The die is cast for wannabe novelists, and it\u2019s been that way for years. Annual surveys show publishers accept fewer than three fiction manuscripts for every 1,000 submissions. Years can pass between approval and that first book signing at the local convention or coffee shop. In the mainstream book industry, the catch-phrase “the writer\u2019s art” has been replaced by something a little more succinct: “Hurry up and wait.” Richard Platt, an Ocean Beach playwright and author, knows the game pretty well. One publisher kept him on tenterhooks for 11 months as it made plans to produce his debut novel and then dropped them without explanation. About a year and a half and a zillion firms went by before Tyndale House Publishers released “As One Devil to Another, a Fiendish Correspondence in the Tradition of C. S. Lewis\u2019s The Screwtape Letters.” But released it was in April \u2014 and Platt, who\u2019s been writing for about 10 years and calls Lewis his patron saint \u2014 has plenty to say about the industry and its direction, even as more manuscripts see the light of day than ever before. “The Screwtape Letters,” published in 1942, centers on a series of 31 letters between devils Screwtape and Wormwood, with Screwtape advising his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 on how to undermine the newfound hope of a guy called The Patient. The Patient is killed in a World War II air raid and goes to heaven, with Wormwood taking the heat for letting his soul slip through the devils\u2019 fingers. Platt\u2019s “One Devil” mimics Lewis\u2019 voice and uses similar exchanges, this time between Slashreap and Scardagger, to address items like today\u2019s sexuality, modern technology and how man, despite the devils\u2019 best efforts, maintains a sense of hope in a world gone mad. The late Clive Staples Lewis, a Belfast native and a renowned novelist, poet and essayist known for his “Narnia” children\u2019s series, died in 1963 at age 64 and was a major figure in illustrating the role of Christianity in everyday life. His philosophy isn\u2019t lost on Walter Hooper, a world authority on Lewis, who in an hour-long phone conversation told Platt he found the manuscript “stunning” and even quoted passages back to him. A breathless Platt then suggested to his wife that she simply wouldn\u2019t believe what Hooper had had to say. “She said, \u2018You\u2019re right,\u2019” said Platt. “\u2018I don\u2019t believe it, and nobody else is going to believe it either. You better get him to write it down.\u2019” Subsequently, Hooper wrote the book\u2019s preface. Platt, a regular contributor to the literary quarterly Slightly Foxed and a finalist for a 2012 San Diego Foundation fellowship for his one-man play “Ripples from Walden Pond: An Evening with Henry David Thoreau,” had written “One Devil” in 35 days, finishing in November 2009. Then, the real work began, sometimes amid a lack of response altogether. “The waiting game,” Platt said, “is the toughest part of being a writer. People always say that if you\u2019re going to be a writer you have to be able to handle rejection. That\u2019s true, but it\u2019s much worse than that. The days you get rejected are the good days, because someone actually noticed you\u2019re alive. You\u2019ll spend most of your life being ignored completely. The first trait a writer needs isn\u2019t discipline, like you always hear. It\u2019s fortitude.” Perhaps that fortitude has diminished in the digital age. For a price, self-publishing services can edit, package and market your book at the drop of a hat, leaving the author\u2019s accountability in question. “The question is never, \u2018Is it good?\u2019 but \u2018Can we sell it?\u2019” he said. “So the trend is toward mediocrity.” Meanwhile, he continued, the jury is still out on the book\u2019s sales potential, as it\u2019s only now beginning to reach its intended audience. The wheels grind slowly in that part of publishing too, even as the latest Great American Novel rolls off somebody\u2019s copy machine, published on demand. But Platt is consumed with all things Lewis, calling him the greatest man of letters of the 20th century. In part, “One Devil” is dedicated to his memory \u2014 and surely, amid all that greatness, the true author in Platt can\u2019t bring himself to do less. The illustrated, 192-page “One Devil” is available at amazon.com and any bookstore.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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