Leisure

I’ve been working on another project that I’d started back 1997, then also put off for many years. But not without trying. I’d actually had a bite on it from Joelle Yudin, then Assistant Editor at William Morrow, who found my project “quite intriguing” in her 2003 letter to me. Alas, she could not interest her colleagues, who (I found out later, when I actually called her) found it “too small.”

So, you see, things get rejected not just because they suck.

“Too small.”

Yeah, that was “The Problem.”

I’m still keeping the title under wraps, but this project has been one of my favorites, and ranks up there with ERO. It had been forwarded to Joelle from another, who I’d originally sent it to; the man (Michael Morrison…who has moved up the rungs since this incident, I’m not sure was the original intended editor, but it had been he who had forwarded my query to Joelle) had been kind enough to forward it to Joelle to get her thoughts on it. I thank both of them for their efforts: thank you, Mr. Morrison and thank you, Joelle!

This project is about failed relationships. It’s the most mainstream effort I’ve ever written.

It also sports some hefty sex in it. I can’t really call it “erotica,” because I didn’t write those scenes with the intent to cause sexual feelings or arousal. That was never the intent (not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that…). It was about the story and what the hell was happening to my protagonist.

I used to call it “my embarrassing book,” because I’ve never written nor read “erotica,” but I’ve finally gotten past that. I’m finally taking ownership of it…as in “own it, dude.” I figure, what’s “worse”: writing about nasty violence or writing sex scenes?

But, it’s not about the sex…in that I didn’t write the sex scenes in and of themselves…they were “just” integral to the story…what happened to the protagonist that further exacerbated his spiral of failed relationships. There’s more to it, but, the entire “thrust” of the book, if you’ll pardon the pun, is that the main character just can’t seem to get his life together because of what’s going on with him and his family…what’s going on in his head.

It is also a love story.

But I wanted to let you all in on this, because it is taking up all my writing time, and other things in my daily life are temporarily taking up more of my time, so my blogs are suffering. So, it’s not that I’m not doing anything…I’m just focusing all my efforts on getting this work out there next year—earlier rather than later are my hopes. So, please, bear with me on the lack of substantive posts. You can, however, check out my Pinterest board for this WIP, at http://www.pinterest.com/fpdorchak/next-work-in-progress/. These are all images that pertain to this effort. As you can see, photography, modeling, traveling, the Northeast all figure prominently in the novel. I hope you’ll “follow” and periodically check back.

But…be warned. I pull very few punches in this novel. When I tackled this project, I wanted to tackle something I felt was “out of my range,” something that would help me grow as a writer, even if somewhat “embarrassing.” I didn’t want to shy away from the subject matter…wanted to tackle it head on, no matter where it went. So, yes, this novel took me places I was (at first) hesitant to go…but to have “pulled those punches” would have killed the story. Believe me, I considered it. So…I did what any writer worth their salt would do to a compelling story that wouldn’t leave them alone…

I wrote it.

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