So, I won’t go into the biography of literary agent Donald Maass, but I will say this–the man is a light shining in the darkness of this hard, old world. He loves books, writers, and story. And I have a little heterosexual-mancrush on him. He is open, giving, and kind.
And I interviewed him, kind of.

We talked for a minute at the 2012 Pikes Peak Writers Conference and I asked him how I could better handle the ups and downs of the writer’s life.

And he said what many have said. Networking. If we can build a network of friends and comrades-in-arms, we’ll better be able to handle the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Because the writer’s life is full of slings and arrows and outrageous fortune.

Then he went on, and he didn’t talk about the emotional pits of despair or the lofty heights of blazing praise, but he went back to the idea of revision. And this is interesting because on the surface, dealing with the highs and lows of writing isn’t about revision.

He said that most manuscripts get stuck at the 90% finished phase and writers give up without doing that last 10% of revision. But if we have friends and critique groups to help us, we can better survive the storm and get the manuscript so that it gleams like Excalibur in British sunshine.
So for Mr. Maass, it goes back to the book, always back to the book, the story, the fire in fiction.

Maybe he meant that managing our emotions is easier if our book is the best we can make it, and yes, it might not get picked up, but at least we know that our novel rocks, and what a feeling that is, to be in love with your book.

I am so glad that I debuted with The Never Prayer. I am so proud of the story, the characters, the themes in that book, that when all else fails, when I tremble on the precipice of absolute despair, I can go back to the book I wrote and be glad.

Thank you, Mr. Maass, for our conversation and allowing me to publish this COMPLETELY UNAUTHORIZED interview. The world is better because of your work. Even with all the rejections. Or maybe because of them.

More about Donald Maass here.