Thursday, August 26, 2010

My Lunch with Al

So I met with this author guy like a month ago for lunch. And you're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything about it yet... I wish I had some fabulous excuse to give about a book contract in the making and all my time being completely consumed with the demands of suddenly becoming an overnight celebrity... but you five people that read this blog already know me well enough to know that that is certainly NOT the case! Ha! Really all I've got for you in the way of excuses is the normal everyday: life got busy. School started... new classes, 18 credits, last semester of law school, preparing for the bar... on and on! I've just been so frantic trying to breathe lately that I haven't had any time to focus on any sort of book stuff. But as I'm starting to get into the groove of my new schedule, I finally find myself with a bit of time to give an update on a very enjoyable lunch I had with a Mr. Albert Strickland!

My first impression of "Al" was: what a sweet guy! ... and nothing changed during the course of lunch. Albert was nothing but smiles and niceness all from the moment he shook my hand to greet me until we walked out the door laughing. It was probably one of the most enjoyable lunches I had all summer! He talked and talked and asked me all sorts of questions about my book and my progress, gave advice on how to catch the attention of agents in my query letter, and told the most outrageous stories. He had an air of genuineness about him and was completely engagning and entertaining.

Albert has a book--his first novel--coming out sometime around Thanksgiving. Its being published through Random House. I've had the privilege to read a few of the chapters and must say it sounds fabulous! As soon as it comes out and I've had time to read it, I'll be certain to post a full review on my blog! Anyway, Albert's novel is sort of the reason that I was able to make contact with him in the first place. He was doing a piece of writing on the technology used in Oral Surgery offices when he met my dad. He interviewed him and was fascinated over the high-tech equipment my dad uses and eventually they got to talking about some of the other things Albert was working on. Surprisingly enough, Albert's book is somewhat of a government conspiracy novel too, and when my dad heard this he mentioned that I was writing a similar novel (although the time periods and story lines for our two books are completely different). Albert was delighted by the sound of my book and told my dad to have me send him some material. I did so and over lunch he was nothing but positive about my story line, the flow of my chapters and accuracy in implementing real life bits of history into the book. I asked him for advice on how to make it better and gave me a few spectacular things to add to my novel--little bits of sparkle to make my novel shine. He also suggested a few changes to my query letter and promised to send me a list of agents, publishers and editors in New York he thinks would be interested in my type of novel. He already sent some of my work to his "people" at Random House and said he'd let me know if they get back to him about it.

Needless to say it was a fabulous meeting that left me glowing for the rest of the weekend! I left with lots of excitement to get home and hit the ground running again on that road to publication. Everyone needs a good pick-me-up now and again, and I definitely found that in Albert Strickland!

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