If you had a chance to change something you created a decade ago, would you take it?  I have that opportunity as some of my older books are being reissued, and since I’ve been asked if the reissued books are identical to the originals, I thought I’d talk about that here. The truth is, it varies from book to book.

I didn’t change The Courage Tree at all, so if you find an old copy somewhere, the story should be identical to the reissue.  In Breaking the Silence, though, I made a small but significant change that I believe heightens the suspense and makes the outcome more suprising. A reader’s experience will be different if she reads the original vs the reissue. I did no updating of the story itself, though, because the CIA Mind Control Experiments drive everything that happens. Since those experiments really took place, I needed to stick to specific dates in the book.  

Summer’s Child, which was just released, has minimal changes. I did update the story a bit so that the styles of clothing, cars, etc, aren’t jarring to the reader. 

Right now, I’m rereading Cypress Point to see what I want to change and I’m playing with this one a bit more than the others. First, I have to say I adore this book as much as I did when I wrote it. It’s an intriguing, twisty, and throught-provoking story, if I do say myself. So what am I changing? Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but what the heck: as I read Cypress Point, I find that something relatively minor about one of the characters is really bugging me and I plan to “fix” that person.  It seems so strange to tamper with a character who’s existed in one form for so long, but it also feels great to be able to make the book better. When I wrote Cypress Point, I was perfectly happy with the character, so what’s changed? Me. And my writing. This character needs some tweaking to bring him or her (not giving the identity away!) up to my 2010 standards. I believe it makes the character more believable and more sympathetic. There’s something else I’m altering, and that’s a love scene. Too graphic for my current taste. So if you love a steamier scene, you might want to stick with the original version!

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know my publisher wants to change the title of Cypress Point. I had strong reservations about this and I know some of my readers still do. I hope you can get past it because I finally have. My editor came up with a title I adore: The Shadow Wife. It fits the story incredibly well, and  I’ll do everything in my power to be sure my readers know that it was previously published under a different title. 

And finally, the original Cypress Point cover has always been one of my least favorites and I can’t wait to see what my publisher comes up with for the reissue.

So how about you? Do you wish you had a do-over on work you did ten years ago?

Win one of two autographed copies of Summer’s Child! I’ll select at random two people who comment on this blog post by Saturday April 3rd at midnight EST. Good luck!

When I was a kid, my grandmother told me about a friend who was walking across a field when she saw an overturned basin. She kicked the basin over and was horrified to discover a dead baby beneath it. I never forgot that terrible story (thanks, Gram), but I always wondered who that baby was and what would have happened had she been alive? That’s where the idea for Summer’s Child came from. Eleven-year-old Daria Cato kicks over a horseshoe crab shell on the beach and discovers a baby who changes her life and the lives of many other people in Kill Devil Hills, a town on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Summer’s Child was originally published in 2000 and I’m so pleased it’s getting this second life. It’s the third of my older books to be reissued recently (the other two are Breaking the Silence and The Courage Tree). Other reissues will be coming in the next couple of years, so those of you who’ve been struggling to find my older books are finally in luck.

Readers have asked me if the reissued books are exactly like the originals. The answer: it depends. In Summer’s Child, I did a little updating of styles and technology. The story, though, is untouched. The “packaging” is totally different, however. Summer’s Child was originally published in mass market (grocery store size) paperback. Here’s the old cover. I thought it was pretty, but definitely not coastal North Carolina! The new cover got it right and it’s also a more readable, attractive and sturdy trade paperback size.

You can read chapter one of Summer’s Child on my website here, as well as read a little about the research I did and some nice things reviewers had to say about the book. Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy.  (If you’ve already bought Summer’s Child, leave a comment anyway. You can give your copy to a friend and keep the autographed one I send you!)

Good luck!

Summer’s Child is available for preorder now.

I just did some minor updating on my website, adding pages for my reissued Summer’s Child and the upcoming, brand new The Lies We Told. That means you are now able to read excerpts of each of these books (along with excerpts from many of my previous books, if you haven’t already read them).

Summer’s Child will be published on March 30th, less than two weeks away. It’s almost mean to invite you to read the excerpt from The Lies We Told now, since it won’t be out for another two months, but it’s there if you can’t wait.

I’ve also updated the printable booklist on the books page with publication dates, the various titles of different books in different English-speaking countries, etc. Hope this helps ease some of the confusion many of you have had as you try to figure out if you’ve already read a book or not.

As usual, if you encounter any problems with my website, please don’t hesitate to let me know. It’s there for you and I want it to be a snap for you to use.

Point of View.

Every author has to figure out which character (or characters) is telling the story, and if she’s telling it alone, and if she’s telling it in first person or third (or sometimes from an omniscient perspective), and if she’s telling it in past tense or present. So many decisions! As I begin my new work-in-progress, tentatively titled The Midwife’s Confession, I’m grappling with all these decisions. That started me thinking about point of view in my recent and upcoming books.

