Erika Robuck's Blog, page 34

Roundtable (& a Giveaway)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to the Algonquin Hotel in New York for a Publishing Roundtable meeting. Authors, marketing professionals, book bloggers, critics, and editors met for lunch and pub talk. Bethanne Patrick organized the event, along with Erin McHugh, while Melissa Klug contributed lots of swag. It was my first Tweet-Up (twitter meet-up) and I can't say enough about the lovely, smart, fantastically bookish people I met there.

Aside from the opportunity to meet Twitter friends in person to make real connections, the best thing about the Roundtable was the passion each person in the room had for books. Whether discussing paper or digital, romance or historical, classics or contemporary the room was saturated with love for books and reading, and the desire to inspire that in others. I don't want to get too sentimental, but the positive energy for books was contagious and uplifting. It was the perfect antidote to the current dismal mood in publishing. I'm so grateful to Bethanne and all of those who had a part in organizing the event, and I hope to attend more in the future.

To spread some of the joy (and swag) and to support Bethanne's great push for reading (#fridayreads on Twitter) I'm going to give away* two of the beautiful, leather bound journals Melissa brought. All you have to do is tell me the book you are currently reading (or intend to read) in the comments section. If you can write a sentence or two about the book, all the better. I'll announce the winners on Tuesday.

Happy Reading!

(*Winners will be chosen by the highly scientific paper-in-hat method.)

Roundtable (& a Giveaway)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to the Algonquin Hotel in New York for a Publishing Roundtable meeting. Authors, marketing professionals, book bloggers, critics, and editors met for lunch and pub talk. Bethanne Patrick organized the event, along with Erin McHugh, while Melissa Klug contributed lots of swag. It was my first Tweet-Up (twitter meet-up) and I can't say enough about the lovely, smart, fantastically bookish people I met there.

Aside from the opportunity to meet Twitter friends in person to make real connections, the best thing about the Roundtable was the passion each person in the room had for books. Whether discussing paper or digital, romance or historical, classics or contemporary the room was saturated with love for books and reading, and the desire to inspire that in others. I don't want to get too sentimental, but the positive energy for books was contagious and uplifting. It was the perfect antidote to the current dismal mood in publishing. I'm so grateful to Bethanne and all of those who had a part in organizing the event, and I hope to attend more in the future.

To spread some of the joy (and swag) and to support Bethanne's great push for reading (#fridayreads on Twitter) I'm going to give away* two of the beautiful, leather bound journals Melissa brought. All you have to do is tell me the book you are currently reading (or intend to read) in the comments section. If you can write a sentence or two about the book, all the better. I'll announce the winners on Tuesday.

Happy Reading!

(*Winners will be chosen by the highly scientific paper-in-hat method.)

Stuck on a Scene

I've been stalled out on revisions this week because of a really boring scene in my book. It's embarrassing for me to write this, but if I don't out myself I'll continue running on this mouse-wheel forever. Tonight, I give myself permission to cut the scene.

Yet I recoil at the thought. For some reason, I can't part with this scene about a young woman taking a dress from her mother's closet. I know! So boring, right? But it's about so much more than that. It's the particular dress she chooses. It represents a power shift. It shows a savvy move in a mother-daughter chess game. I have to find a way to keep it.

At the BONI workshop I attended with Donald Maass in September, he read us an opening scene in a novel about a man staring at a white ceiling in a hospital. It was riveting. He read it to illustrate the point that a scene about a man staring at a white ceiling can be compelling if it's infused with emotional tension. He also told us that he believes good authors have instincts about what to include in a book, and those instincts should be respected.  We have to devote a lot of work to drawing out the inner meaning of awkward scenes before we let them go.

I have to figure out a way to infuse this dress scene with emotional tension so the reader can't tear herself away from it. That's my challenge. If I don't succeed before I go to bed tomorrow night, I'm deleting it.

*Photo by ~Evangeline-Theodora at DeviantArt.com

Interview: Jody Hedlund

Jody Hedlund is a writer of Christian historical fiction, a blogger, a wife, and a mother of five.  Her novel, The Preacher's Bride, was just published this month, and is getting outstanding reviews.  She was kind enough to take time from her busy schedule (did I mention she home-schools her five children and she's writing a second novel???) to chat with me about writing, publishing, and finding balance.

