Laurie Sandell

Did you know that you can spend four years doing research for a book, two years writing it, one year drawing it, and mere months after it comes out, people will start asking, “So–what’s your next book idea?” Huh? Next book idea? As if I didn’t mine every single solitary idea I’ve ever had for that book? As if my brain hasn’t accessed every painful, funny memory; processed it, turned it into art, and now you want to know if there’s more? The main problem, of course, is that one doesn’t want to brainstorm a book idea; you want it to arise naturally. I picked up Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book, Committed, the other day, and she addressed this problem right in the intro. Of course, I don’t have quite the same problems that Elizabeth Gilbert has (ie. trying to come up with an encore for a book that sold several million copies). Anyway, I’ve been tossing around lots of ideas: Another graphic novel. Out of the question. Maybe if this one had been a huge bestseller and my publisher had begged me to do another one, I would have considered it. But I told this story in graphic form because I had to; it was the only way I could talk about my father without succumbing to fear. Another memoir, then. No. I put every experience I’ve ever had into that book. And if I didn’t include it in that book, I wrote about it for a magazine. So a novel. Well, yes. I’d love to try my hand at a novel. But I’d need a few years to pull that off. And a psychic I saw on New Year’s told me I was going to write something else first. Anyway, I did come up with a new idea the other day, and I know this is a very cryptic way to end a blog post, but I’m not going to share it here, because it’s nascent and fragile and I’m not ready to put it out into the world. But da-yum, I think I’m excited. It involves a little bit of cartooning and a lot of non-fiction writing. I’ll leave it at that.