The Evolution of “Permanent Marker”

Well, I’m finding out that writing a book is a lot like choosing a major in college.

If memory serves, when I attended freshmen orientation at THE O.S.U. way back when, I was told that the typical college student changes her major between 4-5 times. Proudly, I can tell you that I didn’t change mine even once—I went in as an education major, and I graduated as a teacher—yay me!

THE BOOK, however, is now going into its third evolution, and I’m sure that by the time it’s all said and done, we will have hit the 4-5 mark. Speaking of marks, the book now has a new title, Permanent Marker. I’m very proud of this title, as I came up with it myself about three years ago while putting together an essay for an anthology on Scars, which was edited then by my editor now. The title serves so many purposes for the book and its story, as it should, and I can’t wait to see how this may affect/change/mold the writing itself. I don’t know why it never came to mind in the first place as a title; my editor threw it out there to the publisher, who loved it, thus, it was born! The publisher is currently working on the “packaging” of THE BOOK, as it must go into a June 2017 catalog of Spring 2018 releases–isn’t that crazy? I wonder what it will look like.

Unfortunately, the fairy tale of Aimee as Cinderella just wasn’t working out write, pun intended, nor was the fairy tale patterning—it threw off the tone and voice of the writing, which I worried might happen. No matter how dark the tale told/or allusion made in my writing, the fairy tale angle came off as lighthearted and glib, making the seriousness of the story and what happened to me fade. Ricky Martin will be staying in the book, however, because Ricky is as much a part of my classroom as my desks and books are. Yay! (I also hope to get Ricky to write a blurb for my book—now wouldn’t that be seriously wild?!)

In other news with THE BOOK—now wait a second. I’m going to start using its title.  In other Permanent Marker news, the order/structure-of-the-book monster has reared its ugly head again, causing me to revise toward a more non-linear chronological story line. So far, for what I’ve done, I like it. But as I’ve already found out, just because I like it doesn’t mean that it’s right for MY story.

Have I mentioned lately how difficult it is to write a book, by the way? And how gratifying, fun, challenging, and curiously delighting it is, too?

I love it. And I’m excited. And sometimes, when I’m feeling really good about it, I think about all the other things I want to write about afterward….