1) The Preacher's Bride is your first published novel, but is it the first you've ever written? Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I've always loved writing, but during my undergraduate college years I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my writing. So I went into social work instead.

After I finished getting my Master Degree in Social Work, I had a difficult time finding a full time job. I lived in Madison Wisconsin at the time, and the market was saturated with social workers. So I ended up working part time for a while which freed me to begin seriously pursuing my love of writing. I worked hard at learning basic-fiction writing techniques as well as completing quite a few novels (which I now lovingly refer to as my practice novels).

The Preacher's Bride is somewhere around the 6th book I've written. But it's the first book I wrote after coming back from a long writing hiatus while I was busy having all my babies.

2) Where did you get your idea to write the book, and how long did it take?

This book is inspired by Elizabeth Bunyan, the second wife of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, one of the most popular books of all times. As I was reading a biography about John Bunyan (Yes, I actually LIKE reading biographies!), I ran across a small excerpt about Elizabeth.

I loved the brave way Elizabeth defended John during one of his trials when he was under arrest for his "unlicensed" preaching. Her strength to face a court of persecutors and her determination to faithfully support her husband touched me so deeply, that I decided her little-known story needed to be told to the world.

With researching, writing, and editing, The Preacher's Bride took me almost a full year to complete.

3) It can be very difficult for a first time novelist to get an agent, and your agent, Rachelle Gardner, is one of the most reputable, talented representatives in the business. What advice do you have for first timers looking for an agent?

The most essential qualification in the agent hunt is one that probably doesn't need saying, but I'll say it anyway! We have to have a completely compelling story. The story trumps everything else.

But sometimes even with a really great story, we have a hard time even getting our foot in the door (I did! The Preacher's Bride sat in my agent's slush pile for nine months before she finally pulled it out and offered me representation). When it's tough to get in the door, I suggest getting to know the agent through blogging or twitter, developing a web presence, networking with other authors, entering writing contests, and perhaps even attending a writer's conference. Through time and perseverance, a compelling story will get noticed.

4) Can you tell us anything about your second novel, The Doctor's Lady? Has it been harder or easier to write than The Preacher's Bride?

The Doctor's Lady is scheduled to release in September of 2011 and is another "inspired-by" novel. It's a fictionalized story based on the first white woman to travel overland West to Oregon as a missionary to the natives. It's a marriage of convenience story, but also the tale of how a young woman overcame the odds, endured a dangerous journey, and found true love along the way. In the process, her strength and courage paved the way for all of the women who came after her.

With The Doctor's Lady, the first draft was easier to write than previous books. I think our writing muscles grow stronger with each book we write (at least that's what I hope!). However, the editing on The Doctor's Lady has been unexpectedly harder and more painful for me than The Preacher's Bride.

5) Do you have any writing rituals or routines?

I consume enormous amounts of coffee!

And I stick bananas in my ears to block out the noise of my children. Okay, so not really. But I do wear headphones and listen to Pandora a LOT during my writing time.

On a more serious note, I pencil writing time into my schedule every day. I set for myself daily word count goals and I don't go to bed until I've met my goal.

6) What advice can you give to moms or dads, like yourself, who balance children, family, and career?

It's tough but possible to have a writing career and juggle other life responsibilities. We'll have to be willing to make personal sacrifices, work incredibly hard, and organize our time efficiently. Even just a little bit of writing a day can add up to a completed novel in a year's time. It did for me. If any ordinary, busy writer like me can reach my dreams of publication, anyone can!

Thank you so much! I wish you all the best!

For more information on Jody, her book, or her wonderful writing blog, visit her on any of the following sites:

Website: http://jodyhedlund.com/

Blog: http: //jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/

Facebook: Author Jody Hedlund

Twitter: http://twitter.com/JodyHedlund

Review: The Children's Book

"Knowledge is power, but not if it is only partial knowledge and the knower is a dependent child, already perturbed by a changing body, squalling emotions, the sense of the outside world looming outside the garden wall, waiting to be entered. Knowledge is also fear." (452)

The Children's Book, A. S. Byatt

The Chidren's Book, by A. S. Byatt, was published in 2009, and is 879 pages. It is an epic novel of immense depth and complexity and, for this, was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

I was introduced to the works of  Byatt many years ago, by a well-loved college literature professor. I asked her which contemporary author and book our children and grandchildren would read in college classes, and without hesitation, she replied, "A. S. Byatt, Possession." If Possession is my favorite Byatt novel, The Children's Book is a close second.

