{"id":2722,"date":"2012-05-05T22:11:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T22:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=2722"},"modified":"2012-05-20T13:22:57","modified_gmt":"2012-05-20T13:22:57","slug":"good-enough-isnt-good-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/good-enough-isnt-good-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Enough Isn\u2019t Good Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I were mere\u00adly inter\u00adest\u00aded in sell\u00ading copies of the sec\u00adond Dako\u00adta & Svet\u00adlana adven\u00adture, The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em>, I would prob\u00ada\u00adbly release the nov\u00adel now. Accord\u00ading to reviews of the first book<\/a>, there is cer\u00adtain\u00adly a demand for the sec\u00adond. And by the stan\u00addards of most read\u00aders, not to men\u00adtion many oth\u00ader writ\u00aders in the detec\u00adtive genre, as it stands now The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> is enter\u00adtain\u00ading, com\u00adpelling and engag\u00ading enough that fans wait\u00ading for the sec\u00adond install\u00adment would be pleased.<\/p>\n

What page one of the new Dako\u00adta nov\u00adel looks like.<\/p><\/div>\n

The case is suf\u00adfi\u00adcient\u00adly com\u00adplex, and Dako\u00adta & Svet\u00adlana\u2019s repar\u00adtee is enjoy\u00adable. There\u2019s ample humor, vari\u00adety of scene, and a bal\u00adance of action and reflec\u00adtion. Over\u00adall, when com\u00adpared to sim\u00adi\u00adlar works in the detective\/PI genre, the nov\u00adel is \u201cgood enough,\u201d and most oth\u00ader mys\u00adtery authors would\u00adn\u2019t hes\u00adi\u00adtate to release it.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: while I would love to sell 25,000 copies of The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> tomor\u00adrow, it\u2019s more impor\u00adtant to me to put out my very best work. I want you read\u00aders to have the best expe\u00adri\u00adence pos\u00adsi\u00adble, and in order to accom\u00adplish this, I have to have the atti\u00adtude that \u201cgood enough isn\u2019t good enough.\u201d I have to pur\u00adsue excel\u00adlence.<\/p>\n

A review\u00ader at IndieRead\u00ader<\/a>, Maya Fleis\u00adchmann, writes of A Real Piece of Work <\/em>(ARPoW<\/em>), \u201cAction, lust, dan\u00adger, style and wit\u00adty repar\u00adtee, Orcut\u00adt\u2019s A Real Piece of Work<\/em> is a work of art.\u201d Nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adly, I was pleased by her com\u00adment because when I wrote ARPoW<\/em> I set out to cre\u00adate a work of art first, and a detec\u00adtive nov\u00adel sec\u00adond. In oth\u00ader words, I want\u00aded to make the nov\u00adel as much a piece of art as I could\u2014within the lim\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtions of the sto\u00adry, char\u00adac\u00adters and genre. This is what I\u2019m after with The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> as well, and all I can say is, it\u2019s not there yet.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019ll see when it does come out, besides being a mere detec\u00adtive sto\u00adry, The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> is meant to be an homage to two works I love deeply: The Great Gats\u00adby<\/em> and West\u00aderns. There\u00adfore, until the nov\u00adel is a com\u00adpelling mys\u00adtery that pays suf\u00adfi\u00adcient trib\u00adute to Gats\u00adby<\/em> and West\u00aderns, I can\u2019t release it. I sense there are still tweaks I can make to bring the nov\u00adel clos\u00ader to my orig\u00adi\u00adnal vision for it: a detec\u00adtive sto\u00adry that com\u00adbines the urbane sophis\u00adti\u00adca\u00adtion of the afflu\u00adent East with the rough and wild nature of the Old West. We\u2019ll see whether I real\u00adize this vision.<\/p>\n

The inaus\u00adpi\u00adcious orig\u00adi\u00adnal cov\u00ader of the 2nd Spenser nov\u00adel.<\/p><\/div>\n

Para\u00addox\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, reviews of ARPoW<\/em> and com\u00adments from readers\u2014almost unan\u00adi\u00admous in their gush\u00ading praise (no pressure)\u2014have made edit\u00ading The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> a high\u00adly tor\u00adtur\u00adous process because I want read\u00aders to be even more wowed and moved by the sequel, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s pos\u00adsi\u00adble. In fact, I\u2019ve spent the last 2 ses\u00adsions with my psy\u00adchi\u00ada\u00adtrist dis\u00adcussing whether, with ARPoW<\/em>, I might have cre\u00adat\u00aded an act that is impos\u00adsi\u00adble to fol\u00adlow.<\/p>\n

For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, besides being an excel\u00adlent doc\u00adtor, she is also an avid read\u00ader of mys\u00adter\u00adies, and mys\u00adtery series in par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar. She assures me (as do my wife and best friends) that read\u00aders of series are in it for the long haul, that they don\u2019t expect the next book in a series to trump the pre\u00advi\u00adous one. Refer\u00adring to the cre\u00adator of the Spenser series, Robert B. Park\u00ader, my doc\u00adtor shrewd\u00adly asks me, \u201cIs every one of Park\u00ader\u2019s nov\u00adels bet\u00adter than its pre\u00adde\u00adces\u00adsor?\u201d I think about this\u2014especially the sec\u00adond in the series, God Save the Child<\/a><\/em>\u2014and I have to answer with an unequiv\u00ado\u00adcal \u201cNo.\u201d Yet, she points out, once a year read\u00aders would line up for the next install\u00adment.<\/p>\n

Now, I hope I don\u2019t sound defeatist here, because I\u2019m con\u00adfi\u00addent that in many respects The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> sur\u00adpass\u00ades ARPoW<\/em>. <\/a>It\u2019s just that, in addi\u00adtion to the Sisy\u00adphus-like labors of edit\u00ading, I\u2019ve been grap\u00adpling with the intim\u00adi\u00addat\u00ading notion of hav\u00ading to fol\u00adlow a crit\u00adi\u00adcal suc\u00adcess. And in case you can\u2019t tell, it has\u00adn\u2019t been easy.<\/p>\n

Rest assured, I am work\u00ading on The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent<\/em> every day, and every day it gets a step clos\u00ader to com\u00adple\u00adtion. Thank you for your con\u00adtin\u00adued patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I were mere\u00adly inter\u00adest\u00aded in sell\u00ading copies of the sec\u00adond Dako\u00adta & Svet\u00adlana adven\u00adture, The Rich Are Dif\u00adfer\u00adent, I would prob\u00ada\u00adbly release the nov\u00adel\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30,19,7,11,12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-real-piece-of-work","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-fiction","category-personal","category-dakota-stevens-mysteries-series","category-the-rich-are-different","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2722"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2722\/revisions\/2930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}