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? 

Back by popular demand, this little essay is from my former blog: 
When I’m typing for many hours every day (as I am now since I’m racing toward deadline), my hands sometimes to get painful and stiff from rheumatoid arthritis. That’s when I break out the Dragon. Dragon NaturallySpeaking, that is. Its voice recognition software. I’m glad it exists, as it enables me to keep on working, but there are times when I want to throw the microphone across the room in frustration. I wrote an entire book (Summer’s Child) using the dragon and I survived. Sometimes it doesn’t understand me. I can’t actually dictating this blob right now. Hot! Yes, this is exactly what it’s like. I thought as I was midway through this paragraph that it was going to perform perfectly for wants. Now, it’s doing what it usually does: it’s trying very hard to make sense of what I’m saying and it’s not always getting it right. I am not going to bother to correct it so you can see what life is like with the Dragon. My favorite mistake that the Dragon made to was the following. I dictated “the feeling was sudden and unbidden but delicious nevertheless.” The dragon typed “Panasonic’s business decisions upset its chickens
contraceptives.” You can see how it’s necessary, then, to read read every line as you typed it to make sure it’s accurate. In my early days with the Dragon, I would sometimes dictate an entire page without checking. Then I would realize that I had left mistakes in place, but I could no longer remember what I had actually meant to say. There has been a couple of times when I actually preferred the Dragon’s choice of words to my own.
I have to its net that the Dragon has done a pretty good job with this blob entry. Frankly,I couldn’t keep up with my writing career without it, so I guess I shouldn’t be too critical of it.
Back to were it! (that’s supposed to “back to work.”)
Diane, with a little help from the Dragon