Eat Pray OH SHIT
So.
Everyone I know who has read Eat Pray Love has written or called me to say that it reminded them so much of me, and that I have to read it.
I understood it was a woman's journey through Italy, India and Indonesia, and blah blah blah.
I've been looking to read a new travel book, to get me inspired to do the final edit on my own book. Bart bought it for me yesterday. I've just finished the Italy part.
I am equal parts furious, intrigued, depressed, thrilled and achingly desperate to meet the woman who was APPARENTLY SEPARATED FROM ME AT BIRTH.
This woman was running around Rome at the same time I was. Having very similar experiences. And wrote about it IN THE SAME EXACT WAY I TALK AND WRITE.
Like, in a really freaky similar way. Like, WHO IS THIS WOMAN AND WHY ARE WE NOT FRIENDS?
Oh, and? She is represented by THE WYLIE AGENCY, which is MY DREAM AGENCY TO REPRESENT ME IN MY QUEST FOR THE MISS EXPATRIA MEDIA EMPIRE.
To wit:
1. She came to Rome after a horrible breakup. CHECK.
2. She compared something to the last helicopter out of Saigon. I DO THIS ALL THE TIME.
3. She uses the phrase, "gentle reader." Check out my other blog for evidence of this.
4. She lovingly describes food, opening up second bottles of wine, and all manner of gastronomical enjoyment IN THE SAME WAY I DO.
5. She describes her love of speaking Italian IN THE WAY I ALWAYS WISHED I COULD EXPRESS THIS SAME EXACT LOVE. SHE'S ALREADY DESCRIBED IT.
6. Six million other things that struck me dumb with instant recognition. Even her friend, Luca Spaghetti - MY DAD'S BEST FRIEND IS NAMED JIMMY MACCARONI.
No one will ever believe that I just happened to have this same experience. And that I happened to have the same idea to write about it. In what just so happens to be a strikingly similar way. I will be declared a coattail rider, a fraud, someone who has used someone else's success to cash in.
I am not arrogant enough to think that my story is SO ORIGINAL and that my book will change the course of literary history. My story is an engaging one, written well.
But, this lady wrote it first.
I am heartbroken. My heart is literally in one million pieces on the floor.
Bart says this is a good thing - that I CAN ride her coattails, that people are looking for similar stories.
But, it's just...too...similar.
So, now I have A METRIC TON FUCKLOAD of work to do on my book, to make it somehow be fresh and original and worthy of someone forking over money for a book THEY IN ESSENCE HAVE ALREADY READ.
My longtime LJ friends, I need you. You were with me when I wrote all those things that I experienced, and you read them as they were happening. PLEASE TELL ME THAT MY STORY IS WORTHY OF PUBLICATION, THAT IT WILL INTEREST READERS WHO HAVE ALREADY READ EAT PRAY LOVE. Even if you have to lie. I need serious propping up today, and I need it to come from you guys, who were there with me from the beginning.
Everyone I know who has read Eat Pray Love has written or called me to say that it reminded them so much of me, and that I have to read it.
I understood it was a woman's journey through Italy, India and Indonesia, and blah blah blah.
I've been looking to read a new travel book, to get me inspired to do the final edit on my own book. Bart bought it for me yesterday. I've just finished the Italy part.
I am equal parts furious, intrigued, depressed, thrilled and achingly desperate to meet the woman who was APPARENTLY SEPARATED FROM ME AT BIRTH.
This woman was running around Rome at the same time I was. Having very similar experiences. And wrote about it IN THE SAME EXACT WAY I TALK AND WRITE.
Like, in a really freaky similar way. Like, WHO IS THIS WOMAN AND WHY ARE WE NOT FRIENDS?
Oh, and? She is represented by THE WYLIE AGENCY, which is MY DREAM AGENCY TO REPRESENT ME IN MY QUEST FOR THE MISS EXPATRIA MEDIA EMPIRE.
To wit:
1. She came to Rome after a horrible breakup. CHECK.
2. She compared something to the last helicopter out of Saigon. I DO THIS ALL THE TIME.
3. She uses the phrase, "gentle reader." Check out my other blog for evidence of this.
4. She lovingly describes food, opening up second bottles of wine, and all manner of gastronomical enjoyment IN THE SAME WAY I DO.
5. She describes her love of speaking Italian IN THE WAY I ALWAYS WISHED I COULD EXPRESS THIS SAME EXACT LOVE. SHE'S ALREADY DESCRIBED IT.
6. Six million other things that struck me dumb with instant recognition. Even her friend, Luca Spaghetti - MY DAD'S BEST FRIEND IS NAMED JIMMY MACCARONI.
No one will ever believe that I just happened to have this same experience. And that I happened to have the same idea to write about it. In what just so happens to be a strikingly similar way. I will be declared a coattail rider, a fraud, someone who has used someone else's success to cash in.
I am not arrogant enough to think that my story is SO ORIGINAL and that my book will change the course of literary history. My story is an engaging one, written well.
But, this lady wrote it first.
I am heartbroken. My heart is literally in one million pieces on the floor.
Bart says this is a good thing - that I CAN ride her coattails, that people are looking for similar stories.
But, it's just...too...similar.
So, now I have A METRIC TON FUCKLOAD of work to do on my book, to make it somehow be fresh and original and worthy of someone forking over money for a book THEY IN ESSENCE HAVE ALREADY READ.
My longtime LJ friends, I need you. You were with me when I wrote all those things that I experienced, and you read them as they were happening. PLEASE TELL ME THAT MY STORY IS WORTHY OF PUBLICATION, THAT IT WILL INTEREST READERS WHO HAVE ALREADY READ EAT PRAY LOVE. Even if you have to lie. I need serious propping up today, and I need it to come from you guys, who were there with me from the beginning.