Nick Holmberg's Blog, page 5

It takes a village to raise a book

The cover for The Emergent has been selected. But think about this:

If you participated in phase two of this part of the project (the cover poll for The Emergent), you have judged book covers so that others may judge a book by its cover. Up to the point when the cover poll was released, only a handful of people were involved in the design and content of the book. Now, thanks to you and your sharing the poll around, almost 200 individuals (a small village) have contributed to the book becoming what it will be. I think that’s pretty dope (to use a phrase from the 90s).

UPDATE: publication date is now 3/30/2022. At a later date, I will share info on pre-orders and an e-book flash sale so you and all your all your friends can get copies.

Okay. Here’s what you really came for:

At the beginning of the process, I pulled a number of books off my shelves and shared their badass covers with the designer (see below). Other than an extended synopsis (with spoilers) of The Emergent, these book covers were the only thing influencing the designer in the first round.

The one below missed the mark completely; felt a bit like they did it quickly to fill a quota.

The second one (below) is supposed to evoke the Santa Clara Valley (the setting for much of the story). It’s a decent job of replicating the feel of another example I shared with the designer – a simple yet intriguing cover for an excellent book by an old acquaintance of mine.

Below are the two favorites. I asked for and got one “major” change. Can you see the difference?

While none of the endorsements appear in the images below and at least one minor correction needs to be made in the text, here’s what the ARC (advance reading/review copy) cover wrap looks like.

Lessons from a Tick

I would rather have lyme disease than admit this, but here goes: I have a tick.

After nearly two decades of working on The Emergent, you would think I had cured all the sentence-level “ticks.” Well, I have…now. A real buzzer-beater. Some serious Steph Curry magic. As I made my last pass of the manuscript last week, I discovered the tick. From now until publication, anything other than typo corrections is frowned upon.

What the heck is a “tick” for a writer? Generally, it’s a bad/clumsy habit in a person’s prose. For me, it was starting a sentence or a phrase with “there was” or “there were.” I discovered nearly 40 instances, made improvements to nearly all of them, and straight up deleted others. Here are some examples vs their re-writes:

There were reassuring whispers. When they stopped, I went searching for them.

vs.

The reassuring whispers stopped. And I went searching for them.

————

There was a question in her voice as she trailed off.

vs.

A question tinged her voice as she trailed off.

————

There were other stories that were just downright weird for Oso to be telling me.

vs.

Other stories were just downright weird for Oso to tell.

————

There was something changing in her that was somehow connected to the obligations she assumed.

vs.

Something was changing in her that was somehow connected to the obligations she assumed.

————

But there were two times that she changed the tradition.

vs.

She changed the tradition only two times.

————

When we arrived, the sun was out and there was no wind.

vs.

When we arrived, the sun was out and the air was still.

vs.

When we arrived, the sun was out and the air was still.

————

But there is rage and dissatisfaction in their music; it helps give me some idea of where the discontent of men comes from.

vs.

But their rage and dissatisfaction helps give me some idea of where the discontent of men comes from.