It is the story of a group of families, centered around one family, the Wellwood's, whose lives are intertwined with each other and the history of the transition of golden, shimmery, Edwardian England to the ravaged landscape of post World War I Europe.

Children's book author, Olive Wellwood, and her husband, Humphry, have all the appearances of a charming, liberal, literate family living with their seven children on the English countryside. Olive writes books for each of her children, who are as diverse as the planets, while her spinster sister, Violet, acts as nursemaid and housekeeper.

The discovery of a homeless child, Philip, living in the basement of a museum where Wellwood friend and neighbor, Prosper Cain, works, and Philip's eventual assimilation into the families of Kent, begins the story that reveals how adults have the power to ruin children, children have the power to overcome poor childhoods, and out of war, desolation, and betrayal, newer, healthier, stronger men and women may emerge.

I bought this book in paperback form, and was glad I did. It could not have been read on a Kindle or ereader. There were so many characters, so deeply drawn and woven around each other, often with similar names and acting as foils for one another, that I had to flip back and forth throughout the novel.

It is not a light read, and I would not recommend it to readers as such. It takes work, but it's well worth it. I wish I could have read it in a college class, so that I could study both its content and the history it's based on more deeply. It is a book that wants to be discussed.

If you enjoy dense, complex, rich, historical novels, I highly recommend The Children's Book. It is one of the finest books I've read this year. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Review: The Children's Book

"Knowledge is power, but not if it is only partial knowledge and the knower is a dependent child, already perturbed by a changing body, squalling emotions, the sense of the outside world looming outside the garden wall, waiting to be entered. Knowledge is also fear." (452)

The Children's Book, A. S. Byatt

 

The Chidren's Book, by A. S. Byatt, was published in 2009, and is 879 pages. It is an epic novel of immense depth and complexity and, for this, was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.

I was introduced to the works of  Byatt many years ago, by a well-loved college literature professor. I asked her which contemporary author and book our children and grandchildren would read in college classes, and without hesitation, she replied, "A. S. Byatt, Possession." If Possession is my favorite Byatt novel, The Children's Book is a close second.

It is the story of a group of families, centered around one family, the Wellwood's, whose lives are intertwined with each other and the history of the transition of golden, shimmery, Edwardian England to the ravaged landscape of post World War I Europe.

Children's book author, Olive Wellwood, and her husband Humphry, have all the appearances of a charming, liberal, literate family living with their seven children on the English countryside. Olive writes books for each of her children, who are as diverse as the planets, while her spinster sister, Violet acts as nursemaid and housekeeper.

The discovery of a homeless child, Philip, living in the basement of a museum where Wellwood friend and neighbor, Prosper Cain works, and Philip's eventual assimilation into the families of Kent, begins the story that reveals how adults have the power to ruin children, children have the power to overcome poor childhoods, and out of war, desolation, and betrayal, newer, healthier, stronger men and women may emerge.

I bought this book in paperback form, and was glad I did. It could not have been read on a Kindle or ereader. There were so many characters, so deeply drawn and woven around each other, often with similar names and acting as foils for one another, that I had to flip back and forth throughout the novel.

It is not a light read, and I would not recommend it to readers as such. It takes work, but to me, is well worth it. I wish I could have read it in a college class, so that I would be able to study both its content and the history it's based on more deeply. It is a book that wants to be discussed.

If you enjoy dense, complex, rich, historical novels, I highly recommend The Children's Book. It is one of the finest books I've read this year. If you read it, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

 

Fascinating Research Find (Not for the Faint of Heart)

Question: What is in this picture?

Did you guess that it is the disinterred body of a young TB patient who died in Key West in 1931, preserved in wax, formaldehyde, and other materials for almost a decade in the house of the aged doctor who'd fallen in love with her?

Well, it is.

For George Karl Tänzler (aka Count Carl Tanzler von Cosel), the day that Elena de Hoyos walked into the marine hospital in Key West with tuberculosis, was the day he finally felt that he found his true love. It didn't matter to him that he was in his fifties, and she was barely twenty years old–he thought her the incarnation of a vision he'd had of a dark haired beauty who was to be his destiny. Little did she know that she would be his twisted, strange destiny as a corpse, unable to rest, preserved, worshiped, and interfered with by a man with a bazaar obsession.

