Running of the Bulls

You're probably thinking that like all movie actors know each other then so too all authors know each other. Well, that's not true. Not in either case.

If authors know each other at all, it's usually through their work, or through some sort of business. We're not like the Elks who might have monthly meetings for all their members to attend and get to know each other.

In fact, most of the writers I know are solitary creatures.

Did I say writers?

I actually meant authors.

There is a world of difference between someone who makes a living as a writer of every day things and an author who gets to paint the big picture in a 100,000 words or so.

Writers usually work in quick bursts, 300 words or so, sometimes 750 words. And some other times, what?, 1200 words.

Readers today don't have time for much more than that in their every day news that writers produce.

But an author of a book, that's a whole different world.

You know the reader makes a commitment to carry around that big thick book until every single word has imprinted an image on the brain ... and that's all there is to it.

The other night I met a young author, and in all my bluster telling her about what I've done and, yes, about this little blog thing and all its web page attachments, I barely got beyond the info that she said she wrote a little and edited some other people.

I told her I should shut up and give her a chance to talk, but she insisted I continue. Age before, oh, never mind.

So, it turned out that I had worked with this writer many years ago.

She was inside, talking up old times with old friends, and our friend whose farewell party it was, I guess.

Outside the party I remembered that she spelled her last name without an 'e' which is how most people would spell it when writing it down.

You see. That proved to me that I worked with her all those years ago, and that like any good editor, knew how to spell her name.

Yesterday morning, as most people do these days when they meet someone whose name they still remember the next day, I Googled hers and found that yes, she did spell her last name without an 'e' and lo, and behold, she was an author.

The Running of the Bulls: Inside the Cutthroat Race from Wharton to Wall Street by Nicole Ridgway. The book was published here last August. It is being published by Penquin Books in India in January 2006.

Pretty cool. You know, I would have had a million questions to ask her about her book and stuff. But with the live band playing at the other end of the bar and the smoke and the rest of the din, not only did I lose my voice but my ancient set of hearing instruments began to fade as well.

I probably said too much already.

So, I bade a hasty retreat and headed home to hearth & Zamboni and his happy dog dance.

Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.



Author Nicole Ridgway (No 'e')

The Running of the Bulls

Penguin Books India

Nicole Ridgway

Forbes

Stephen King - On Writing