Beeing Here--and a Question for the Hive Mind

Down in the garden yesterday, I was delighted to see numerous wild honeybees working the white clover.

A hopeful sign for this small portion of the planet,

And now my question: I'm working with Malaprop's, Asheville's iconic bookseller, to plan a virtual October launch  for AND THE CROWS TOOK THEIR EYES. The event will be streamed live at 6 pm EST -- either on Friday the 16th or on Tuesday the 20th. So, what I want to know is . . .

If this is something you might be interested in watching, which day (Friday or Tuesday) is better for you?

I already asked this on Facebook yesterday but if you didn't answer there, you can answer in the comments.  Just trying to get a feel for what would work best.

I've had six wonderful, well-attended (in person) book launches at Malaprop's and had hoped to repeat but, alas, looking ahead, I don't see that happening in mid-October.

On the bright side is that this event would be accessible to my non-local friends -- and that's like the silver lining.

Anyway, I'll take note of the responses and Malaprop's and I will choose a date soon. I've also agreed to sign books for Malaprop's in advance, including personalized inscriptions for those who pre-order and request such.

Okay, I'm beginning to feel a tad excited despite the virus. It's been such a long journey. . .

Editing

...which is pretty much all I've been doing for the past two weeks -- along with keeping Josie two and three days a week. (I'm using Josie pics for this post because pics of me editing would be pretty dull.) I've been editing 60 pages a week for my class along with doing a read through of my 334 page novel  (actually, I did it twice) in response to my editor's line edits--I needed to accept or reject them. 

This was my last chance to to tweak sentences and improve word choice. After this, if I want to make changes (other than typos or compositor errors, it will cost me.)

This is standard industry practice and makes sense. Because, alas, it's always the case that another read-through will reveal things the writer wishes she'd done differently.

This time, in spite of the fact that I've probably read through the novel twenty times, tweaking merrily as I went, I still found things to improve-- places to eliminate unnecessary words, to fix repetitions, to double check against some possible anachronisms. 

I think that since I've been editing class work for several months now, my editorial eye was sharper and more attuned to really picky details. As I always tell the folks in my critique classes, editing other people's work will make you a better editor of your own stuff.

And for a bonus, I finally came up with a closing couple of sentences I like. On every previous read, I'd questioned my choice of words there. What happens at the end hasn't changed but I think the words are better.

And I'm really pleased with the novel as a whole. I love most of the characters and those that I don't, I at least have some sympathy for. They have become incredibly real to me.

I felt like celebrating when I hit SEND late Thursday night and returned the manuscript to the editor. Now a proofreader will go through it and eventually, so will I again.

 Meanwhile, I've got forty more pages to edit for class next Thursday, after which I can lay down the electronic red pencil and think about things like Christmas gifts and Thanksgiving food. And all those cobwebs lurking in corners and under chairs. Now that Halloween's past, I can't claim them as decorations any more.

And the New Title Is . . .

And the Crows Took Their Eyes

Raw and powerful, like the book, says the editor.

Well, the book is no cozy--though it has lots of warm, human moments--but the massacre is the central event that informs the story and the lives of those who tell the it.