Despite Tanzler's best efforts, Elena died at the age of twenty-two. Two years after Elena's death, Tanzler couldn't stand to think of her rotting under the ground. He exhumed her body, took it home, and rebuilt her as she decomposed. He believed she asked him to do so, and thought he'd build them a rocket to take them into outer space.

Seven years later, when Elena's sister could no longer deny the rumors and confronted Tanzler, his secret was out. The body was put on display for thousands of viewers before it was buried in a secret grave to protect her. Tanzler was put on trial, but the statute of limitations had run out, and he was freed. Many local accounts actually treat Tanzler as a  sympathetic figure–one who was so hopelessly in love he lost his head. Others recognized him as a pervert of the highest degree.

I found this fascinating and twisted little anecdote while researching for my Hemingway novel, and yes, Von Cosel is a character in the book. How could he not be?

So what do you think? Hopeless romantic (cringe) or disgusting necrofiliac?

Fascinating Research Find (Not for the Faint of Heart)

Question: What is in this picture?

Did you guess that it is the disinterred body of a young TB patient who died in Key West in 1931, preserved in wax, formaldehyde, and other materials for almost a decade in the house of the aged doctor who'd fallen in love with her?

Well, it is.

For George Karl Tänzler (aka Count Carl Tanzler von Cosel), the day that Elena de Hoyos walked into the marine hospital in Key West with tuberculosis, was the day he finally felt that he found his true love. It didn't matter to him that he was in his fifties, and she was barely twenty years old–he thought her the incarnation of a vision he'd had of a dark haired beauty who was to be his destiny. Little did she know that she would be his twisted, strange destiny as a corpse, unable to rest, preserved, worshiped, and interfered with by a man with a bazaar obsession.

Despite Tanzler's best efforts, Elena died at the age of twenty-two. Two years after Elena's death, Tanzler couldn't stand to think of her rotting under the ground. He exhumed her body, took it home, and rebuilt her as she decomposed. He believed she asked him to do so, and thought he'd build them a rocket to take them into outer space.

Seven years later, when Elena's sister could no longer deny the rumors and confronted Tanzler, his secret was out. The body was put on display for thousands of viewers before it was buried in a secret grave to protect her. Tanzler was put on trial, but the statute of limitations had run out, and he was freed. Many local accounts actually treat Tanzler as a  sympathetic figure–one who was so hopelessly in love he lost his head. Others recognized him as a pervert of the highest degree.

I found this fascinating and twisted little anecdote while researching for my Hemingway novel, and yes, Von Cosel is a character in the book. How could he not be?

So what do you think? Hopeless romantic (cringe) or disgusting necrofiliac?

Review: The Preacher's Bride

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The Preacher's Bride, by Jody Hedlund, will be released on October 1, 2010, and is 376 pages.  I "met" Jody on Twitter, and her writing blog is one of my favorites.  I received her debut novel for review from the publisher, Bethany House.  It is my first Christian Historical Romance, and I fell in love with it!

Set in England in the mid-1600s, The Preacher's Bride is the story of Elizabeth Whitbread, the daughter of a baker, betrothed to one man, but called to help another.  The starving cries of the baby of widower and preacher, John Costin, stir Elizabeth to action, and start a series of events leading to family struggles, personal danger, and unforeseen love.

Hedlund is a gifted writer.  She draws a vivid portrait of 17th century England, and the personal difficulties of its inhabitants.  The internal and external conflicts of her characters and the decisions they made kept me full of questions throughout the novel, and turning pages so quickly that I read it in three nights.  I also appreciated the portrayal of violence and romance without graphic language and disturbing images. It was refreshing to read a fully satisfying romance without anything that made me squirm in my seat.

Jody Hedlund's debut novel, The Preacher's Bride, is engaging, suspenseful, and well-written.  Readers of historical fiction and Christian fiction have an excellent new book to add to their shelves.

Review: The Preacher's Bride

[image error]

The Preacher's Bride, by Jody Hedlund, will be released on October 1, 2010, and is 376 pages.  I "met" Jody on Twitter, and her writing blog is one of my favorites.  I received her debut novel for review from the publisher, Bethany House.  It is my first Christian Historical Romance, and I fell in love with it!

Set in England in the mid-1600s, The Preacher's Bride is the story of Elizabeth Whitbread, the daughter of a baker, betrothed to one man, but called to help another.  The starving...