"Meh" Monday

Still no marketing news to share, so today is just "meh." Sorry I didn't blog on Friday but I was so SAD! I had to take my son and grandson to the airport and send them home to Colorado after a fabulous week with them. I miss them so much! My son has grown into a compassionate, responsible young man who's had to overcome debilitating hardships, and now he's a single parent with a smart, adorable son of his own. I couldn't be more proud.

As we all know, the publishing industry is a bit depressed at the moment. And though Harcourt is the only one to publicly announce a freeze on acquisitions, I think it's reasonable to assume there's a slow-down for most publishers across the board. Therefore I'm not expecting any news, good or bad, until February at the earliest. I'm just focusing on writing Mystic Taxi right now, and making it the best book it can be. I'll contact my agent today for an update, but I'm not expecting much.

As for Mystic Taxi, I'll post a new excerpt tomorrow. I'm having so much fun with this story! I finished writing chapter fourteen yesterday, and the danger level has reached a new height. I'm wondering how I'll get my characters out of the fix I'm putting them in. I've created some complicated relationship issues regarding family loyalties, too, so I'm eager to see how those turn out. I'm always surprising myself.

It's so interesting how the characters in a book develop. I know they're my creations, but a lot of who they are comes out of my subconscious and they tell me things about themselves that I'm consciously unaware of. What's amazing is how well these new developments work into the plot. That's the best part of storytelling: learning as you go, and finding how well it all works as if planned that way from the start. Man, how I love to write.

Since I traditionally talk about marketing on Mondays, I'll stick with that tradition by mentioning some stats from a recent Forbes Magazine article. Here's a list of "10 Best Paid Authors."

1. J.K. Rowling (300 million!)
2. James Patterson (50 million)
3. Stephen King (45 million)
4. Tom Clancy (35 million)
5. Danielle Steele (30 million)
6. John Grisham (25 million)
7. Dean Koontz (25 million)
8. Ken Follett (20 million -- thanks to Oprah's endorsement of his Pillars of the Earth)
7. Janet Evanovich (17 million)
6. Nicholas Sparks (16 million)

I was surprised not to see Stephanie Myers on the list, or Nora Roberts. Maybe next year.

It's satisfying to see that some authors really can make a living with their art.