I'm tweaking my blurb for the back of the book. You are welcome to tell me what you think. It's tricky--trying to hit the high points without giving away too much.

~~~

During the Civil War in bitterly divided western North Carolina, Confederate troops execute thirteen men and boys from a rural community opposed to secession. The Shelton Laurel Massacre, as it came to be known, is a microcosm of the deep horrors of civil war – neighbor against neighbor and violence at one’s own front door. 

Told by those who lived it– the colonel’s wife, helpless witness to the outrage that precipitates the massacre; the jealous second-in-command whose ambition and rage fuel the fatal order; the canny mountain woman who endures torture to protect her people and her land; the mute girl, whose gift of second-sight and spell-working brings an unexpected revenge; and the young conscript, haunted by his part in the massacre and seeking redemption—these voices offer an intimate glimpse into the lives of five people tangled in history’s web, caught up together in love and hate. All five will bear the mark of the massacre long after the event as they struggle to come to terms with the bleak consequences of civil war.
Based on an actual event and historical characters, And the Crows Took Their Eyes is a richly imagined portrait of a dark and bitter time—illuminated by sudden gleams of warm humanity and undying strength.

Metadata

I was puzzled by mention of a metadata survey I must have ready for the publisher by the end of September. the online definition-- "a set of data that gives information about other data"-- didn't clear it up much but a look at the actual survey told the story. 

They want information about my past publishing history, my plans to travel promoting the coming book, my bio, successful books from the past five years that I think have similarities to my book, a one sentence pitch, a couple of paragraphs of back cover copy, (these last two are fiendishly difficult stuff that I often assign to folks in my writing classes. I feel their pain . . .)  

I took advantage of a quiet yesterday to make major inroads on this survey. Yes, it's a month away that it's due, but my classes begin mid September-- just at the time I'll be getting the first round of edits on the novel which I will have to deal with, along with editing sixty pages a week for the folks in my class.  And taking care of Josie two or three days a week. Do-able but right now is the time to get this metadata thing out of the way.

My eyes are crossing . . .

The Game's Afoot!

My editor has sent me a production schedule for the Civil War book and I've been in touch with her and with the Editor-in-Chief about the title. As some of you may remember, my original idea was to call it THIS WAS THE WAY OF IT.  That was, at least, my working title. Eventually it got trimmed to THE WAY OF IT, which is what it was when I signed with Regal House. 

The editor didn't quite like it and it became WITHIN MY MEMORY YET.  Then I noticed that somewhere on line, Regal House had referred to my forthcoming book as MEMORY LINGERS--which I don't like at all. I said so and suggested, if they preferred a shorter title, IN MEMORY YET.

Nope, the head editor didn't like that, feeling that something more powerful was needed, a kind of visceral punch to reflect the horrors of the story.

Now I'd been giving some thought to the cover--part of the production schedule invites me to send them pictures of book covers I admire so that the cover designers have some idea of my aesthetic idiom. And in thinking about covers, I imagined a cover with crows against a winter background--a reference to what I think is one of the most viscerally powerful scenes of the book.

And I thought of a title. A strong, in-your-face title. Maybe too strong, I thought but I suggested it and they like it. They really liked it.

At the moment, I think it's The One. But, allowing for second thoughts, etc., I'm not going to say what it is. Not till I have a strong commitment and a go ahead from the editors.

But there are crows.

Within My Memory Yet . . .

Nothing's definite but at this moment my editor and I both like Within My Memory Yet as a title for the Shelton Laurel Massacre book. It's a line from "Lorena" --- a Civil War era song that was popular on both sides. I reference it several times in the book, and, beyond that, the line captures the long-lasting scars, grudges, pain, suspicion, and hatred engendered by the war and, more specifically by the massacre that is the key issue of my novel. 

 

You can listen to the song "Lorena" HERE, accompanied  by some haunting images from the Civil War. If you look closely, you will see a map that includes Marshall, NC and Greenville and Maryville, TN, the sites of much of the action in my book.

The photos on this page are some that I will offer as possible covers -- just imagine the words Within My Memory Yet and by Vicki Lane in some elegant font superimposed on the images.

Update.and Hints . .

 I should be getting our tax information together but instead I'm proofreading and tweaking that first (unpublished) Elizabeth Goodweather novel. I've decided  to venture into self-publishing with this orphan before doing Birdie's stories, as I want to add a few more tales before I self-publish them.