I always–at least so far–write in past tense, so that part’s easy. In Before the Storm and Secrets She Left Behind, I told the stories from four points of view, each in first person. What a challenge that was! I needed to be so careful to differentiate between the voices. Even in third person, that’s important, but in first person it’s critical. I loved it, though, because writing in first person made me feel so close to all my characters.

In Breaking the Silence, which will be reissued in less than a month (yeah! I love that book and I’m so happy it’s coming out again), I wrote from three points of view, all third person. Laura, the woman whose father makes a deathbed plea for her to take care of a stranger, has the largest role. Dylan, the father of Laura’s little girl, has a smaller but still important role. And some may argue that the elderly stranger, Sarah, has the most critical role of all. Her story takes place in the past and everything that happens in the present hinges on the events from her life.

In Summer’s Child, which will be reissued in April, I have four points of view, again all in third person. This story of a newborn baby discovered on a beach has more twists than a roller coaster! I just finished proofing the galleys for the reissue and noticed that I did something I rarely do anymore: I changed points of view in the middle of a chapter. I didn’t remember doing that. It definitely works, thank goodness. One thing I’d never do is risk switching POVs in the middle of a scene, although I know some writers who do so successfully. I don’t like jumping around that much, either as a writer or a reader. Even though the POV shift works in Summer’s Child, I’ll probably stick with different chapters for different characters for the rest of my career. I like the neatness of that approach.

In my upcoming June 2010 book, The Lies We Told, I tried something very different. I tell the story only from two points of view, a rarity for me, and one of the POVs is first person (Maya) while the other is third person (Rebecca). Why did I do that? Because the book is primarily Maya’s story and I wanted the reader to feel closer to her. I think the first person POV accomplishes that.

The Midwife’s Confession will have four points of view, and I just realized they’re all female. I’m debating whether any of them will be first person. I think I’ll try the central character’s first few chapters both ways to see which feels right to me. 

If you’re a writer, how do you make the decisions about POV? And if you’re a reader, do you even notice? I frankly hope not! A good story should be so seamless that the mechanics of writing shouldn’t even register with a reader. . . unless that reader happens to be a writer as well.  Then all bets are off!

It’s very early–the reissue of Summer’s Child won’t be out until April 2010–but I can’t resist sharing the cover that’s in the works. I love it and hope you all do, too.

I played around with this title until I liked the rhythm of it. A more apt subject heading might be “miscellany”, but that doesn’t have much of a ring to it. So here we go!

• Podcast: One of my neighbors, high-schooler Kelly Williamson, had to create a podcast for a school assignment and she asked if I’d agree to be interviewed. She was a delightful interviewer full of great questions, and the podcast of the interview can be heard here.

• Kindle: Do you have one? Some of my older (as well as my newer) books are available in Kindle format. You can find the following books at Amazon’s Kindle Store: Before the Storm, The Courage Tree, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, Summer’s Child, Kiss River, Her Mother’s Shadow, The Bay at Midnight, and Cypress Point.

• Newsletters: My latest e-newsletter will be sent out on May 26th. It’s so pretty! If you haven’t signed up to receive my e-newsletters, you can do so here.    

• Song: I joined a choir at the church I recently started attending. I used to sing with an interfaith gospel-ly type choir in Northern Virginia and I adored it, but we didn’t use music (needed our hands free to clap, you know). I know how to read music, sort of, in that I know an A from a G (I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I played the accordian as a wee tot), but I simply do not understand how people can look at those notes and sing them without hearing them played first. I’m in awe! I’m also determined to learn how to do this. All advice is welcome!

• Bonus: This just in! A new review of Secrets She Left Behind. “(Chamberlain) explores the psychological complexity of a family pushed to its limits. . . the alternating narratives allow plenty of insights into the characters’ motives while creating intrigue and suspense.” I love it! Secrets She Left Behind will be released on May 26th, just a few days away, but it’s available for preorder everywhere.  

For years, my readers (and I) have been hoping that some of my older books would become available again. Now it’s finally happened, and the reissue of The Courage Tree is only the beginning. Breaking the Silence will be released late in the year, and next year, Summer’s Child and Cypress Point will hit the stores.

The Courage Tree is the story of a little girl who disappears during a camping trip and the desperate race against time to find her. (And one of the characters lives in a very cool treehouse. Okay, I know that’s not as important as ‘the desperate race against time’, but I love that treehouse!). Those of you who’ve alrady read the book will understand why the little girl, Sophie, is holding a tulip poplar blossom on the cover. And just a little inside scoop: the art director had no tulip poplar blossoms handy, so he (she?) combined two other flowers to create one. A great job, I think!

