Hi Beth and David. Nikki loved the book. November 27, 2010

Hi Beth, David, and Open Letter Readers

David - Thanks for copying me in to your email to Beth.

Hi Beth. I am the friend David referred to regarding reading the book aloud to each other. He told me something about you and suggests we meet - so I think we should (I usually find his advice worth heeding)

David - you left the book with me - was that by accident or on purpose? I hope it was by accident so you will be compelled to come back very soon to pick it up again. (Assuming you are not trapped by snow-drifts or something. The weather is sounding a bit dire up in your direction.)

Given I am hooked on the book I read some to Nikki when she came round on Thursday. I know we should have got straight down to work, but I was still in "holiday mode" so reading some of the book to her was my equivalent of sharing holiday snaps. I told her it was a book you and I had been reading to each other, but she didn't know the author.

I just read her a page or two. I may have started at "I have lived well" or at "The stream swirled around the stone, happy in motion". Like me. Nikki was entranced by the conversations - which by the way had far less ambiguity the second time around. Reading to Nikki it was obvious to me who was speaking which bits of the conversation - so I couldn't play around with emphasis over the words the way that I had done when I was uncertain. (Hmm... good or bad to loose ambiguity? Hmm... benefits and disadvantages of greater certainty? Hmm.. interesting questions I find myself asking myself as I read the second page aloud for the second time - I thought those kind of questions only got addressed as the reader went further in - so maybe I was going further in - but down instead of forwards).

Anyhow Nikki loved it (and wanted to buy a copy) so I got her to read page 126. I told the story leading up to page 126 and explained she had to imagine that she was the receptionist, and I was the person who had persuaded the receptionist to read the extract during her coffee break. Nikki did so - glancing over at me appropriately as she read it to herself. She then turned to the pages that the receptionist was asked to show to the next person, and dipped into other bits as well. 

We spent longer than I care to admit discussing the book, and the possibility that the receptionist would, in fact, have done as requested. Nikki thought the receptionist would indeed show the manuscript, but she didn't think the receptioinist would show the requested section. Nikki thought that after the receptionist read the bit she was given she would look at the start of the book and love the writing there, and so would direct the next person to the start - not to the pages she had been asked to show. (By the way, she wondered if that excerpt for the receptionist could be on a note pinned to the front of the manuscript, as that seemed more authentic - or is there some reason why it must only be on P126).

Nikki was adamant that, in any case, there was no good reason for the book to be presented to a receptionist, instead of going through the usual channels to publication. As she pointed out, the quality of the writing in the first few pages is excellent, so if the first chapter (or couple of chapters) plus synopsis had been offered to a publisher in the normal way then surely it would have been published. She didn't believe in the version of publication that involved giving the manuscript to the receptionist. She believed the book had been published in the usual way. I pointed out that - although what she was reading did look like a normal book - it had not in fact been formally published yet, so any route to publication was still possible, in theory, but I didn't know if the true route to publication did have to be exactly as outlined on P126.

She thought it was crazy the book was not yet published and responded to the fact that it wasn't almost as a personal challenge. That's why she wanted to borrow it, not just to read some more, but also to ask someone else's opinion (someone who knows more about these things than she does).

As I said - I had not read enough to know how much the receptionist incident needed to be included to be included and how much it also needed to be true. I explained that the incident might be important to one of the stories in the book. Maybe it was important that the book had, in fact, been published in this unorthodox way. I felt it was probably important that a crucial early decision had been made by someone who seldom had the opportunity to exercise that level of power. I didn't know if it had to be a receptionist. Can we ask you some questions like that when you come back. Any chance during this coming week? Similar arrangements as before if that suits you - or different - as you prefer.

Anyhow, as I said earlier, Nikki wants to buy a copy, so please bring one for her as well as me when you come back.

Nikki has borrowed the copy you left behind - until Tuesday. I hope that's okay with you, I know she'll look after it and that I won't see you before then. I didn't want to part with it, but knew I wouldn't have much time for reading over the weekend (I shouldn't really be writing this now - I have some "homework" to do on the pattern language work). I did insist on photocopying the first couple of pages before I lent her the whole book.

Maybe we could find a time for the four of us to meet round here - you, Beth, Nikki and me.

Pamela

Posted to  Dadamac's Posterous by Pamela McLean

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