Writing With the Master by Tony Vanderwarker was an amusing read. Mainly because Tony was so pleased with himself all the time. I kept waiting for the inevitable fall. Which of course came, multiple times.
Writing is the detailed account of the time Tony’s good friend (as in John flew them on his private jet to vacation in Italy), John Grisham, offered to help Tony write a book. It comes out as you read that John has already set Tony up with his agent but the agent passed. So John says he will help Tony write a novel.
Help is a subjective term I suppose. John helps him fine tune his plot, if you can call it fine tuning when you plunk a chunk of wood down in front of a wood worker and they whittle it into a beautiful sculpture. Then he hand holds him through the process of writing an outline, with multiple redos, all the while telling him how to make each major plot point good. Then a couple of drafts of the novel, fine tuning again.
In the end, no one wants the novel. Which is why Tony writes this one about writing a novel with John Grisham.
I suppose I learned a few things:
A) no matter who you know it can still be a rough road to get published traditionally.
B) You have to want it and it has to be the right time both for you and the market.
C) You can’t do it for the love of money. You have to do it for the love of the words.
℘℘℘ – Three pages. I read it. I would not recommend it.
T.A. Henry 