Another meeting with my publisher, another Chinese restaurant -- see first meeting
here.
Boy, two books greenlit within just one week (a Chinese medical thriller and a sci-fi), I've been busy.
First project is a medical thriller, second one is a sci-fi.
Of course, second restaurant is about second project:
This time we were having a late lunch in Paris Chinatown (13th district of Paris), full-to-the-brim restaurant, where menus are not even in a language I can read. Happens a lot to me (living part of the year in Asia, eating in stalls where they use Cantonese language). Anyway, everything you order, you share, and vice-versa, so we pretty much ended up eating each other's food. I'm used to Chinese lessons in noisy surroundings (one of my teachers gave her lessons in a Chinese stall, at lunch time, once there were even a few monkeys around). One of my friends is an authentic Japanese geisha, I think she would have just run away: everything has to be perfect and calm 100% of the time, having a monkey right next to her would make her hysterical, but she doesn't mind having Japanese politicians around; I feel the other way around.
So in a high-volume background, we had a nice exchange, mad-tea-party style, about that sci-fi project that kept me so busy last summer...
Publisher (P): "Chapter 5 is stunning. I love it."
Me: "Yup. That one pretty much hit me like a train. I knew I had to write about the whole thing."
P: "You've got to finish this as soon as possible. I mean, take your time, but... Make it your priority."
Me: "My priority, you mean,
after that Chinese thriller I'm just finishing, right?"
(both laughing)
Me: "It might end up being a trilogy... I was kind of thinking..."
P: "Chinese thriller might be good stuff for a trilogy. That one... concentrate on a one-book-effort. And that Zhuang is important, you should invest more time and effort here."
Me: "I can't imagine that thriller becoming a trilogy. There will never be enough material..."
P: "There already is. Plus, this is not for you to decide. The readers..."
(too much noise)
Me: "But I've got too much material for that sci-fi. Will never fit in one book..."
P: "For the kind of story you are telling, you will need an incredible amount of material. Much more than you think will fit in..." (noise)
Me, totally at a loss: "Ah, OK lah."
... Well, maybe.
Would love to be able to write short stories, novellas. But for some reason, characters end up asking for more interactions, more material, more everything... They have a reality of their own, and I try to keep up with their demand. So my short stories project (already have written plenty of those) will have to wait...
Then I tell him about my dream: for the last few nights, I kept having nightmares involving this movie, "Farewell my Concubine." No reason, really, as I saw this film ages ago and forgot about it.
P, laughing: "See? I was right."
Me: "Sorry, errrr... Right about what?..."
P: "You want that Chinese thriller to become a trilogy."
"??????" (noise noise noise)
P: (noise) "... can't let go of... character."
Me: "Which character?"
silence.
Me: "Oh, that dissident Chinese writer"
P (at the same time): "The writer."
Both laughing.
Me: "But I do prefer the characters in my sci-fi project."
P: (noise) "Your unconscious self is telling another story."
Me: "My unconscious. Boy..."
The rest was pretty much around Scrivener blah blah and Safe Creative blah blah and VPN blah blah
Anyway, the food was great. I love popular restaurants/stalls, even if this time there were no monkeys.
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