My publisher has decided, wisely I believe, that the title for my June ‘09 book, After the Storm, is problematic. It is the sequel to Before the Storm, and even within the publishing house itself, the title has given rise to confusion as people try to recall which book they’re talking about. In addition, it’s a title with more “acquired resonance” than “automatic resonance,” as we discussed a few posts ago. In other words, now we need to look for something more concrete and gripping.
So it’s back to the drawing board on a title for this book, and I would love to hear any ideas and thoughts you might have, since you all were so helpful with Before the Storm. Here are a few ideas my editor and I have come up with. We’re trying to still tie it to Before the Storm since it is a sequel. I was playing with the word Storm for that reason, but my editor thinks we should perhaps focus on the word After instead.
So you know, in this book one of the adult characters “goes missing” in chapter one and it is her story, as well as that of three of the teen characters, that we follow.
Some ideas:
Why She Left
After She Left
What’s Left Unsaid
After the Fire
The Last to Know
The Secrets Left Behind
Let me know your thoughts. Of course, if I wind up using any of your ideas, you’ll receive a copy of . . . . whatever this book is called once it’s published!
We’ve talked before about the ”colorful” language sometimes used in novels and my readers represent many different opinions on the subject. My opinion is and always has been that such language should not be gratuitous (same with graphic sex and violence), but it’s sometimes necessary. (note: those of you easily offended had better skip After the Storm, the sequel to Before the Storm, due out in June 09. Written in part from the point of view of an angry seventeen-year-old boy, it’s loaded with spicy language. I’ll address what it was like trying to get myself into his point of view as it gets closer to the release date. But I digress. . . .)
Over the years, I’ve received letters and emails chastising me for using four letter words or for “taking the Lord’s name in vain.” Most of the time, the letter will go something like this: “I loved your latest book. The story was wonderful, but it was nearly ruined for me by the language. It’s completely unnecessary to use the ‘F” word and cheapens your story.”
Writers are used to this sort of criticism, but I’d be lying if I said it simply runs off my back. I always take my readers’ feedback seriously, even though I feel confident I’ve made the right decision in what I put into my books and what I leave out. In After the Storm, I struggled with the language, but Keith is just not a “gosh darn it!” kind of kid.
Anyhow, what made me revisit this conversation is something I heard the other night when I visited a local book group that was discussing The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes. One of the women told me she found some of my older, out of print books at the library. She was reading Brass Ring and discovered that someone had used white- out on all possibly objectionable words. I was amused at first. Then sad. Then angry, because this reader not only defaced a library book but she/he interfered with someone else’s enjoyment of a story as well.
So my plea to all of you is, if you borrow a book from the library and find it offensive, don’t read it. Just take it back. And if you buy one of my books and find it offensive, return it. You can also let me know, if you like, but please don’t impose your standards on the enjoyment of others.
End of lecture!
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?
“It’s never too late — in fiction or in life — to revise.”
I love that Nancy Thayer quote, but I’m not sure how accurate it is when it comes to either fiction or life. I have about a week left to go in revising After the Storm, and then I’ll have to set this draft free.
Maybe I say this with every book I write, but I swear, this is the hardest set of revisions I’ve ever had to make. Imagine putting together a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle of, say, a stampede of horses, and you have an idea of what I’m going through.
What’s made this particular story so difficult, both to write and to revise? It’s a sequel, for one thing, which I naively expected would make it easier to write. After all, I already knew the characters and the backstory. That knowledge, though, created enormous problems. I couldn’t make anything happen in After the Storm that would be inconsistent with what happened in Before the Storm. Dates, always my bugaboo, (my long-time blog readers may remember my “when they need to have sex” post), tripped me up repeatedly. A second challenge was both intriguing and frustrating: viewing scenes that occurred in Before the Storm from a different character’s perspective in After the Storm. Oh my. The world can be a very different place when viewed through a different lens.
