MAY GRAY

MAY GRAY

I don't know how it got to be May. There are boxes of Christmas decorations on the garage floor outside my office waiting for me to put them away. We're almost halfway to Christmas. Do I just leave them out? They're not bothering anyone.

I was listening to a podcast (Huberman Lab) the other day. He was talking about the auditory process, and how white noise helps people focus. As those Christmas decorations attest, I don't have that problem. When a project has me in its grip I can shut out everything else. This goes double when a book project combines with coaching to overwhelm my subconscious….

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OUT ON A LIMB

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OUT ON A LIMB

Woke up this morning feeling very good about The Long Run. Last Saturday I had lunch with a good friend who was a mover and shaker in the running business. He pointed me down a new line of inquiry for the book — one so novel and out of nowhere that I couldn't wait to weave it into the text. At last, after months laboring to separate fact from legend, a clear path forward.

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT

I just finished Chapter Eight of the new book on Friday. Printed it out then headed to Board & Brew after practice to edit. Just me, the pages, and a pencil. Sitting in a crowded place and losing myself in the words is easy, having spent the early years of my career writing at the kitchen table when the boys were newborns.

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FINAL COUNTDOWN

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FINAL COUNTDOWN

Taking London comes out seven weeks from Tuesday. I've been doing this a long time so I know it's best to try not to think about it. The gestation cycle is so long between finishing a book and seeing it in print. I will be euphoric and perhaps weep when I receive my first box of finished copies, cracking it open to hold the new book in my hands for the first time.

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BOOK WRITING 101

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BOOK WRITING 101

Had a nice zoom with my editor this morning. Second Pass for Taking London is coming my way on Thursday, which is the last time I'll see the words before it gets sent to the printer, there to be bound and shipped to the four corners of the earth. I'll read it one more time, hoping there are no completely awful sentences. It's a year this week since I began writing it, but the research went on for a while before that…

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BEST SHOT

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BEST SHOT

Taking London is the best thing I've ever written. These past two weeks making one final edit were like Christmas. I'd literally wake up at 3 a.m., eager to find better ways to tell the story. Then I'd force myself to go back to sleep, reminding myself a rested edit is a sharper edit. I'd dream about the characters, letting them tell me more about their arc.

EDITORS

EDITORS

Most writers don't love editors. I do. Back since Beth Hagman at Competitor Magazine told me to tell stories in the most linear fashion possible ("the horse pulls the cart over the trail by the fastest route"), the notion of editors crafting a story has been in my head. Through Jason Kaufman, Geoff Shandler, Gillian Blake, and Brent Howard, these wonderful people have made me better. And don't get me started on how much I love copy editors. This gushing deserves an explanation.

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SUPER POWER

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SUPER POWER

My son asks about my super power. I don't really think of it as a super power, just the ability to hit a deadline. I got too precious/ambitious with the first two books in the Taking series. Delivered late. First time in my writing career that I missed deadlines and I blew through them pretty hard.