Do you have a literary executor named in your will? What
would you like (or loathe) to have happen to your work when you've shuffled off
this mortal coil?
This is a surprisingly
easy question to answer, because it’s something I’ve been thinking about
recently. The answer to the first part of the question is “yes” – at least, I will have one when my new will is drawn
up.
I realise the
announcement that I am drawing up a new will has probably shortened my life expectancy
to a few days (because it always does, right?) but I’ll dare to share the
information here, with you, in the hope you’re not suddenly wondering where you
can get your hands on some arsenic or strychnine to drop into my next cuppa.
By way of further
disclosure, I have told the two persons in question that they’ll be “It”
(depending on which one of them is left when I drop from my perch), and they
seem fine with the idea. As for what they will/won’t/can/cannot do with my work
when I’ve gone – I have told them I don’t give two hoots; I’ll be gone, and if
they can pry more money out of it after I’m dead than I could while I was
alive, then good luck to them.
Who knows, maybe I’ll be worth more dead than alive – and no, thanks, I don’t want
that cuppa now!
Cathy Ace is the Bony Blithe Award-winning author of The
Cait Morgan Mysteries and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (#4, The
Case of the Unsuitable Suitor will be released in hardcover in the UK in
September 2017 and in the
USA & Canada on January 1st 2018). You can
find out more about Cathy, her work and her characters at her website, where
you can also sign up for her newsletter with news, updates and special offers: http://cathyace.com/
5 comments:
A very sensible attitude toward your literary legacy. Nice post, Cathy.
Agree, Cathy. I haven't gone as far as naming a 'literary executor' but I'm with you - if my heirs can figure out a way to get something fresh from my work, I say go for it!
Thanks Jim and Susan - nice to know I'm being "sensible" and thinking ahead. Wonders will never cease :-)
I wish every author would take this advice to heart. Dale Andrews and I are currently co-editing The Misadventures of Ellery Queen, a collection of parodies, pastiches, and homages, for Perfect Crime Books, and there are some excellent pieces we won't be able to include — by Dennis Dubin, Norma Schier, Robert Twohy — because the authors either made no arrangements for post-mortem representation or else arrangement so esoteric that it's been impossible to track them down.
Hi joshpac....I've been away from my desk and didn't spot your comment until today - my apologies for allowing it to languish unacknowledged for so long! The situation you describe is so sad...and you're right, we authors do need to think about what happens when we can no longer speak for ourselves, or our work. All the best with the anthology.
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