(Five minutes later) I just thought of a character who would fit into this
perfectly.
(Fifteen minutes later … thoughtful stare into nothingness converting into a
smug grin) I’ve got my story!
During this last exchange, Lynn was saying very little. Unbeknownst to me, she
had mentally dealt herself out of the project when Gordy proposed ‘established
writers only’. At that point in time, she had in her suitcase the manuscript for
Daughter of the Bright Moon, hoping to find an interested editor at Boskone. She
was far from being ‘established’. It is to her credit, however, that she
successfully hid her disappointment at being excluded, and accompanied Gordy and
me as we finished the last of the champagne and went’trolling for editors’.
It may seem to you that it was rather early to try to find a publisher for such
a nebulous work. That’s how it struck me at the time. Gordy pointed out,
however, that if we could find an editor and nudge him into an appraisal of the
dollar value of the idea, I would have a better feel for what my budget would be
when I went to line up my authors. (The fact that this made sense to me at the
time will serve as an indication of the lateness of the hour and the amount of
wine we had consumed.)
To this end, we devised a subtle tactic. We would try to find an author and an
editor in the same room. preferably in the same conversation. We would then
pitch the idea to the author as a potential contributor and see if the editor
showed interest.
We found such a duo and launched into our song and dance. The editor yawned, but