Guest Post: Karen Healey is Waiting for the Miracle

Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.

Today’s guest blogger is debut author, Karen Healey, whose first book is coming out quite soon, I believe. She may mention it in her post below. Possibly. She’s a busy woman. She’s prolly not paying much attention to things like that. I can tell you that her debut novel, Guardian of the Dead is a corker. I read it all in one big gobble. Grab a copy soon as you can. Be kind to her in the comments—debut authors are a bit ~~nuts~~, er, I mean sensitive.

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Karen Healey is a New Zealander living in Australia and writing a dissertation on American superhero comics. Her diet comprises apples, chocolate brownies, Diet Coke, and novels about teenagers doing awesome things. Her first novel, Guardian of the Dead, is a YA urban fantasy set in New Zealand and deeply influenced by Māori mythology. It will be out on April 1st in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and is available for pre-order now. She has heard all the jokes about that date.

Waiting for the Miracle

I have never possessed anything remotely resembling patience, and at the time of writing, my first novel will debut in 48 days.

This is not a good combination.

I’ve never been good at waiting. I was that kid who went to bed at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, in the hope that the time between now and Santa would disappear in sleep. I was then the kid who got up at five and proudly showed my parents the results of Santa’s generosity.

Now I am a supposedly adult woman, and sometimes it feels like I have spent all the time in between those Christmases and this day waiting, for things both good and bad. Waiting in airports for delayed planes that will take me to dear friends. Waiting in dentist’s offices for the pleasure of getting holes drilled into my teeth.

Waiting is far from the worst thing in the world, but I cannot stand it. I am prone to jumping off trams in heavy traffic, though even a momentarily stalled tram will get me to my destination faster, because I long for the illusion of moving, going somewhere, getting closer.

My Year Thirteen¹ English teacher carefully explained that the final words of The Great Gatsby are supposed to be a poignant underscore of the tragic impossibility of the American dream.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further . . . And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Sad! Tragic! Pointless!

WHATEVER, seventeen-year-old me thought. Sure, futile effort, impossible dream, but at least they’re taking action. They’re not just sitting in the stupid boat!

Now I’m sitting in the boat. And the boat is actually going forward, carrying me on to publication and beyond, but I can’t affect its pace. Nope, the current is going at its own sweet speed, and not even diving in and swimming is going to get me any closer, any faster.

Not that I don’t try to find the illusion of action.

SCENE: A motel living room, in a small New Zealand town. All is dark and silent. OUR HEROINE, whose brother is to be wed in a few days, creeps in and furtively opens a black laptop. She stares into the blue-white glow of the screen, tapping a few practiced phrases, switching between tabs.

OUR HEROINE’S FATHER wanders in with an empty glass in his hand, and recoils at the ghostly sight.

FATHER: What are you doing?
HEROINE: I’m checking icerocket.
FATHER: What?
HEROINE: Someone might be saying something about my book! Hm. No. Well, maybe technorati . . .
FATHER: Do you do this often?
HEROINE: Oh, ha ha ha, goodness no! That would be the act of a dangerously obsessed and insanely impatient person!
FATHER: Well, yeah.
HEROINE: YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS. DO YOU SEE MY PULSE FLUTTER IN MY THROAT? SIR, I MAY SWOON AT YOUR SHOCKING LACK OF SENSIBILITY. OH, WOE, WOE, ROSEMARY AND RUE.
FATHER: I’m going to put the cricket on. Can you keep the impassioned writhing to a minimum?

But even my most impassioned writhing doesn’t bring the publication date a minute sooner! In this strained time, I like to think about the words of the poet John Burroughs:

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more ‘gainst time or fate,
For lo! my own shall come to me.

Specifically, I like to speculate on what he might have been on, and to wonder I could get my hands on any. Serene waiting? Uncaring waiting? Waiting without raving? Impossible! I think the poem’s narrator is dead, which might be a clue—I imagine that if I ever find waiting easy, it’ll be then—but that doesn’t help me now.

How about you, Justine’s readers? How do you handle waiting for things? Do you also rave against time and fate, and specifically time for moving so damn slow, or are you calm, serene hand-folders? And if you’re the latter, can you teach me how?

In the meantime, I might have to go with the classics. I’m going to go home, change my sheets, fluff up my pillows, and curl up with my teddy bear for 48 days, until I get something better than Santa could ever bring me.

It’ll be worth it.

I just wish I didn’t have to wait.

