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Ok, I wasn’t exactly making vroom-vroom sounds, but having just watched a terrific Formula One race in Monaco (on television, I wasn’t actually in Monaco…unfortunately) I went for a run and found myself constantly accelerating and wanting to pass everyone out in Central Park. That’s a problem when you are no where near the fastest person out running in Central Park. Once I came to terms with that I settled in to a nice pace and consoled myself that my pit crew had clearly not put enough fuel in the tank this morning.

I’m trying to get into better shape, not Olympian, but athletic. To that end I worked out with Natalie yesterday morning in Central Park. Natalie is a professional trainer and is in phenomenal shape. I am a professional editor and writer and in ok shape. So yeah, she kicked my butt. It was wonderful. I can challenge my intellect all day long at work, but the opportunity to see what my body can accomplish just doesn’t come up that much while talking on the phone or writing emails. An added benefit is that pushing myself physically helps me connect with some of the characters in my novel.

In other news the ARCs for The Border: Exploring the US-Mexican Divide by David J. Danelo have gone out. The book pubs in August and should, I hope, get a fair amount of attention in the run up to the election. I also received the video trailer for Red, White or Yellow: The Media and the Military at War in Iraq by Charles Jones. I am very impressed with its production quality. Once we have it set up I’ll provide a link. This should be another book that gets a lot of attention as it pubs in September. And I’m happy to announce that Band of Sisters by Kirsten Holmstedt is now available as a digital download from Daily Lit. Daily Lit offers books digitally in installments, sending you a chapter a day, so in a sense they offer a serialized way to read a book. I bumped into the president of Daily Lit, Susan Danziger, at the London Book Fair last month and had a chance to talk at length about her approach and I am definitely impressed with what she’s doing. On the other hand, we had dinner one night and discovered that neither of us should ever be allowed to navigate. We walked the same section of London for probably half an hour trying to figure out where we were. The really sad part is, we were both sober.

Her name is Shelly Shapiro, and in the world of science fiction and fantasy she is legend. She’s also an editor which is why you may not automatically recognize her name. I first met Shelly when I started at Del Rey Books in the fall of 2000. I was new to New York (fresh off the dog sled – Canadian joke) and in awe of pretty much everything. What fascinated me about Shelly was that she was there in the early days, working for Lester Del Rey and Judy Lynn. She’s worked (and in some cases still works) with authors like Clarke, Asimov, Brooks, McCaffrey among many, many others, and is the steady hand on the rudder of the SS Star Wars publishing juggernaut at Del Rey. She’s probably spent more time at Skywalker Ranch than anyone except Lucas. She’s seen publishing at its high points and low points and has stories that would make a killer publishing memoir if she ever decided to write them…and the lawyers signed off on it. She started young working at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club and is, lest I give the wrong impression, still young (late 30s I think…early 40s at the most.) And she’s my friend, and sage council.

We had lunch at the Heartland Brewery in Union Square and talked all things publishing and life. Shelly was in town for the preview screening of the new Indiana Jones movie (and yes, she is the editor for the novelization.) It’s always great to hang out in person, even if yesterday was monsoon-like.

I’m sure there are any number of similar analogies, but seeing as I both run and write this seems apt. In running, I find the first mile or so is rough. I’m hyper-aware of every little pain, sore, ache and twitch. My mind is still out wandering and visiting work, relationships, what to have for dinner etc. Then something magical happens. At some point everything just flows into sync. I am one with me, if I’m not sounding too new agey for you. The run smooths out, my breathing steadies and my mind goes deep. I’ve found the writing process to share many of the same characteristics, although without quite as much sweat. When I first start a new sentence, chapter, whatever, it can be a bit jarring as I search for the right path. There are invariably false starts and mistakes, but then, as with the running, something magical happens and everything just flows. Jumbled fragments of ideas suddenly coalesce into precise scenes and characters find their voices. And like running, at the end, I feel both spent and exhilarated by the experience and already looking forward to the next one.

On the east side of Central Park between the 79th and 72nd crosstown streets there is a cat statue about halfway up the hill on Park Drive North. At the bottom of the hill is the Boat House. In a scene reminiscent of Sean Connery in the movie The Hill (ok, not really, but I’m going for dramatic effect) a small group of runners including myself ran up and down that hill what felt like a thousand times (but was probably more like eight) while doing some strength and speed training. Left to my own devices I know I wouldn’t have pushed nearly as hard, but in a group, and with a wonderful instructor, I did more than I otherwise would have. It was a helpful reminder that we are almost always capable of more, in pretty much everything we do. We’ve all heard that fallacy about only using 10% of our brain, but I think a truer truism would be to say we often only use 10% of our spirit.

Chris