So, I decided which book to finalize next. It's one I've wrestled with off and on since 2006 or 2007. It's at over 73,000 words right now, and'll probably be closer to 80-90,000 words before I've finalized it. I've done about four revisions on it. It's a weird case for me, because the book's been written, but I never quite felt the notes were pitch-perfect in it, which is why I've worked on it sporadically all of these years. It's my "problem child" of books -- whereas others I've written I just know when they're done, when I did this one, it was more "THE END?" instead of "THE END." Heh. Back when I still let Exene read my work, this was one of two books where she just hated the protagonist (and wouldn't finish the book, despite asking to read it in the first place -- which is like a cardinal sin to a writer, which, back then, gave me pause (back when I actually listened to her opinions, god help me). But, on revising and rereading it, I realized that the protagonist was just fine, and Exene just didn't like the character because they were strongly-defined, had a strong sense of who they were (funny, that).
At any rate, I'm finally going to "solve" the "problem" of this book, which really focuses on the pacing of it and the ending, having it build properly to the endpoint. I'm still unsure whether it qualifies as a Young Adult story (it certainly could), or whether it's simply a magic realist kind of contemporary story -- the reason that's blurred to me is that, in our society, adults aren't nearly so adult, anymore. I've seen 20- and 30-somethings who are still effectively children in adult bodies. I know "New Adult" gets bandied about in publishing as a category -- maybe this is a "New Adult" novel. Not sure. It's got a bit of an Oprah Book vibe to it, so if I can get representation for it, maybe there'll be hope for it.
The title was something I deliberately conceived as a kind of wry nod to the Oprah Book reader, so if it ever got picked up by that set, I would be laughing all the way to the bank, having proved another literary theory of mine.
