Advance Praise for Crows

Wood cut by Nancy Darrell 

When a writer has a book in the pipeline, it's common practice for the publisher to encourage said writer to seek out other authors in the same or similar genre to read advance copies and to offer words of praise. These words will end up on or in the book, as a part of any advertising, and as an inducement to booksellers to stock the book. 

This asking for blurbs, as these bits of praise are called, is one of the parts of writing I hate. Authors are busy people and may not have the time or inclination to read one's book. And now, in this time of Covid-19, many people find it difficult to focus on new reading. And, of course, the reader may not like the book.

Nevertheless, I perservered and asked several authors if they would take a look at And the Crows Took Their Eyes. I am fortunate to have met a number of well-regarded writers over the years and was even more fortunate to receive some very nice comments.

The kindness and generosity of these folks makes my heart sing. 

Praise for And the Crows Took Their Eyes

“Lane’s richly detailed vision of the past expertly underpins a dark story of complex divided loyalties in an isolated, war-torn mountain community.”

– Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction

“In And the Crows Took their Eyes Vicki Lane has done nothing less than commit an act of mountain sorcery. Through her the voices of the dead rise up out of the hollows of Madison County, North Carolina telling a story as tragic and urgent as it was 150 years ago.”

– Tony Earley, author of Jim the Boy

“Vicki Lane casts an unforgettable spell in And the Crows Took Their Eyes, a compelling and humane reimagining of a heart-wrenching period in our American history. “

– Jessica Handler, author  of The Magnetic Girl

“And the Crows Took Their Eyes is a devastatingly beautiful, complex portrait of a small community torn asunder by the Civil War. What Vicki Lane has rendered in this harrowing and profound portrait of life and death in one little corner of Western North Carolina is a world that would otherwise be lost to us or, at best, consigned to a dusty footnote of history. Lane, through the alchemy of her formidable imagination, has breathed life into unforgettable characters living through a time of upheaval and untold tragedy. I will never hear the words Shelton Laurel again without a host of Lane’s powerful and heartrending images coming to mind. And the Crows Took Their Eyes accomplishes what only the very best historical fiction can ever hope to accomplish, connecting us, not only to our history, but to our humanity as well.”

– Tommy Hays, author of The Pleasure Was Mine

This Is the Part I Hate . . .

And the Crows Took Their Eyes is getting closer to publication (pub date is October 16, 2020,) and I've just finished yet another read-through of the typeset proof.

It's kinda amazing how many errors crop up in the typesetting -- not to mention my own errors I'd overlooked in previous readings.  I was so happy to correct a particularly bad mistake I made--on one page I have Polly shut and bar the door and a few paragraphs later, a man runs into the house. All it took was a quick removal of bar the door, thank goodness!

Most of the confusion occurred with letters and quoted Bible verses and songs where extra indenting and line spaces are called for. I wanted all that stuff in italics but the publisher's house style doesn't like italics except in small doses. 

Two days of intensive proof reading and back and forth with the editor and all that got straightened out. Now I'm faced with the cringe-inducing task of asking for blurbs.

Early blurbs will go on the advance reading copies (ARCs) that are sent out to the big reviewers and a positive notice from a well-known author increases the chances that one of these big reviewers will even open the ARC.

So I'm gritting my teeth, girding my loins, squaring my shoulders, and doing whatever I must to solicit blurbs. I have three folks already who say they'll take a look at an ARC, for which I am really grateful. But there are a few more out there from whom I'd really love a stamp of approval.

Like I say, this is the part I hate.

The Kindness of Margaret Maron

Whoopee!!! I just received a wonderful cover quote for In A Dark Season.

Margaret Maron is past president of Mystery Writers of America and also of Sisters in Crime. More importantly, she's a native North Carolinian and the author of the North Carolina based Judge Deborah Knott mysteries. I've long admired this series, from the first book -- Bootlegger's Daughter, which won all four major mystery awards when it was released -- to the latest, Hard Row, the thirteenth in the series. Margaret knows whereof she speaks when it comes to North Carolina; that's what makes her commendation of my new book so sweet.

******Vicki Lane writes of Appalachia as if she’d been driving up our hills and through our hollows her whole life. In a Dark Season richly blends past and present into a suspenseful tale of love and lust. In showing us how memory lingers like a smoky mist across the mountains, Lane reminds us again that the past never completely dies. ***************

Asking a busy writer (and in Margaret's case, a writer I've only met briefly) to take the time to read an Advance Reading Copy with all its typos and uncorrected errors is painful in the extreme -- but just part of the unending business of getting a book noticed. When my first Elizabeth Goodweather book came out, Sharyn McCrumb, another of my favorite authors, very kindly gave me a blurb and I don't know how many people have told me that seeing her favorable comment on the cover was what convinced them to pick up this book by an unknown author. So I grit my teeth and write a letter or an email and once again, rely on the kindness of (comparative) strangers. Fortunately, mystery writers seem to be an extremely generous and supportive community.

I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the book cover when it comes out on May 20 -- with a lovely quote from a writer I deeply admire -- Margaret Maron.

http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Row-Margaret-Maron/dp/0446582433/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201473037&sr=1-1