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.

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 I should be getting our tax information together but instead I'm proofreading and tweaking that first (unpublished) Elizabeth Goodweather novel.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