PicoBlog

I remember years ago, at a B&N reading in Manhattan, you said something along the lines of: I'm sorry but I have to read this piece out loud. It was something you'd been working on that had to do with aliens, and some crazy space shit. Lasers were involved. You apologized (profusely) and said you couldn't know if the thing was good until you'd read it to an audience. When you finished, you apologized some more, and shoved it back in your pocket. I wanna say this was back in 2008? At the time, I was like, Welp! If anybody can pull it off, its Junot Diaz!

I still think that. Maybe it's not you, maybe the piece isn't ready for the world (and other woo-woo stuff like that).

A couple years before I went to your reading, i got a really hot agent named Andrew Wylie. I'd just finished my first book. He was like: It's a hit! We'll go to the Frankfurt bookfair, we'll sell a bunch of copies; you're gonna be a star!

We sent the book out to something like 30 publishers, and it never took. Nobody wanted to touch it. Everybody had different reasons as to why. I worked on that thing for 14 more years (!). I burned through 3 subsequent agents (!!!!). Great ones too. I couldn't give the idea up. Couldn't get it out of my head. I dreamt it, slept it, breathed it. And made it worse with all my tinkering.

Last year I finally kicked it to the curb--and it felt good. Really good. Because it made room for something else. I don't know what that something is yet, I'm working on it, we'll see. But letting go (truly, deeply) is the hardest, and, paradoxically, most freeing feeling (sometimes).

I imagine this endeavor (substack) will help show you the way.

Thank you for being brave and sharing the process. I look forward to seeing your thoughts in the weeks and months ahead!

All my best,

Dave

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