Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Burro Genius Chapter 1

    Uploaded by

    Enrique David Quintana Escobar
    26 views11 pages
    burro genius

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    burro genius

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    26 views11 pages

    Burro Genius Chapter 1

    Uploaded by

    Enrique David Quintana Escobar
    burro genius

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 11
    chapTeR one {fd been writing for thirteen years, received over 260 rejections, and had just goten—thank God—my frst book published! The year was 1973. 1 was thirty-three years old, Long Beach, California, ta CATE conference, meaning California Associaton of Teachers of English. | ‘was in the back room along with ive other writers. All ofthe other au- thors had previous works published. We were waiting for the main speaker to show up. This writer wasnt only published, lke the rest of ‘us; no, he'd had a bestseller, was a nationally recognized speaker, and ‘was going to show up any minute and give the keynote address othe Iuncheon ofthe whole CATE convention Karen, our publisher's publicist, was nervous as hel, pacing the oom and tying to figure out what to do. The national bestselling ‘hor should've arived at least thirty minutes ago. He was supposed to hha flown in fom the East Coast the night before on the red-eye “Myself, was prety nervous, too, 'd never been in a room with so ‘many writers before. in fact, Yd never even met a published author ‘until about six months back, and that was when I'd been in the Los Angeles office of my New York publisher and I'd finally found out that yes ys, yes, I was really going to be published! I immediatly called ‘iy mother and father, screaming tothe high heavens—'é been so cited. Bantam from New York was going to publish my book Macho! ‘The room we were in was small, but felt much larger because ofa the excitement. I had no idea what was expected of me, so I stood in a ‘comer by myself playing t safe and just watching everything. Hel, the only reason I was even here was because our publicist Karen Black— ‘who was actully white—had called me up out ofthe blue yesterday afiemoon, 1 guess, as an aflrthought, and said, "Don't you live just southof Long Beach? "Yes, do," said “Good. hope you're not oo busy or will take offense that I'm cll. ing you so late, but you see, we're going to have several of our authors tiving workshops at a CATE conference i Long, Beat thi weekend, so why don't you drive up the coast and join ue?” “Cat? What's tha? Tasted, “No, CATE, California Asiociation of Teachers of English, They buy alot of books. This conference is very important for us, and could be foryou, too." “Oh, [see Yeah, sure, come,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Will be attending one ofthe workshops?” "We thought you might present a workshop.” "Me?" "Yes, ofcourse. You are a published author” My heart began pounding “What would I givea workshop onto Fn lish teachers?” “On your experiences in writing, On that special English teacher ‘who inspired you to becomean author.” she said full of honey.“ "Bye ‘ow, We'll see you there. Don't wor You have a creative mind, Youll, ‘come up with something,” ‘She gave me the address and then this morning, { drove in may ‘bite van up fforn Oceanside, where [stil ved onthe ranch on which I was raised, to Long Beach, Pd never heard of CATE in all my life, ‘much less did Tow what itmeantto “present” workshop. all knew ‘was that I'd flunked the third grade twice because 1 couldn't lear to read, had aterible time ll through grammar school and high schoo ‘Then after ten years of writing, I was finally abe to sell my ist book twalleading mass-market paperback publisher in New York. ‘And now, standing in a comer, I felt pretty green. After all, these other writers in the room had been published before and they were talking to one another like they were all best Sends, swapping pub: lishing stories, laaghing happily, eating cookies and drinking coffe. | i | I | was drinking water One sip of coffee would have shot me through, the roof Listening tothe conversation around the snack table, I was beginning to understand that these other writers had not only al ready had several books published, but that most of their books had first come out in hardback, then had come out in mass-market paper back 1 was quickly learning thatit was not very prestigious for me to have first been published in paperback, Because paperback books didn’ get reviewed, and reviews were what got an author attention, respect, and. ‘sold books. Hell, was stil so wet behind the ears that [hadnt even realized what a review was unt few weeks back. So said nothing, and just kept listening closely, trying to lear ll could without show- ing my ignorance. Also, could now se that these other writers were

    You might also like