Thursday, October 11, 2007

THREE'S A CROWD...NOT!

How many manuscripts does it take to pillage and plunder from to get a decent second draft?
Hint.
How many do you have?*

75 degrees by my air conditioner outlet. 78 degrees by the nav station. 86 degrees outside ORION.
4:30 pm.

*Four. One to put under your coffee so it doesn't make marks on the table, one to prop open the forward cabin so it doesn't shut on a cat, one to sit on so you are ergonomically correct and one to lean against so you have proper alignment of the lumbar region.

A little sleepy.
Just a tad. Stayed up late chatting.
Had a marvelous interview by THE BOOK SELLER. The UK publishing magazine. Veddy.Veddy exciting for me.
She was an UBER INTERVIEWER (I hope you're reading this Anna.)
First of all the UK is 10 hours later.
And second.
She was one of the very few interviewers who had actually READ my book completely before interviewing me. We had such fun and talked about loving books that give you a good cry. So cathartic.
How cool is that?
I have to admit no matter where someone is from -- after a few minutes I start to talk like them. I started saying "Brilliant!" and "righty ho!" and "All right then."
I do it to people from the south too,
"Weeeellll honeeee chile..." and "Ya'll"
I just can't help it. I also couldn't prevent myself from saying "Aloha" in New York. If you want some really GREAT looks do that to a cabby.
I'm so grateful no one has hung up on me or hit me yet.
Yet.

I am currently collecting all the things people have said to me at signings starting with this from Washington.


"Did you write this book?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

29 comments:

Lisa R said...

Okay, that was funny. You get points. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that starts imitating people I'm talking to. Congrats on the British inverview. Very, very cool.

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

So wait, you had press interviewers who interviewed with you without reading your book entirely first? That sounds so weird to me! It just sounds like they didn't do all their homework or something.

Will you be doing any book signings on the East coast? I want to get my copy signed too!

ORION said...

I wanna go back to New York - don't know when tho

Nadine said...

I do the same thing, except with accents. When I talk to people from the South, I suddenly have a twang and say yall. And from England, I start talking with a British accent. It's totally accidental and subconscious, but now that I am aware of it, I try to talk as normal as possible.

I try to think of it as being very accommodating to others.

Kimber Li said...

I hope to begin interviewing a muse-in-training (cat) soon. Oh, wait, I can't do that. Rather, it is I who must be chosen.
:o)

Anonymous said...

"Did you write this?"

Come on Pat. We all know you're only the front for Touloose. It's the opposable thumb thing that's really holding him back.

Heidi the Hick said...

I do the accent thing too. It's infectious.

That "Did you write this? All of it?" has happened to me already and I'm not even published yet!

Janet said...

Oh my goodness. That was laugh-out-loud funny. What on earth is going through someone's head to ask a question like that?

Zany Mom said...

I'm a native Yankee but lived in the South for years during college.

So on a recent trip down south (KY, TN, GA) I found myself slipping into southern twang.

My daughter though it was hilarious. I told her that because I used to live there, it was OK.

LOL

ORION said...

I was tempted to say, "...only the good parts."

Chris Eldin said...

You're like that character in "Breathing Lessons"--one of my alltime favorites. She also mimicks (unintentionally) the accent/dialect of the person she was talking to. LOL!
Congratulations on a great interview!
:-)

Aprilynne Pike said...

"All of it?"

LMFAO!! I guess the big authors with ghost writers have ruing it for the rest of us word slaves.:)

J m mcdermott said...

I didn't write all of my book.

I drank copious amounts of coffee mixed with chocolate milk. I stayed up on long, 48 hour vigils.

I burned mp3s down the wires in honor of...

the INCAN MONKEY GOD

that came to me in the night and spoke in his strange but beautiful language.

I translated his gorgeous pictograms into English prose.

Thus, no. I did not write ALL of my book.

ORION said...

ha ha ha J M the Monkey God comes to me to in the form of a black and white cat w/o opposable thumbs...

Bookfool said...

There's a lot of y'all-ing for you to imitate, around here. I imagine Pat: "I'm fixin' to go home to Hawaii." Reply: "Y'all are from Hawaii? Man, put me in y'all's luggage."

Wow, I would never, ever interview anyone without reading the book, first. I read Simon Van Booy's book (The Secret Lives of People in Love) twice, before I interviewed him.

Love that last question, "All of it?" I have gotten the same remark from people, repeatedly, for as long as I can remember, when they see my photographs. "Oh, your camera takes great pictures." Apparently, even a hinky little Kodak Instamatic took great pictures. Ahem.

ORION said...

OMG!!!!That's SO true about the camera!!! LOL
Funny how those photos just APPEAR in my Nikon.

Michelle O'Neil said...

I can tell which person my husband is working with by his "accent" on the phone when I call him at work.

Anonymous said...

I get the pidgen goin' good sometimes- mo' betta for to talk wid folks.
:-o

benbradley said...

Hi, Patricia, a question about these "Four Manuscripts" - do they have to be of four different novels, or can they be four manuscripts of the same novel? I gotta know, because I'll be doing NaNoWriMo next month (for the first time, and writing more than my previous lifetime fiction output - wish me luck!), and have to get comfortable...

I wanted to let you know a couple things: Firstly, it looks like we're about to discuss your book in the AW book club forum, and secondly, that this B&N Bookstore:
http://storelocator.barnesandnoble.com/storedetail.do?store=1955
doesn't have "Lottery" in its usual place - it's in the "Our Associates' Recommendations" section, with a short handwritten note describing the story! I figured you might want to drop a line to the store thanking whichever associate recommended your book!

Ben from Rural Georgia, "Bless your heart!" :)

ORION said...

Hey ben can you take a photo? LOL
Thanks a bunch thats really great to know.
BTW the manuscripts all are from different novels.
...don't ask...
I'm going to check out AW now...

Carrie Wilson Link said...

How did you find me? Michelle O'Neil? I just ordered your book, can't wait to read it!

writtenwyrdd said...

Just tell the idiot who asked if you wrote all of the book, "Well, mostly I just channeled the voice of John Lenin" or something equally silly.

Amazing the stupid things people say.

ORION said...

I wasn't going to tell them about the channeling part...it's my secret weapon!

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Hi, Orion! You have to meet my Mom. She's from Bah-stun. You'll be pahking your cah in no time flat! And saying "Aloher!"

KIM

Tyhitia Green said...

Congrats on your Brit interview! :*) Someone asked you did you write it all? WTF?? LOL! What did you say, Pat?? :*)

Melissa Amateis said...

Pat, I just had to tell you - I finished reading LOTTERY Friday night. It is on my top ten list of greatest books I've ever read. Yes, it was THAT GOOD. Your characterization was amazing, your writing absolutely awesome. I can't say enough good things about it! Perry, Gram, Cherry, Keith, even YO! - came to life.

VERY VERY well done. :-) I am telling everyone I know about it!

ORION said...

Oh how NICE!!!!
Tons of thanks!!

Gay said...

I'm not sure that I want you to come to San Diego. People around my barn and people who know I write still come up to me, looks of awe on their face, and say, "You know Pat Wood?"

"Yes."

"And she really signed your book?"

"Yes."

"And she signed Barbara's too?"

"Yes."

"Wow. You are so cool."

Barbara and I feel very important. We will not feel quite so important if they have signed copies, too. Right now, they have ordinary copies, and we have smug smiles. We like it that way.

ORION said...

ha ha ha ha ha
My favorite one was when I was signing stock at Borders somebody came up and asked me if I wrote the book I was signing...
Me: OH Sh*t you mean you have to be the AUTHOR to sign them??!!