So Many Fish in the Sea

by Julie

So Many Fish in the Sea—

A little experiment with hooks and lines

In my last blog entry, I wrote about being married to writing. Today I’m all about dating. It seems I am past-due for a round of speed-dating. I just have to line up some “potentials” and spend a few minutes with each in hopes that love connections can be made without the hassle of hours wasted with some guy who stares at his reflection in the window behind me through dinner or who plants a surprise! kiss on me at the end of a long night with a mouth full of Oreo shake. I mean, I can just imagine the horror of such things.

So I lined up some potential suitors and spent a little time with each, wanting to see what makes me long for more…pages.

  Design © Kazmierz Szmauz: Bookman

My little speed-dating experiment (seeing as how I’m gratefully out of the people dating pool) is a book affair. I have an obscene number of books, some unread, and I decided I’d check out the first chapter of each of those, hoping I’d learn something about craft I could apply to my current projects.  I devised a rating scale of one to ten (one being “I think I need a restraining order,” five being “Let’s be friends; I’ll call you,” and ten being, “Come home with me NOW”). I even made a point of not reading the covers and flaps to avoid the “pretty face” trap.

What did I learn from my dates?