Do You Share???

As a writer, I am super secret about my Works-In-Progress. As in, I don’t even talk about what I’m working on other than to say “my secret project.” I’m afraid of “The Jinx.” I have this fear that somehow actually breathing the words out loud, putting them out into the universe, will somehow ruin my Mojo, block my Chi, whatever you want to call it.

I call it: The Jinx.


I’ve always been this way, to the point that when I announced that THE BODY FINDER had sold, I got a lot of this from my friends:

Friends: You write?

Me: Yup.

Friends: For how long?

Me: *shrugs* Forever.

Friends: I didn’t know that.

That’s right, they didn’t know…because of The Jinx.

If I’d told them I was writing, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to finish. And when I was done writing and was querying, telling them might have meant that my query letters would have spontaneously self-combusted in the inboxes of every agent they were sitting in…possibly burning down entire buildings in the process. I couldn’t have lived with that. That’s how The Jinx works.

So I keep it to myself, for the most part, telling only a select few who I know are immune to The Jinx. My husband, of course, my mom, my agent, my editor…even, occasionally, a friend or two who manages to catch me off-guard. And then I have to convince myself that they, too, are impervious to The Jinx’s impressive reach.

I’m awed by the bravery of those of you who are willing to share your work, posting Tuesday Teasers and sneak peeks online. Very, very courageous, flaunting your snippets in the face of danger…like waving a red flag in front of a charging bull. Bravo, I say! Bravo!

Me, I prefer to operate under the radar. Keep my head low and avoid eye contact with The Jinx whenever possible. No Tuesday Teasers from me…

Yeah, that’s the level of crazy I’m living with.