When I set out to learn about my mother's bridge club, the Jewish octogenarians behind the matching outfits and accessories, I never expected to fall in love with them. This is the story of the ladies, their game, their gen, and the ragged path that led me back to my mother.Last year, our assistant Yishai Seidman pulled a manuscript out of the slush and fell in love with it. He convinced the author to work on it with him and together they got it into shape for a submission. After it was declined by most of the large publishers, Yishai found a small press that also fell in the love with the book and published it. Good story. Until last week, when the book was selected as the Barnes & Noble Discover winner for fiction. Great story. Congrats, Yishai. Congrats, Scott and your beautiful book, Untouchable. The stuff of publishing dreams. I don’t know about you, but it keeps me going. What keeps you going?
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Betsy Lerner 
You keep me going, sweetie.
You keep me going.
Sweetie.
Or do you guys think I should say
You keep me going, Sweetie!
or
You keep me me going going sweetie.
??
or
YOU keep me going Sweetie
I am shooting for Casablanca here
What do you think Humphrey Bogart would say to Ingrid Bergman?
You keep me going sweetie…
You guys have a good night.
Congrats to Scott, Yishai and your office for this great news! How a manuscript becomes a book isn’t too dissimilar from a how-we-met tale: filled with bits of luck and perseverance, stars-in-alignment and a willingness to try, it’s a reminder to me that anything IS possible.
That’s a nice story. Stories like that keep me going. My daughter screaming ‘”I need to go to the bathroom really bad” keeps me going. Wine and waffles (not necessarily together) keep me going. Spellcheck, free parking and flip flops keep me going. There are so many things that keep me going that sometimes I feel I may never stop.
delusion.
What a warming Monday story. Congratulations and thank you for giving wings to that dream.
I don’t know what keeps me going. Today, I don’t.
coffee
Deadlines.
The visiting cat that goes “Me-ow-ow-ow-ow”
And by the way, Betsy, the song you are referencing is a wonderful flashback of cheez. That serpentine thing he does with his hand…
Thank you Betsy. Your story keeps me going.
I know this is a big question, but why did the big publishers turn it down?
Sincere congratulations to Yishai, Scott, and the agency that took a chance, not to mention the small press that saw that tree in the forest.
I keep hearing that the traditional publishing world is a shambles, run by beancounters and other people of the numbers, who don’t know gooseshit from a good book, and don’t care, as long as it sells.Self publish, self promote, I hear. Jesus saves, and so does Amazon.
Yishai and Scott keep me going, sustained by getting out on the boat. Deadlines, too.
Recently I wrote:
Dreams are like camp-fire smoke, it follows the one sitting closest.
I am so close I smell it; my clothes are permeated with it. With a huge pile of wood next to me I feed the flames almost constantly. I’ll even take a singe for the cause. Problem is…rain.
Wet wood does not a blaze make.
What keeps me going… my little circle of stones and dry matches.
Congratulations to Yishai and Scott. Sounds like Mr. Seidman has a good eye and the publishing world is all the better for his vision. And Scott O’Connor must have pretty good eyes and ears also.
What keeps me going is knowing how much I love to write. I’m reminded of it everytime I step away and get caught up in all the shit life has to offer (fodder for future works, I guess) then return to my book which I haven’t glanced at in months. Like talking with an old friend and remembering why you liked her so much in the first place. I’m happy to see my words again, to go for a walk with them or just sit around in the darkening living room as the glow of evening slowly fades and the words float around, changing and rearranging, sometimes disappearing and taking a different form. It ain’t much, but it’s all I got in this literary world.
Love what you said.
Are we the same person?
What’s really wonderful is that each time you revisit your old friend, and tweak them, they get better and better.
Feels nice huh?
We share the experience of keeping that fire going, even when it’s only embers. Thanks, Wry Wryter!
Stories like that help. It’s why I still think it’s beneficial to have an agent, someone to kick the can for you. Even small successes are enough to keep writers going, the occasional pat on the back. Thanks for sharing this “happy” story.
“What keeps you going?”
Livin’ the dream, Sweet Betsy, livin’ the dream. Determined never to awake, ever the sleeper dreamin’ he’s a butterfly dreamin’ he’s a man dreamin’ he’s a butterfly dreamin’ he’s a man dreamin’ he’s an ad infinitum…
Wonderful story, and congratulations to Scott and Yishai for their vision of a book world that still validates good writers and great readers.
What keeps me going? The usual fear of death. I need something to distract me from my one-way slide into oblivion so I chose writing as the most annoying way to make time appear to slow to a crawl.
It is being not going. It is what you are not what you do.
There is no being without doing, anymore than there is light without heat.
Congratulations to Scott and Yishai. Love Goliath stories.
True stories like this work for me.
And friends. And diet Pepsi. And my kids. And kitschy earrings shaped like pencils.
Stories like this, that a good book can be pulled from the pile. Congratulations Yishai and Scott.
The idea of a promising manuscript being plucked from the slush pile. I say, promote that clever and resourceful dude.
Hey! I loved that book! And Scott is the brother of someone from my old writing group! And I went to a reading and, yes, loved the book!
Awesome!
What would happen if I didn’t keep going? Nothing, that’s what. Maybe something if I do, nothing if I don’t!
What a great story. Monsieur Seidman must be over the moon with this. Who knows what keeps us all going? We need the eggs.
Congratulations! I love independent press stories, long may they keeps us nourished.
Ha, came ‘this’ close to buying that book the other day but decided my to-read shelf was already bearing enough weight. Maybe I’ll have rethink that decision now.