Rosina Lippi's Blog, page 22

Got Milk?

In the process of researching New York city in the 1880s I have collected hundreds of small pieces of information that might interest people. I’m going to post one or two whenever it occurs to me. To start:

1879: The first milk bottles appear in Brooklyn, where the Echo Farms Dairy delivers milk in glass bottles instead of measuring it into the pitchers of housewives and serving-maids from barrels carried in milk wagons. Some competitors will soon follow suit. 1

I’m wondering where the author found this information, but I have resisted the urge to go looking.

 

Trager, James The New York Chronology: The Ultimate Compendium of Events, People, and Anecdotes from the Dutch to the Present. 2010: 191. New York: HarperCollins. ↩

Don’t forget about the FAQ page; and Ethan, once more

Recently I’ve had quite a few emails with questions about the Wilderness series. They are maybe four or five questions that keep coming up, so I’m posting this first, to provide some general insight into this phenomenon, and second, to point people to answers.

Here’s my philosophy about questions arising from a novel: if the author has to tell you, she didn’t do her job very well, OR, you need to think about the questions some more on your own. Because for every question you can ask, there are many answers. Every reader takes away a different reading, and it’s not for me to agree or disagree. So for example, many people have written to me asking about Ethan and the ‘secret’ that brought him home to Paradise and then motivated his proposal to Callie.

It’s not really a secret. All the clues are there, but for me to tell you would be forcing a reading on you that should be your own. I know what I meant, but you are free to read the story, read the clues, and come up with an answer of your own. This is the kind of question that makes a good book club discussion point.

Now, do people sometimes get the wrong end of the stick? Yes. If somebody tells me that Ethan was clearly abducted by aliens and suffering post-traumatic stress, I would say: huh. Really not what I was going for. I might go so far as to say that that person did not read very closely. But that’s as far as I’ll go.

Having said that, there’s an older post that does go into more detail, and you’ll find it here.

Finally, here’s my general explanation of things: authorial confessions.

 

The Gilded Hour is at the starting gate

The Gilded Hour

We have a cover, an Amazon pre-order page, an interactive map (still in development) and a (rudimentary, evolving) website.

The weblog stays here; the website is a wiki-like project.

So please let me know what you think so far. I’m pretty isolated here in my little study, and it’s nice to hear from y’all.

 

Here’s the letter you get when your novel is at the starting gate

This email was waiting for me this morning, from one of the production people at Berkley (actually now Penguin/Random House — who can keep up with the mergers and splits in publishing? Not me.) It gives you a sense of how things work, when you come down to it. Note that I haven’t edited out the serious tone or admonitions.  This is my tenth go-round, and it still makes me nervous.

Subject: The Gilded Hour for author review

Here for your review is the fully edited manuscript for THE GILDED HOUR, as well as additional style sheets for your reference.

Please read through it carefully, noting the changes, comments, and corrections. Track changes is already turned on and the file has been protected. You will not be able to “accept” or “reject” changes, so if you want to stet anything you can either retype the words as you want them or insert a comment telling us what to stet. We ask that you please respond to all queries and please do not change or delete any of the copyeditor’s comments.

Please note: this is your last opportunity to make editorial changes to the manuscript. The next time you see the book it will be in the form of typeset page proofs (“galleys”) that you will read for proofreading purposes only. We can only correct typos, grammatical errors and production errors at that stage. We cannot accommodate editorial changes, so it is important that you review these copyedits carefully and ensure that you are happy with the manuscript you return.

The managing editor asked that I have the manuscript back by 3/25. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

At this stage I pull up this graphic which helps me hold on to perspective:

 

book reveal? your opinions please

The cover art for The Gilded Hour is done, and I’m really pleased with it. I asked my editor when I could post it here, and she gave me a choice.

I can post it as soon as it gets through all the approval stages (in about three weeks), or if I want, I can do a cover reveal.

It’s true that I haven’t been reading a lot of weblogs over the last year or so, trying to stay focused on writing and dealing with family issues, so I shouldn’t be surprised about new trends creeping into the way authors promote their books on the internet. But this did surprise me. I’ve read what I could find about doing a cover reveal, and I’m still not clear beyond the fact that it involves asking other writers and weblogs to participate, some how. This goes against my nature, but I could possibly do it, if the results warrant it.

So here’s the question: do you pay attention to cover reveals? Are they interesting and worthwhile, or strained and silly?

Examples where you liked a book reveal would be welcome. Also, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, that would be interesting information. New online marketing techniques evolve, and many fail. It would be good to know where this one stands.

 

writing a series

When I wrote Into the Wilderness  I had no idea where it would end up. Ten years later I had six novels in the series (and a couple out of it; well over a million words in print). If you had told me that at the beginning, I might have balked. But it all happened gradually, in an almost organic matter.

In my experience the second book is harder than the first, and I think that a second series is going to be harder that the first one, for a variety of reasons. The biggest, for me is simple: this time I know what I’m getting myself into.

So I’ve got one book finished, and I’m launching the second. Maybe better said: I’m sneaking up on the second one. If I look at it directly it runs away to hide in a dark corner.

It is almost like embarking on a second marriage: a long-term commitment that will take a lot of work and make me happy and crazy by turns.

 

Outlining: Yes or No?

On FaceBook Karen asked if I write from an outline. This is one of those questions that comes up quite often, for every writer. I understand the impulse: the idea that there’s a way to tame the process, impose some order on it and strip away some of the anxiety.

Some writers do outline, and in detail. I don’t know any of them personally, but the rule is: if it works for you, it works. I do not outline.

I start with a couple characters, and a scene. My subconscious seems to do a lot of the work at this stage, because things pop onto the page without a lot of warning or thought. The beginning is also the hardest part: I have, on occasion, rewritten an opening paragraph a hundred times. In a week’s time. I move phrases and words around, strike sentences, put them back in, shift pov and put it back again.

At some point it feels right, and that’s where it starts.

Now, outlining does come into play in very specific circumstances. When I was writing the last quarter of Queen of Swords I was balancing the Battle of New Orleans — complicated troop movements, the way specific individuals were involved, and about ten plot threads that were intersecting. I seem to get myself into this kind of a pickle on a regular basis, but by this far into the novel I’m not easily ruffled. What I have to do is to write out a chronology — hour by hour, sometimes — and mark those historical events that I have to leave as they occurred. There’s a lot of information out there about battles for every war on the continent, and I read that stuff to make sure I don’t blunder in a big way. I may make a couple notes on those things that need to be resolved in a chapter.

So, no. I don’t outline in the traditional sense. I’ve tried to,, once or twice, and found it pretty much impossible.  Not the way my mind works.

smart alecks

I keep meaning to post this.

 

Lisa gets a book AND Gilded Hour progress

Contest conclusion: Lisa responded to Kerrie’s question by suggesting Susanna Kearsley’s The Rose Garden, and she’ll get a hard cover copy of Lake in the Clouds — Lisa, please contact me with your mailing address.

On another front, things are moving for The Gilded Hour. I’m working through my editor’s notes, the cover copy has been written (and rewritten, and rewritten, and then approved), and I’ve seen the first go at the cover art. Which still has a way to go, in my view of things. But moving. September is a long time off but the wheels of publishing turn slowly.

Kerrie has a question that you might be able to answer AND a giveaway

A question submitted to the FAQ page by Kerrie: she likes the Wilderness series, can anybody suggest similar novels/novelists?

To make this more worth your while, I have a hardcover of one of my books that I’ll send to someone whose name I draw at random a couple weeks from now.  One thing: I’ve already recommended the Outlander books, so let’s not repeat that suggestion.