Uncomfortable conversations at work, plus America enters the present

Standard

Here’s a conversation I had at work this week:

Kindly co-worker: “So, when does your book come out?”

“September,” I say. “They had to push it back from May.”

“That’s a long time.” She is looking at me cautiously and I can’t figure out why.

“Yeah, but it’s for the best. Otherwise it would have competed with other books coming out at the same time. I’m told they’re going to be giving it a marketing push.”

“Okay. Um.” She looks around the room awkwardly, then turns back to me. “And, have you already paid them?”

Ah. She was worried about me. She thought I was being ripped off.

You guys know about Writer Beware, don’t you? And Yog’s Law?

I didn’t want to explain Yog’s Law to my very nice co-worker, because I didn’t want to talk about Yog Sothoth, but I did explain that the publisher was paying me for the book, because the book has value. She twigged to the truth of it very quickly.

And if you’re reading this on my LiveJournal (as most people are, I think) you can find a LJ feed of the Writer Beware blog on my profile page. Even if you don’t think you need to follow it yourself, it’s good to spread the word.

Also: IOWA! Maybe this is burying the lede, but Iowa is leading the other states into a future of fairness, family and love. I couldn’t be happier. Now I’m glaring at my own state government, tapping my foot impatiently.