Because it wasn’t mine.

On Saturday I headed to the Barnes and Noble at Jordan Landing for Lisa Mangum’s signing for her debut novel (first in a trilogy by Shadow Mountain) The Hourglass Door. It was my first chance to meet Lisa in person, which is a little odd given just how small the publishing world is here in Utah. (It’s not all that big nationally, you begin to see after a few years inside.) Turns out we even live within the same suburb of Salt Lake.

Well, I thought it was well past time that I meet her, shake her hand, and inform her that by so doing she has formally greeted the writer who is every editor’s fondest dream. (Okay, so I didn’t add the last part, but merely due to humility.) For those who don’t know, Lisa is also head acquisitions editor for Deseret Book, so she’s ones of those weirdos who turns over the working of her brain to the inner editor almost continually yet still manages to write a fine book. (I do not recommend this approach, as such people are aberrations. I’m pretty sure they’re mutants.) Lisa even talked about putting her day job persona in its cage to write, which was pretty interesting to hear. When my inner editor rattles his cage bars too early I threaten to start amputating things until he shuts up. Sometimes it works.

Lisa read the prologue of her book, which surprised me with its measured pacing and somewhat greater than expected alliteration (not really fully purple prose so much as dusky). She also talked about references to Shakespeare, Dante, and Virgil, which intrigued me for a few reasons. First, all great choices—though isn’t it a little disturbing that everyone’s favorite book in The Divine Comedy is the volume about Hell? Also, my understanding is that the book is targeted at something similar to the Twilight army that mascuerades as a readership. Now, while I haven’t read The Hourglass Door yet and so can’t say specifically, using literary classicism to reach those readers struck me as an interesting choice. We’ll see how it works. Anyway, it was worth the time. It always is when you meet a mother, and I met Lisa’s mother, who was proud as only a mother can be. She took pictures of James, Brie, and me, which stole a little portion of my soul, as all pictures do.

Also caught up with James Dashner, friend, patron, and about to become major name in YA fiction, and met his friend Brie (hope I’m spelling that correctly, because she told me to remember it, and I quote, “like the cheese”), who seems to be following right behind him.

And, just for the record, James pointed out that Brie’s editor, and my editor, and Lisa all turned down his Maze Runner trilogy, which is now preparing to sell a billion copies for Random House. Which just goes to show you that good people who are smart people aren’t always going to buy a great book when you pitch it to them. There are many reasons for this, foibles of business and imperfect people being two of the biggest. Just tell yourself that you will be able to laugh about all those rejections one day, in the presence of others, shaming them, as James did, for he is an evil man, and is in no way a Jane Austin character.

*****

Finally, happy birthday Kent, best twenty-six-year-old brother I’ve got, and not just by a bit.  By a whole lot.