What do I mean by revisions, exactly? Here’s the way it works. I write a novel. I turn it in. My editor says “this is perfect just the way it is.” I faint. LOL. That has happened a few times, actually, but not with After the Storm. I knew something wasn’t working with the story, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. That’s where a good editor comes in. I think my editor is frankly brilliant, and she was able to zero in on the area that needed work. It’s a major minor problem. Yes, I said major minor. Minor, because the pieces of the story are all there and the characters are well-developed. But major, because it’s the pacing that’s off, and pacing can be a bear to fix. An absolute bear. In the first draft, for example, Character A met Character B on page 230. In the new draft Character A meets Character B on page 80. And that changes everything. That’s where the 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle comes in, because when you alter what happens in one scene, it impacts the scenes around it, and they impact the scenes around them, and quite soon, you’re surrounded by post-it notes and sheets of yellow lined paper and four different colored drafts and wondering if you will ever, ever be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again.
It reminds me of my previous career as a clinical social worker. I worked with families in my private practice, and one of the major principles in family work is that when you change one part of the family, it changes all the other parts of the family, so you must constantly be alert to the possible repercussions of every intervention you make. Ultimately, you want all the parts of the whole to function smoothly together. That’s the same goal I have for this book. I’m getting there. One more week of late nights should do it.
I can never gripe about writing without adding this caveat: I am so grateful for this career. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to create worlds that feel real, to tell stories that touch people, and to make a living from my passion. I’m truly living my dream.
Finally, the first commenter to tell me how many different metaphors I’ve mixed together in this disorganized post will win an autographed copy of one of my books! Her (or his) choice.
And now it’s back to work. . .
I had such a lovely ten days on the west coast! It was beyond wonderful to visit my brother and his family on their home turf for the first time in nearly two decades (!) and to meet my beautiful granddaughter and spend time with her and her parents. CC is one gorgeous, good-natured baby! Having had no little ones of my own, I feel particularly blessed to experience the joy of getting to know my stepdaughters’ children. Here’s CC getting her first
taste of “solid” food, which she was not crazy about.
I got absolutely no work done on this trip! Well, four pages of revisions on After the Storm, with many, many more pages to go. And actually, I did work on some blog fixes and other non-writing tasks. That’s where the need for an assistant comes in.
I’ve mentioned before how much book promotion has come to rest on the writers’ shoulders. It’s become quite a conundrum for many authors, in part because there are so many opportunities that it’s difficult to sort out where to put ones energy. It’s also a matter of “keeping up with the Jones’s”: if other authors are promoting their books, will mine lose out if I don’t get the word out?
Here is what I’ve opted to do in conjunction with the release of Before the Storm:
Revamp my website (I don’t even want to think about the hours and hours this took, but I love the result)
Hire a promotion company to help field media requests, set up radio interviews, etc.
Design these postcards to send to readers in the geographical areas where I’m doing signings. (I actually got a kick out of doing this, but what a time sink!)
Work with Circle of Seven Productions to develop the book trailer (another enjoyable time sink).
Work with a designer on an e-newsletter to announce the release of Before the Storm (if you signed up here or on my previous website, you’ll be receiving the newsletter shortly).
Package and mail copies of Before the Storm to all the people who helped me with my research (this was a definite labor of love).
Write the discussion questions for Before the Storm.
Create ads for blogs that relate to the topics in my story (blogs on parenting teens, for example).
Write the extra material for the special Target release of The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes. (I would do anything to make the Target release a success!)
Package information about Before the Storm for booksellers and librarians at Shelf-Awareness.com, for readers at DearReader.com and for bookclubs at BookMovement.com. (If people don’t know the book exists, they’ll never get to read it).
I’d also love to increase my web presence through sites such as Facebook, RedRoom, and Amazon Connect, but doubt I’ll have the time.
See why I need an assistant? I’m a writer, not a marketer, but it’s a circular process: without marketing, books don’t sell. Without sales, there won’t be another contract. Without another contract, it’s time to look for a different line of work.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining. Much of the above is fun and a different way to use my creativity. I wish, though, that it didn’t come at the cost of writing time. I need to find a balance, as we all do in our professions and our lives. Toward that end, I think I’ll work on my revisions this afternoon. . . right after I draft an ad for an assistant.
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