The First Holy Grail

.In June I published my first book, Hunger Hill. Publishing is a waterfall of firsts. First edits, first design, first printer's proof. The first case of books.

Then we're off to the races. First sale. First event, first set-up, first break-down. First panic: Potential buyer: "What's your book about?" Me: "Um..." All the firsts.

Last week I experienced the most gratifying of them all.

Background: A friend once asked me what I most looked forward to once the book was published. Flippantly I answered my Holy Grail was the first dollar for all the work I was currently doing for free. Which I was but it wasn't. And he knew better. He expressed that the Grail must be the sharing of my ideas. This is the truth; perhaps the truth of it all. The universal truth that other writers may or may not agree with. (CMA: Can we all finally agree that ending a sentence with a preposition is okay?)

The most gratifying first, so far, happened last week. I met with the book club at Acadia Insurance. Special thanks to Emma Coombs for your enthusiasm and organizational skills and to Jim for suggesting the book in the first place. We shared our experiences of Hunger Hill. Thirteen people read my book and we discussed our thoughts and ideas. The readers were brilliant. They gave me insights into my characters; things I had not known about these people to whom I'd given birth. Motivations that I hadn't known drove them. Failures I'd originally overlooked. Strengths and weaknesses I hadn't considered. All these things my fantastic readers discovered. (CMA: That might have been a dangling participle. It's like bird-watching and you think you might have seen an ivory-billed woodpecker.)

They shared their ideas about plot, current and future. How about a prequel? Not a bad idea. They shared whom they thought might be interesting characters to give more focus. This give and take was exceptional for the equality of just that: Give and take. These readers did not rely on the author to tell them what to think and how to read.

Sharing ideas. That is what it is all about. Or, at least it was for me and the book club at Acadia Insurance last week. Like the French castle defenders said about the Holy Grail and their Lord, "You see, he's already got one." Now, I do too but I wouldn't mind some more.