It should not have come as a big surprise but for some reason, I was caught off guard.
Last August, I was approached by a man named Robert about writing a book. Turns out Robert is a Toronto area publisher and has a daughter who skates which started him thinking about a book about figure skating and one thing led to another and he decided to contact me.
When I first got the email, I thought it was some sort of a joke or maybe a pyramid scheme? I was sure that I was going to have to pay someone something. In truth I thought I was going to be donating a chapter to a figure skating book (if I was accepted) and that somewhere down the road it was going to cost me.
So, I armed myself with as much information as I could gather (thanks John!) and I met Robert for lunch where we discussed “the book”. Listening carefully all the while pretending that I had a clue, I found out that it wasn’t a chapter I was looking at but in fact writing a whole book. Hmmmm. My friend John had recommended that I try and go after writing the whole book and I either had convinced Robert with my long and seriously intense artistic gaze OR (and this was more likely) there really wasn’t anyone else out there for this particular project because by the end of lunch I was writing a book.
Keeping my wits about me, I asked reasonable questions like…um…well..what should the book be about? To which I was told – “Whatever you want.” (no help) “Um…well..my Mom is going to have surgery in about 5 weeks – so can I start now?” and he said “Whenever you think” (still no help) “Ok – um – what do you need me to do?” He said “write the book”. Well not a lot of direction but a starting place at least.
Here we are several months later and I have been writing a lot of stories and thoroughly enjoying the entire process.
Here’s the rub: I thought by “book” he meant that I could phone/meet with people and talk to them and find stuff out that interested me and then write about it. Just Pj’s stories. Finding answers to questions I had always had about people and being able to translate the whole experience into words.
Believe it or not, it didn’t occur to me that by “book” he meant for me to take those same stories that I have been writing all this time and send them to him to be put into some typesetting program and then onto paper and bound into books.
YIKES! Not what I was expecting at all!
I am sure I will be able to wrap my brain around it but for the moment it has snuck up on me and the fact that I didn’t see it coming – well – typical me and it makes me laugh.