged ones - and how cancer forces you to change everything and to do tough things. Most of all it would be about how two people with very little in common can finally connect over a classic bike just before it's too late.
I think I could make it a very moving read, sad in parts but funny in others and perhaps it might help people who didn't really understand their fathers but wanted to get to know them all the same.
So I'm throwing it out to the Internet. If you can help me with this, hassle a friend who is an agent or mention it to a publisher you know please do. Or failing that just talk to a stranger on the bus, who knows what will happen.
4 comments:
Well, I know a few people. (I sound like a mafia guy, don't I?) Although they are on the left side of the pond.
Let us know how it's going.
BB - So what do you think, does it have legs or should I go back to writing about shoes and ladies pants?
Well, I feel like I need to know a bit more to give you anything approaching a profound and true answer, but:
a) I think it could simply be a good experience for you, in terms of grief, honor, memory, understanding, etc.
b) it sounds an excellent book -- targeted to men, but women would also read it because the empathic among us want to understand the men in their lives or help their men understand themselves (though my understanding is the personal memoir market may have peaked, I'm sure something of quality would still find an audience -- especially if it were certain it was not one of these shocking "fakes" that seem to have caught publishers off-guard of late)
c) have you read "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott? A book about writing and I've chirped about it a bit at my place. She talks about why she wrote about her father and cancer -- I will check to see if you give an email address b/c I don't want to blow the fuses on COMMENT here...
d) in sum, I'd say it sounds as leggy as a cutie in hotpants (are "hotpants" the same thing over there as they are over here? Cuz I know "pants" aren't.... Oh dear, with your base definition, hotpants goes a whole different direction!)
BB - Is there an email address I can reach you on, I only have one that rather reveals who I am.
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