Kevin's Watch

The Pitchapalooza is really interesting. It is run by a group called "The Bookdoctors"

www.thebookdoctors.com/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGTr2QkyXjU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO0W0c13y_Y

and they come to local bookstores. You have one minute to pitch your book and the winner is given either and interview with an agent or publisher. The really interesting thing is the evaluation they give to all the pitchers. It is REALLY informative and thoughtful. For the most part they don't discuss the content of your book, they discuss the pitch. And they are really really knowledgeable about the industry. They will hear any genre. Of course they are trying to sell their book so the special offer is if you buy their book they will give you a 20 minute phone coaching session. But even if you don't buy anything you learn a great deal from listening to them evaluate your pitch. They tell you about different ways to market, problems with the pitch and focusing your pitch. Their last three winners got book deals from the publisher. The winner this time was a man that wrote a book called "Who is touching me when I am asleep?" It is a reference book about what is done to you when you are under anesthesia for surgery.

Very interesting. Doesn't look like they're coming to DC any time soon, tho.

A friend (and my boss from years ago) sent me this poem.

“The Journey”
by Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice-
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life that you could save.

-from Dream Work

What a terrific poem, lorin.