It’s gonna be a busy few weeks, getting ready for the launch, and an even busier time trying to get people to read Not Famous. But, I’ve been thinking about a bunch of things, and thought I’d share them.

It took me seven years to finish the first draft of my novel. Most of that time was honestly not spent working on it, but that long period of time from start to completion gave me plenty of opportunities to consider my characters, their back stories, and their strengths and weaknesses. The main character, who is actually named Nick (in honor of Hornby) starts off at a pretty low point in his life. The novel opens the morning after a one-night-stand he regrets immediately. Months earlier, a marriage proposal to his long-time girlfriend blew up in his face, and he hasn’t taken very well to the single-life. He’s a relationship guy, and decides it’s time to get out of his rut. He’s got a lot of room to grow and I think women might actually find him an interesting compassionate person to read. The one benefit to the one-night-stand is that gives him the confidence to pursue a relationship with a local singer-songwriter, who is intent on becoming self-sufficient on her music. She is easily the most complex character of the book, because, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, her personal and professional journey is what drives the story, and developing her quirks and backstory is what I spent the most time on. And now, there is now less than a month to go before my novel is “out there.” It’s scary and exciting at the same time. I hope those who read it find their story entertaining. Though, I’ve recently been thinking about the following quote:

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” ― Toni Morrison

This quote is so spot on because that is exactly what Not Famous is.

As anyone who knows me is aware, I like the novels of Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper, and others often lumped together in a genre called “lad-lit.” Between these two authors I would consider my favorites, they’ve not been churning out novels as quickly as I’d like… Nick Hornby’s most recent novel, Funny Girl, wasn’t my favorite. His prior novel, Juliet Naked, came out in 2009. Jonathan Tropper’s last novel One Last Thing Before I Go was also not my favorite of his work, but his previous novel, This is Where I Leave You, which I loved, is also nearly a decade old.

Of course, I’ve discovered other authors in the genre (Matthew Norman, Jon Rance, Mike Gayle, Matt Dunn, etc.) and that’s been awesome… to know that there’s others out there writing the kinds of books I want to read… and that’s all been an important part of my journey to writing (and finishing) the book I wanted to write… a novel I wanted to read that hadn’t been written yet