You can find The Courage Tree at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.  I hope you enjoy it and that you’ll let me know what you think once you’ve read it. 

Naming a character is one thing. Naming an entire book is quite another.

This is much on my mind as I toy with titles for my new, fledgling work-in-progress. I jot them down in the dark as I’m falling asleep, and they seem so brilliant then. In the light of day, though, they often lose their sparkle. 

I recently read a terrific article about book titles by thriller writer Barry Eisler (he has loads of great material for writers on his website, by the way). His article was published in NINK, the monthly newsletter for Novelists, Inc, an organization for multi-published authors to which I’ve belonged for nearly two decades. (If you’ve published two novels with a qualifying publisher, you belong in Ninc. Join now!) Eisler talks about titles having either automatic or acquired resonance – or in some cases, both. 

The way Eisler describes it, automatic resonance simply means the title resonates with the reader in such a way that just hearing the words gives you a hint of what the book is about. You connect with it on a nearly primal level. When you see a book title and can answer the question “What do I think this book is about?” it most likely has automatic resonance. Using my own titles, think of The Secret life of CeeCee Wilkes, The Bay at Midnight, and Before the Storm. You don’t know the stories themselves from the titles alone, but I’m guessing that each title resonates with you in some way. A woman is hiding a secret. Something a bit eerie happened one night on a bay. Emotions are building up to a huge storm, probably both emotional and literal.  Eisler suggests choosing a title that will resonate with as wide an audience as possible.

Acquired resonance, on the other hand, describes a title that tells you little to nothing about the book, but makes perfect sense once you know the story. He gives the examples of Mystic River and Lonesome Dove. Thinking about my own titles, I’d say Brass Ring has acquired resonance. You really don’t have a clue what it’s about until you read the story. Then you get it. Kiss River is another example.    

Reading Eisler’s article helped me understand something about my own search for titles: I lean toward titles with a mix of both automatic and acquired resonance, but usually a bit heavier on the acquired side. Of all my titles, my favorite is The Courage Tree. If you haven’t read The Courage Tree, I wonder what you’d think it’s about? I imagine the title will resonate with you, but will still leave you mystified until you read the story.

Unfortunately (or maybe it’s actually fortunate), my publishers rarely like my titles, and now I understand why. My publishers tends to lean more toward the automatic resonance–titles that evoke emotion, yet don’t leave the reader going “huh?’ before they’ve read the book. Yet, this has not always been the case. Here are some of my original titles:  The Escape Artist was Songs for the Asking (talk about acquired resonance!). Cypress Point was first The Shadow in the Mirror, then The Healer. Summer’s Child was Gift from the Sea. Fire and Rain was Still Waters. Kiss River was The Keeper’s Daughter. Her Mother’s Shadow was Kaleidoscope. And the ultimate in aquired resonance, my first novel, Private Relations was originally Coterie. That title went over like a lead balloon with my publisher.

On a lighter note, Lulu.com (the only self-publishing company I’m ever comfortable recommending)  has a title scorer on it’s site. Of all my titles, it gives The Courage Tree the highest score. I’ll probably spend the rest of the day obsessively plugging in my new title ideas to see how they fare.

I’d love to hear some of your favorite book titles.  

(note: Eisler’s article originally appeared in two parts on MJ Rose’s excellent blog, Buzz, Balls and Hype, if anyone wants to read it in detail).

Well, this is all good news, although I know some of you won’t think so, so I’ll get the semi-bad news out of the way first:

After the Storm won’t be published until June 2009. Ack! I know. A long time to wait for a sequel. My publisher, Mira Books, calls the shots on the publication schedule, though, and I have to bow to their judgment on this. In the meantime, I’ve done my very best to make the story worth the wait.

Now, quickly moving along to the good news! Good news part one: Before the Storm has been selected for Levy Home Entertainment’s September Need-to-Read program. Levy is a huge book distribution company, and that means Before the Storm will be able to reach lots of new readers when it’s prominently displayed at outlets like KMart, WalMart and Stop and Shop. Okay, I guess that’s more good news for me than for you, since if you’re reading this post, you’ve probably already read Before the Storm, but it is very good news for me.

Good news part two is good for all of us: Mira will be re-issuing two of my older books, one in April 2009 and another in May. I know we’ve all been hoping for those re-issues for a long time now, and it’s finally going to happen. I’m thrilled that all the readers who’ve struggled to find my older books will finally be able to get their hands on a couple of them. Mira hasn’t yet decided which two books to re-issue. For obvious reasons, they won’t select any of the books from the Keeper of the Light trilogy. Currently, they’re considering The Courage Tree and Summer’s Child. Which books do you think they should choose?