It’s been almost a year since my last update on The Novel and many, many things have happened since then – including me traveling to Japan and breaking my foot (requiring surgery), and my husband’s surprise open-heart surgery. The timeline for publishing my novel was obviously effected, but the good news is…
… it’s with a copywriter RIGHT NOW!
After five drafts, countless hours, ten beta-readers’ feedback, and several million moments of self-doubt, the manuscript is currently being combed over by a professional copywriter. Once I get it back from her, I’ll do a final spit-polish, add a couple small references I want to include, and then I’m headed into publishing territory. I’ve decided to self-publish through Ingram Spark (for several reasons which deserve their own blog post), and The Whole Enchilada will be available later this year in both physical and electronic formats.
…I have a launch date!
I thought for a long time about when to launch, and I decided that National Author’s Day – November 1 – would be an auspicious date. More information about the launch will be coming but for now, if you’re in Austin, Texas and you want to come to the launch event, sign up for my newsletter.
…I’m co-launching with my BFF
As if this were not enough excitement, I’m positively thrilled to announce a co-launch event with my bestie, Ilene Haddad, who has written an illustrated memoir featuring her own Casa Weenie cartoons. We’ve been writing partners for a couple years – and besties for even longer – and it’s so cool that we get to take this step together.
October 1998. Charlie is adrift—tending bar in Austin, drowning in ‘90s ennui, and quietly wondering if life has anything better to offer. She doesn’t believe in dreams—just survival, solitude, and the rare high of cooking a perfect meal. But when she crosses paths with a wounded extraterrestrial hiding out in a Texas park, everything shifts.
Before she knows it, she’s behind the wheel of her beat-up Corolla, tearing across the Lone Star State with an alien hitchhiker and no clue what she’s chasing—or why, for the first time in years, it suddenly feels like everything matters.
Set in the pre-gentrified sprawl of slacker-era Austin, The Whole Enchilada follows Charlie as she navigates grief, unexpected friendship, and a past that refuses to stay buried. Funny, fierce, and surprisingly tender, The Whole Enchilada is a cosmic coming-of-age story about fate, freedom, and finally figuring out where you belong—if anywhere at all.
Allegory-rich with grunge-era angst, pop culture deep cuts, and the restless energy of a generation raised on mixtapes and midnight movies, this is a tall Texas tale for the end of the 20th century.
Take a road trip through the wide-open question of what comes next—and discover that the biggest mystery isn’t in the sky. It’s in the rearview mirror.
Am I ready to send this into the world? Am I prepared for the criticism? The mockery? Am I ready to spend weeks, months, years begging people to buy my book? Is it any good? Do I even care anymore?
I still maintain that this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Mentally, yes, but far more so emotionally. The fear and loathing that go along with putting yourself and your creative work ‘out there’ is a reality I’ve had to learn to live with. My motivations, desires and hopes about my work have been examined, ad nauseam, in the solitary confines of my heart. No one else can tell me if this is what I want it to be. No one else can tell me whether or not I ‘deserve’ to write and publish my weird little stories. This is uncharted territory in every aspect, and even for someone who loves adventure, it’s been daunting.
I wrote last November about needing to figure out why I want to write and feeling the release once I realized it wasn’t about fame or money for me. That process has been liberating, but it doesn’t completely take away the fear of others’ harsh opinions. I don’t anything can do that. We’re all subjected to those, now more than ever. A couple weeks ago I finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, and when I went to leave a review on GoodReads, I was stunned to discover almost 40,000 one-star reviews of a book that – in my humble opinion – is pure genius. It was quite a shock to see that, and my immediate takeaway was that no one – not even a goddamn Nobel Prize Winning Author (TM) – is free from haters.
Which is not to say that The Whole Enchilada is anywhere near the brilliance of One Hundred Years of Solitude, only that my work (or any creative person’s, for that matter) can’t be dependent on the opinions of other people. We do the work because we’re compelled to do it. I’m writing this novel (and hopefully many more to come), not because I’m a genius, or because my work will change the world, or even because I’m talented. I’m doing it because I’m compelled to do it, and for the first time in my incredibly arduous life, I have the opportunity.
I’m not waiting one second longer to pursue my purpose as a creative writer. I’m putting my shit out there, and my body of work will evolve, in full view of other people whose opinions of my writing may or may not be favorable. But my goal in writing is not to please other people. My goal in writing is to write. It’s to feel that creative power come through me, to see myself grow and evolve and master new skills. It’s to use the parts of myself I value most – my heart and my imagination. This might be the first and only thing I’ve ever done in my life simply because I want to do it, and I like the way that feels.
Sign up for Daniela Quirke’s newsletter to stay informed about the launch event for The Whole Enchilada, and for news about other creative projects.