Margo Orlando Littell's Blog, page 4

In the Background

Happy summer, everyone. It’s been a while since I sent a note, mostly because summer is a crazy time in our house--I have both kids with me all summer long, no camp, which leaves little time to focus my thoughts enough to write coherently. Most summers I’m wracked with frustration at having to put my writing on the back burner. Fortunately, this summer I have a different focus--pursuing new outlets to promoteEach Vagabond by Name, and working on a big freelance editing job. I do these things in bits and pieces as the summer days go along.Meanwhile, in the background, ideas are brewing for my novel-in-progress. Once school begins, I’ll be ready to attack my first draft and start the violent work that will lead to a very different second draft. Plotlines are changing, minor characters are emerging as major, the focus is shifting. This might be my favorite part of the novel-writing process: finally glimpsing the real story. I’ll cut a lot of pages as I zero in on what this is supposed to be, and I’ll have to do a lot more writing of new scenes and chapters. But all of that gets easier once the shape becomes clearer.It’s not fully clear yet. But it’s coming. This week, I’ve been in Connellsville while Andrew’s on a work trip to California, and I relish each moment of quiet I can steal here. At home in New Jersey, there’s simply no opportunity to claim the mental space I need to think about my characters and figure out what they want. That kind of contemplation just can’t be done while my kids are around. (I’m eager for school to start.) But here, I’ve been able to take a few long walks around the neighborhood and on the Yough River Trail, taking in the stillness that seems more charged with ideas here than anywhere else. Many weeks of summer remain, but I’ll file all of this away for September--and turn to it, at last, when both kids are back in school and I can sit at my desk in an empty house.In the meantime…In the meantime, as summer ticks along, I’ll share some of the fun things going on withEach Vagabond by Name:Thesays ofVagabond, "Ultimately, we’re left with a startling rediscovery of what love, loyalty, and redemption can look like for characters who appear to have little perspective of the future beyond their ordinary lives."xoJaneincludedVagabondon a list of "7 Serious Summer-Avoidant Anti-Beach Reads"--"These summer must-reads come with substance."BustleincludedVagabondon a list of "15 Great Appalachian Novels that Reflect the Unique Culture of the Region." From the intro: "These are books with dirty fingernails, gravel roads, injury, illness, and death, and they are lovely."Readers Unboundfound similarities between Vagabond and the classic Icelandic sagas, linking them as clan narrativesAnd finally…Thanks to all of you who have left a review ofVagabondonAmazon. If you haven’t yet, I’d be so grateful if you'd click on over and share your thoughts. Reviews are hugely important to a book’s success. The more reviews a book has, the more likely it is to be recommended to readers by Amazon, and the more willing readers are to take a chance on a new writer.If you’re in a book club, or know someone who is, considerEach Vagabond by Namefor one of your summer or fall selections. I’d love to join your discussion in person or via Skype!

A Jungle of Great Beanstalks

This weekend, my sister came to visit for a few days, and after our kids were in bed we got to talking about some of the things we did in the summer as children. We spent every summer of our childhood, up until age fifteen or so, in Fairport, New York, the upstate town where my mother grew up. With two teacher-parents, summer meant vacation for all of us, and we’d load up the car with enough clothes and toys and bikes to last eight weeks or so at my grandparents’ house.The days were completely

Vagabond at Home

She thought like an outsider. Acted like one, too. They’d both lived day in, day out, in a place they’d never truly belonged.This is a line from Each Vagabond by Name, and I couldn’t help thinking a lot this weekend about what it means to belong to a place. I’m pretty sure belonging can be defined by the book reading I gave on Saturday at the Carnegie Library in Connellsville, where over 70 people came to hear me talk about my novel and have me sign a copy or two. Belonging means looking up to

A Library, a Story, and Hometown Stillness

In 2011, I decided to revise my favorite piece of writing: a 100-page novella that I’d written, and considered finished, in 2002. The characters had been with me for years, and were close to my heart; their story was haunting, and sad, but complete. When an enthusiastic literary agent suggested she’d take me on as a client if I turned the novella into a full-length novel, I felt I had no choice but to agree to the challenge. And so I pulled up the Word file--which I hadn’t touched in any

Vagabond's Maplewood Launch

 Seventeen years ago--right around the time the cicadas were last in southwestern Pennsylvania--I waitressed in my hometown for the summer before moving to New York. I’d drive to work with cicadas hurling themselves against my windshield, getting stuck in my windshield wipers. That summer I also spent a lot of time in isolated dive bars with the other servers, where drinking wasn’t done for fun and you only stopped when your night’s tips ran out. It was on one of these nights that someone

Happy Pub Day!

 Happy, happy pub day! Today, June 1, is Each Vagabond by Name’s official launch. Begun as a short story; revisited as a novella; expanded finally into a novel--this work kept changing, and these characters wouldn’t let me rest until their story was exactly right. And now, at long last, I’m so happy to introduce them to the world. Ramsy, Stella, the town of Shelk: godspeed. It takes an alarming amount of solitude and stubbornness to write a book; but it takes a village to make it a success.

The Jewel

  This week, one of Connellsville’s downtown landmarks, the WCVI building, was demolished. The city had been trying to take it down for years but had been stymied by budget and ownership issues, the exact nature of which is difficult to pin down. I started paying attention when the property was listed for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $2,000. There were no takers. Soon after that, the city barred pedestrians from the sidewalk in front of the building, which was actively--aggressively,

Littsburgh

I'm thrilled to have an excerpt of Each Vagabond by Name up at Littsburgh today, as their #FridayReads selection. Littsburgh is an awesome site spotlighting Pittsburgh's thriving literary scene--local writers, area booksellers, literary news and events, and much more. Don't miss this chance to get a sneak peek of Chapter 1, if you haven't yet read the book--and, in my Littsburgh Q&A, you can find out who I'd most like to share a plate of pierogis with.     

The First Time I Let My Mother Read My Novel

I'm thrilled to be a guest-poster today for The Quivering Pen's "My First Time" series! In my post, I write about letting my mother read my novel for the first time--after spending a decade keeping my writing as hidden as an extramarital affair. Hope you'll take a look.  

My Novel's Debt to Small-Town Gossip

Super excited to be featured today on The Next Best Book Blog's Indie Spotlight! I guest-post about small-town gossip and how a phone call with my mother set Each Vagabond by Name in motion. Give it a read!