AlexKeto.com

A British politician once remarked that anyone who can't simultaneously believe in two completely contradictory propositions simply lacks a bit of imagination.

The comment came to mind after I got back two of the literary competition results for the next book that I will be working at some as yet unnamed period in the future. Vagueness about these plans is the direct result that the current book is plodding along like an old nag down a country road with no intention of being hurried.

First the less than stellar news from Frontiers in Writing. This competition has a numerical score based on a hundred and there's no point in saying how my first ten pages and synopsis scored other than to remark it reminded very much of my performance in calculus in college. That one single course did more to my overall GPA than anything else during four years of alledged academic pursuits. I don't mean that in a good way either.

But, the judge, whoever she was because in this business the odds are 99.9% it was a she, did have some encouraging things to say. She liked the book and the plot but bogged down on the fact that she thought nothing much happened in the first ten pages. Valid point and not worth saying that, yes, but page 11 was a doozy. Also, she didn't much like my synopsis presentation. For that matter, neither did I. Writing a synopsis or a pitch remains a thorn in my side.

I had already decided before these comments rolled in that the opening, which was more or less an off the cuff effort, needed to be trashed and re-written. So the judges comments reinforce that idea. She also took time to edit the pages and made a lot of interesting critiques all of which seemed to be on target.

She also liked very much the book was set in East Africa. Given my first two books are also set in East Africa, this is good news. I still believe that there is a lot of interest in the subject if the book can be made accessible. Certainly there is a lot more to the continent than the dreary news stories about death, more death and then, to round out things, a bit of death on top. Besides it gives me an excuse to periodically travel back to East Africa and nothing is more appealing than bouncing around the Kenyan highlands in a land rover.   

All things considered, I would rather she liked the plot and the book and had problems with the presentation.

The Pacific Northwest Writers Association sent me back a letter and a critique saying the book is a finalist and I'll hear in July whether it achieves a more exalted rank of first, second, or third or remains lodged where it is like a stick in a dam.

The PNWA had a bit of a looser guide line and asked for the first 30 pages and yep this judge got to that doozy of a page 11 so she thought there was plenty of action. She liked the plot enough to breeze past my weak synopsis.

So there you are, the literary world in a nutshell: two judges, two conclusions both of which are correct. Which just goes to show how difficult it is to weigh up a book, a proposal or anything else. I suppose that if this is a problem, it's time to get another line of work like being an accountant where the answers are always either simply right or wrong.