The bizarre thing about writing...
The bizarre thing about writing Cat Haiku is that I didn't realize I was writing a book at the time; I was just jotting down the funny little things that happened to me and my cats. And I wrote them in the haiku format because it was fun - sort of like doing a puzzle -- and because the cats always seemed to communicate in a haiku-like fashion (which was of course punctuated by their feline glares and stares).
So anyway, I wrote all these haiku down as I thought of them (or, rather, as they, like the cats, ambushed me): in the shower (quite awkward) or on the freeway (I discovered it's kind of scary to write and drive at the same time, I don't recommend it), or at 2:00 in the morning (yawn), and I wrote 'em down on whatever was handy: the backs of grocery lists, scraps of paper or napkins, the subscription cards from magazines, etc. And then I'd throw all these bits of paper into a cardbox box I had, and pretty soon the box was full - and I was tripping over it.
Well, I'm not an especially neat person housekeeping-wise, so at first this Box O Cat Comments didn't bother me. But then it started to seem as though I were tripping over it more and more, which of course made me think about it more and more. And since I didn't have a lot of extra storage room in my brain (or my house, either, for that matter), I finally decided, "I either gotta do something with these, or throw 'em out."
So I typed up some of the haiku and sent them off with a query letter to a couple of publishers, both of whom liked the idea, but not enough to risk publication. Then I got serious about trying to find a publisher who would like the book well enough to take it on, so I skulked around the cat section of a few bookstores and discovered that the most likely publishers only accepted agented submissions
More homework resulted, this time on first-time-author-friendly literary agencies. I sent Cat Haiku off to my first choice - Jane Dystel Literary Management -and JDLM took it on (long may they agent)! And sold it! To TimeWarner (long may they publish)! And if I sound amazed, it's because I am. Me, a published author? It's only been a lifelong dream of mine since about oh, age seven or so.
And darned if the dream isn't coming true!
(P.S. Yeah, I'm well aware that I sound like a goopy, starry-eyed first-time author - but, tough. I am.)
Copyright © Deborah Coates