And the Civil War novel? After my agent dropped out of the hunt, I spent much of January researching small presses and submitting the novel. This entailed all sorts of hoop-jumping -- constructing a query letter, writing synopses (not easy at any time but a real bitch when your novel has one storyline and five protagonists,) producing a marketing plan (most publishers  don't ask for this up front but some do,) and formatting my manuscript to various fiddly specifications -- header/no header, page numbers top right, page numbers bottom center, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It was wearisome but I learned a lot. In the classes I teach, I've always felt inadequate when it came to answering questions about seeking publication without an agent and about self-publishing. I know more now about the former and will soon know more about the latter.

And, AND . . . I think that soon I will have good news for those of you who've been waiting patiently for my Civil War novel. I can't say more at the moment but hold that thought. . .

A Letter from Judy

When I teach classes in novel writing, an exercise that has proven quite useful is to have my students write letters to themselves in the voice of their main character, explaining why that character wants his/her story told. In some cases these letters are quite moving, and in most cases they help to clarify the author's vision of the book under construction.

So, of course I did this for my Civil War book. But I had to write five letters.

Here's a brief synopsis of the novel:

During the American Civil War, the western North Carolina county still known as Bloody Madison was deeply divided, with the wealthier townspeople supporting the Confederacy and the poorer folk, especially in the outlying communities known as the Laurels, opposed. THE WAY OF IT follows events surrounding the Shelton Laurel Massacre -- the execution by Confederate soldiers of thirteen men and boys suspected of Unionism.  

The story unfolds in five alternating voices of witnesses from both sides. Judy, the strong-willed unmarried mother of a growing brood, the descendant and keeper of traditions of the earliest settlers in the Laurels, is the voice that opens and closes the book so I'll begin with her letter. (I'll post the others over the next few weeks.)

Writing a book, are you? About the Massacre and them Thirteen buried up yon? And you want my opinioning?

Don't seem like an unlearned mountain woman can have much to say to a book writer. Still, I was there and you weren't. I know what it is to go through hard times, to hear my young uns crying for food, to fear the soldiers plundering our food . . . and worse.

When you first begun to spin the story, going back to one of the beginnings of the trouble, I couldn't see what good a book would do -- what happened, happened, and ain't nothing can change that.

But as I come to think on it some more, I thought of all the tales going around concerning them dreadful times -- and they's mostly about the men. The women don't feature much in stories about the war.

But it was the women held things together while their men was off playing soldier or hiding away from conscription up in them old rock houses and thickets on the mountain. 

You tell about the women and how they kept old Laurel going.  Tell as how we're still here. Now that would be a fine thing to have writ down.

And don't forget to tell about that other feller buried up yon where the Thirteen rest. . .

                                                        Your friend,

                                                                  Judith Shelton 

The Hard Part

The picture above has been my screensaver for at least the past three, maybe four years. I found the image on the internet and it fits the way I imagine one of my favorite characters in That Book -- Judith Shelton. 

When I hit dry spells, she was there quietly reminding me to endeavor to persevere.  

About a month ago, I realized I didn't need that reminder anymore and I took her down.

Now, however, that the book (tentatively named THE WAY OF IT, though that could change) is beginning its journey to find a publisher, I am finding myself reaching for the antacids (only stress and pregnancy have ever given me heartburn and I think we know what the problem is here.)

So maybe it's time to let Judy talk to me some more. She's been real patient, standing there, holding that pan all this while.

Joy Cometh in the Morning

Or sometimes at 2:27 in the afternoon. Yesterday.

As you may or may not remember, back at the end of July I sent the finished Civil War novel to my agent. She warned me that she had several manuscripts ahead of mine and it would be some weeks before she got back to me.

Time passed. During which I began to sketch out several scenarios, most of which involved her reading it and HATING every word then dilly dallying over how to tell  me there was no way under heaven she could represent such a steaming pile of-

You get the idea. I've spent weeks now, feverishly checking my email, waiting for the blow to fall. 

Yesterday she emailed to say she'd finished it and that, in her opinion, I'd written a great novel (italics hers,) far and above anything I'd ever written. And that she can think of a number of editors who'd like to see it.

Oh, be still my heart!  I will, of course, keep you informed . . .