There have been visitors: first our friends T.J. and Ben from San Francisco; then my parents and sister from Prescott, Arizona. Visitors tend to preclude blogging--thus the radio silence.

T.J. had just finished reading the first draft of Very Minor Prophet, and we had a very nice discussion over dessert about it. It's great when someone tells you what you already know about your book, but what you've chosen to ignore or justify for whatever reason--it's always just the kick in the ass you need to go change it.

T.J. had told me via email that he loved the book but that he wanted more. I took this as a complement and didn't think much of it, until we got together and had desserts, at which point I realized that there was more to that flip comment than I thought.

Basically, T.J. felt that book ended early--way, way, way early--and that there was a lot of lead-ins that never went anywhere and that in general the story didn't get to where it was supposed to go. I knew this when I was writing it. I had gotten impatient and written the ending far before the story was ready for an ending. I had thought to myself, "cool, what a great effect on the reader, they think the stories going to go on, but I'll trick them and end it here." Yes, tricky, but ultimately a premature death for the book. As T.J. said, "I'd be really pissed if I bought this book in the store and it ended when it did."

Sorry, no Pulitzer for me...