The final year of high school in New Zealand. [↩]

Posted by Justine at 0:00, 17 February 2010 under Guest post, Whingeing, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life | 14 Comments »

Comments

lili wilkinson Says:

My strategy is to write another book while waiting. That way by the time Book #1 comes out, you’re SO OVER it, because you know that Book #2 is SO MUCH MORE EXCITING! How will you EVER wait until Book #2 comes out!? (answer: write Book #3)

February 17th, 2010 at 12:51 AM
Emily Gale Says:

Karen, I hear ya! I even dedicated my debut to my children ‘who are much better at waiting than I am’. And they’re quite rubbish too but still significantly more patient than their mother. I think it’s made all the more torturous because we have access to so much information… it’s just too darn easy to sit here trawling through the interwebs for the merest mention of your book, clicking the ‘refresh’ button on Amazon to see if that stock number has gone down yet (clearly I don’t do this), using the many options Google has to offer – any news, any blog mentions, in the last week, day, 24 hours, 10 minutes?? (or this) Us debut authors are only human; can the more experienced authors reassure us that this obsessional checking and fretting stops at some point? Coincidentally my novel also comes out in Australia, where I now live – I’m a Pom – on April 1st, which will be my first opportunity in 6 months to see the book on a shelf. I hope you enjoy this crazy time, Karen. Best of luck!

February 17th, 2010 at 1:05 AM
Karen Healey Says:

Lili:

Tried that! Didn’t work! I mean, I *do* love SUMMERTON and I am a little bit over GUARDIAN, but that just means I’m now waiting on TWO books (and writing the third).

February 17th, 2010 at 1:10 AM
Allison Says:

Oooh, I’m SO excited for your book. I heard about it through Justine (I think) a few weeks ago and it sounds really interesting!

As for waiting patiently. HAH. I can never seem to figure out how to make time go faster. That whole “fall asleep and then Santa will be here” thing doesn’t work for me. I WANT it to work. I TRY to go to sleep. But Mr. Sandman always ignores me when I need him most.

That’s what the internet is for. And when you’ve read everything on all your normal sites and nobody is updating fast enough? Then you turn to books. That’s my favorite way to pass time. (Especially when I have school work that I should be doing. Heh.)

So… yeah, I’m an impatient waiter. Maybe you should take up a new TV show? One with several seasons that will take up all that waiting time? I recomment The Office (American version) or Castle (though it’s only got a couple seasons) or LOST if you really want to invest yourself into something. LOST is pretty much the best show EVER.

Oops. Did I ramble? I’m trying to take up time right now, too. Heh.

February 17th, 2010 at 2:26 AM
Lara Morgan Says:

Nothing works. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. And the more you surf incessantly hoping for some tragic mention of ‘the book’ the more you see there are more porn sites that come up than actual author/review/anyone interested at all sites.
Personally, I’m waiting for my second book to come out (Feb 24 SHAMELESS PLUG!!)and only feeling slightly nauseous, melodramatic and Shakespearean. Lady Macbeth? pah, she’s an amateur.
Yours in sympathy and madness. L.M.

February 17th, 2010 at 2:36 AM
Kristan Says:

Lol! No disrespect to any of the other guest bloggers, but this has been my favorite guest post so far. I especially love the Great Gatsby reference (and response, hee).

How do I wait? I try not to think about it. After I get all the info I can, I tell myself to hope for the best, expect the worst, and read/write a lot in the meantime. As a distraction, of course.

Anyway, if your book is as well written and entertaining as this post, I wouldn’t worry too much. Good luck though!

February 17th, 2010 at 10:42 AM
Diana Peterfreund Says:

Karen, I’m feeling your pain. When they delayed the release of RAMPANT last year by several months, I almost went mad. The last few months before the release of a YA novel is pure insanity.

February 17th, 2010 at 10:46 AM
Becca Says:

Maybe it’s all about going back to your childhood: NAPS. napping the time away is totally underrated (at least where I live), but it sure works for me.

February 17th, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Shveta Thakrar Says:

*wishes patience came in a bottle* I could sure use some, too!

Karen, I can’t wait for your book. It sounds wonderful.

February 17th, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Karen Healey Says:

Diana:

I think a delay might have seriously damaged my calm! A friend was recently notified that her May debut would be shifted back a couple months and it was agonising.

February 17th, 2010 at 7:17 PM
alvina Says:

Ohhh….Karen, did I not tell you? GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD is pubbing in April 2011, not 2010! We had to push it out a year. Sorry.

Mwuahahahahahaha.

February 17th, 2010 at 8:38 PM
Karen Healey Says:

Alvina, I was just going to leave a comment on your post pointing out that you forgot to mention that you are ten kinds of awesome personified, but now I have to go feed myself into a woodchipper, so sad!

February 17th, 2010 at 10:02 PM
Alvina Says:

Uh…just kidding?

February 17th, 2010 at 11:46 PM

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