How this thing got started

So, I wrote the book. Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I'm still writing the book, but I've done enough drafts of it at this point to call it finished, even though every time I pick it up I cringe at something that's so glaringly wrong I can't believe I ever wrote such trash. But, that's the insecurity talking. On better days, most days, days when I'm not trying to sell myself to agents, I really like it. The trick though, I'm discovering, isn't having a good book, or even having a great book, it's convincing agents that said book will make a ton of money without them having to put in a lot of effort. And that really isn't easy.

What's the book? I'll post the query letter...at least this is today's version. Who knows what it will look like in a week when I realize that it's drivel, that it's horrible, that it's hopelessly wrong in every way. (That's not insecurity talking, by the way, that's just the reality of rereading things with the benefit of more expertise, which I'm getting every day.)

Interesting...I can't seem to paste the query in here...That will come later. Suffice it to say it's the story of a first year teacher, me, working in an inner city school. The book grew out of a year's worth of journals, "The Spam of My Life" that helped me to survive that first grueling year with my sanity more or less intact. Those journals then became the basis of my graduate thesis, and, later, the book which is still a bit of a work in progress. Writing the book was never a choice. I just had too much that I needed to vent, and while Brian is a patient husband, there's only so much, "guess what lunacy happened today?" that anyone can take. Besides, I needed mass quantities of support. In the course of the year I accidentally dropped a student who skipped school for almost two months, I stood by while one of my Cambodian kids stared at the board every day, because he couldn't speak English and I don't speak Khmer, and I dealt with more than my share of court appointed advocates, parole officers and the like. But, I do know how to "Throw down the 'B' sign" now, and while that hasn't come in handy yet, and I expect it won't, it does make watching MTV a bit more informative. You know you've been teaching in a city too long when you find you relate better to your Bloods because of their "underdog " status in relation to the Crips.

But, this blog isn't as much about the book as it is about the process of getting it published. At least, that's the plan.