Manhattan Adventures

flatironI’m posting today from Manhattan in a mid-town hotel that’s walking distance from all kinds of cool stuff. Naturally I’m spending a lot of my time here simply writing, but every evening the wife and I go out to one of the swell places to eat that my agent’s recommended (he hasn’t steered us wrong yet!).

My wife’s here for a work conference. I tagged along because, well, how often do I get to go to Manhattan? Yesterday I met in person with my agent Bob Mecoy and editor Pete Wolverton for only the second time, a huge pleasure. And I was briefly in the famed Flatiron building before heading out for lunch.

So what’s it like being in the midst of all this? Famed agents and editors, Manhattan, book writing professionally, all of that? I try to remember what it was like ten years ago when this was just a dream I’d been working towards for most of my life.

Well, it’s pretty danged cool is what it’s like. As you’d probably figure. But then in some ways it’s normal, because you establish working relationships and friendships built on mutual trust and respect to get the best result and the most fulfillment. And that applies to any avocation, doesn’t it? You may be sitting across the table with people who’ve done amazing things, but if you’ve picked the right people to work with then you’re united by shared love of story and writers and genre. I’ve been lucky in that. But then I’ve also worked hard to be here as well.