Lauren Baratz-Logsted | Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Mar.03.2013
The Moment I Received My First Rejection: Concerning Waiting for Dead Men’s Shoes, the assistant to Larry Ashmead from Harper sent me a letter that read, in part, “You have the talent and wit to become the next Molly [Ivins] or Erma [Bombeck]” but then went on to say that, no, they would not...
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Mar.02.2013
The Moment I Thought It Was OK To Just Call An Editor Up On The Phone: I got the phone number for Harper and dialed the main office, asked to speak to the legendary editor Larry Ashmead. When he picked up the phone, I pitched Waiting for Dead Men’s Shoes to him. In a world-weary gravel voice, he...
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Mar.01.2013
The Moment I Finished My First Novel: It was the middle of January 1995. Previously, I’d averaged three pages a day of writing but on that day, I finished Waiting for Dead Men’s Shoes in a 15-page dash. I’d never written so much in one day in my life and as I typed the last five pages, tears...
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Feb.28.2013
The Moment I Realized I Was Not Going To Write The Great American Novel: I always thought that when I did finally get serious about writing, I would write, well, serious stuff. After all, it’s not like I’d spent my entire life reading Judith Krantz; or at least not just Judith Krantz. In...
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Feb.27.2013
The Moment I Decided To Take A Chance On Myself As A Writer: I’d always said that if 30 consecutive days passed without me being happy in my job as a bookseller, I’d quit. Over an 11-year period, there were times I came close to that number, but then something good would happen and I’d fall...
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Feb.26.2013
The Moment I First Realized Booksellers Are Not Always Excited To See Authors: I spent the better part of the 11 years between 1983 and 1994 working as an independent bookseller. My manager liked to tell the story about how, when she was still green in the job, a local author came in...
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Feb.25.2013
The Moment I Realized People Didn’t Have To Like Me To Like What I Wrote: In high school, I wasn’t so much unpopular as I was nonpopular. Look through my high school yearbooks and, except for class pictures, it’s hard to find evidence that I even existed in those years. That’s OK – being on...
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Feb.24.2013
The Moment I First Realized I Could Write: I was 12 years old, in 8th grade. My teacher gave us an assignment in which we each had to use three elements the class had picked at random in a story: a priest, a nurse and a camel. I set my story on a desert island. The camel was sick, the priest...
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Feb.23.2013
The Moment I First Tried To Write Poetry: The poem was called When We, and it began: When we made love, I felt I was on fire/You filled me up with a great desire/When we wrote the song, with a guitar and a pick/You know, the one about the prostitute who couldn’t turn a trick? It continued in that...
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Feb.22.2013
The last tip: Always remember, the only person who can ever really take you out of the game is you.
If you've enjoyed these 365 tips, feel free to tip me by buying one of my books. Happy Trails.
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