I am excited to announce that I am nearing completion of my latest novel, Blue Pearl. I started this novel soon after my father passed away a few years ago and I completed a first draft in about a year. I gave it to my agent and he really didn’t know what to do with it. He said, “I just don’t know where to take this and incidentally it may be a little too esoteric for people.”
I actually have quite a lot of respect for my agent so I did something I wouldn’t ever recommend to a fellow writer: I trusted his instincts over mine. I let the book sit on my computer for the next couple of years and I really didn’t go back and look at it for a long time. That is, until I finished my current book, White Tantric Yoga: 40 Days to Divinity.
Once again, I was faced with an agent who told me he didn’t know what to do with this book so I decided to just be brave and go out on my own and publish the book. I realize that a completed book that sits on a computer or in a drawer is really an incredible insult to readers who have the ability to make the decision of whether or not they want to read something. It is NOT an agent or publisher who decides what the public enjoys, this is the domain of the reader. Readers have power and when we embrace books that may seem too “esoteric” we have the ability to change the landscape of the literary world.
I feel strongly that if even one person reads my books and is affected by the book the entire process is worth it because this is the very reason we write. We write because we have a voice that needs to be heard. We write because we are inspired with an idea that could possibly change someone’s world. It is our job as writers to do just that–write.
It is not our job to worry about who will read the book. The perfect reader will find the book in the perfect time and my only wish is that you may be that perfect reader. And if you are that writer that has a book sitting idle in the top drawer of your desk, brush the dust off of your manuscript and do everything you can to allow the world to look inside your beautiful world. We are longing to see your work for it might be the very thing that may positively affect our world.
I’d love to have the community participate in this discussion and if you have any questions or comments I would love to hear from you.
Sending much love and light to all today.
David Daniel