Add me to the list! I'll send you the money once we know how much it is. It would be so awesome to have a copy of that book!
Hopefully, we'll all get copies of each other's books in the not-too-distant future. How awesome would that be?
Style envy - oh, definitely. It happens with nearly every author I adore. I'll read these gorgeous passages and wish I could write like that. Helps that I have people telling me the same thing about my work, but still....
I have more of a problem with story envy. I'll read something and think, Bloody hell, I wish I could write a story like that. It's especially bad with my friend Jim's work - it's so twisted, so unexpected, so darkly funny, and so unique that I used to feel about a millimeter tall compared to him. And then one night, he said to me, "I wish I could write stories like yours." He started talking about my style and plots and so forth in very flattering terms, while my jaw kept falling farther and farther. HE envies ME? I thought, and since that day, we've agreed not to envy each other anymore. We write what we're good at writing and we're both great - what's not to love there? Now if only we can get publishers to recognize our genius.... [swg][(-D]
It's probably natural to envy other writers, and it's great to use it constructively, to push yourself to write the best stories you can, to write YOUR stories instead of imitating your idols, so that some day, there's a chance your favorite author will come up and say what Neil Gaiman said about Susanna Clarke's Sandman story: "I wish I had written this story. But I'm even more pleased that I got to read it."
en tequila es verdad