Month #8
“The books are due in the warehouse January 16th.” Yes, those were the words that arrived in a recent email from the Customer Service Coordinator at Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. And were sweeter words ever read?
“Books”
“Warehouse”
With words like these, one can begin to conjure an actual visual image of tangible existence. And one is reassured.
Not that the circular red stamp on the electronic ARC that recently arrived as an attachment to an email wasn’t a very nice step toward believing in the reality that a book is about to be published…
…but to picture volumes finding space in a warehouse, with perhaps even a bit of an audible thwack resulting from their being plunked down on a cement floor or a couple of shelves, well, that’s just the kind of encouragement a girl needs to keep believing that before long a three-dimensional version of what has for endless months been digital only is really, actually, amazingly about to appear.
The distinction between actual book and virtual book reminds me of the wonderful Mark Twain observation: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
Having the electronic ARC on my desktop is all well and good, a reassuring arrival to be sure, but holding that book in my hand? Maybe some time later this month? That’ll be lightning.
As we are still in the lightning bug stage, however, I think this is a good time to consider where we’ve been with this birthing project, and where we’re going. In answer to the questions I ended last month’s blog with:
Arrival of the Advance Readers Copy ? – Well, the electronic version.
More of me on social media ? – I’m adding to the Amazon Author’s Page at amazon.com/author/elyce-wakerman; and later this month I will have established a Facebook page for the book. It is there that I will post reviews, upcoming events, etc. I will no doubt trumpet the arrival of this new A Tale of Two Citizens Facebook page on my personal Facebook page, because, well, a girl can’t have too many Facebook pages, right?
Have I had contact with the publisher’s PR person ?—Hope springs eternal, but to date: No. However, I do have a personal appearance scheduled for Roseburg, Oregon in April (thanks to dear friend and BOAB reader, Andrew Apter), and a list of bookstores, both locally here in Los Angeles and farther-flung, that I plan to contact. I’ve talked to a few readers as well about visiting with their book clubs, another avenue I look forward to embarking upon shortly.
"So what else?"
These words peppered every single conversation my mother and aunt and grandmother had in their nightly telephone calls. They had more or less covered the topics at hand—the children’s report cards; the mysterious loss of moisture in the chicken; Johnny’s clever quip about alimony on last night’s show—but they weren’t quite ready yet to get off the phone. “So what else?”… There might very well be a pause while they considered the question, but then, sure enough, they’d always think of something else to talk about, at least another thirty minutes worth of words, thoughts, observations, little bickerings and makings-up to keep each other close and connected.
So what else? It is the 8th month of this blog and, while the New York Times report I spoke about last month strongly advises patience, let’s face it, the baby is pretty much ready:
S/he’s recognizable for sure as a full-blown little tyke, ready to be held, cared-for, loved. Knowing that, an expectant mother may very well be feeling a trace of nostalgia to go with the high state of anticipation coursing through her every activity. She may find herself going back over the whole miraculous process as she marvels at the sure and steady development of this being and gets ready for the final - as it were - push. Why not do the same with “Birth of A Book,” begun eight months ago as a twinkle in my eye and heading, amazingly, to actual delivery?!
BIRTH OF A BOOK: EIGHT MONTHS AND COUNTING
MONTH #1, JUNE
At this point I was totally at a loss about how to incorporate pictures into the blog, and wrote the whole thing up on tumblr as a caption. Of course I moaned about it in this space because a) I am prone to moaning about the frustrations of technology and b) isn’t that one of the things that blogs are all about: griping and moaning? But I also introduced the nine-month framework of this project, describing the zygote, the earliest developmental manifestation of the embryo, and how it made its way to the uterus where it became a blastocyst. (Some readers wrote to me at this point about this being just a bit too much information.) My focus in this first entry, though, was to outline the history and uses of the BLURB. I am very grateful and appreciative to have gotten some wonderful blurbs for A Tale of Two Citizens, which I hope will start appearing online, but it dawns on me, as long as we’re here, why not give you a sneak peek?
“What a terrific story Elyce Wakerman tells. A Tale of Two Citizens is one of those big sprawling novels that you just can’t put down. It brings together all the passion, heartbreak and resolute spirit of the immigrant experience in a totally fresh and fast-paced novel.” - Richard DiLallo, Co-author with James Patterson of Alex Cross’s Trial and The Christmas Wedding.
”A Tale of Two Citizens resonates with today’s struggles in a gripping and suspenseful story told with narrative mastery.” - Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, Executive Director, Jewish Renewal in Poland
“The best book I have ever read on the Midwest in the 1920s and 1930s.”-Betty Lussier, Author, Intrepid Woman
“A Tale of Two Citizens is a heart-wrenching story with knots-in-the-gut tension. I was so moved by the writing and the story-telling. The book is beyond beautiful.”-Susan Jeffers Casel, Copyeditor of the Harry Potter books
MONTH #2, JULY
OK, so I did figure out how to incorporate pictures into the essays. But it wasn’t easy; hence the photo that accompanied July’s post. In month #2, the blastocyst became an embryo: recognizable human form was beginning to take shape, and one could discern head from bottom, i.e. which end was up, which perfectly matched my clumsy but determined adaptation to blogging itself. In month 2 I described the difficulty of understanding tumblr’s various specifications, and went off into a general diatribe against operating systems all together. The first trimester is notoriously trying for the author/mother and I was no exception, although I can tell you here that I had a heck of an easier time being actually biologically pregnant than figuring out the vocabulary and know-how necessary for negotiating search engines, browsers, tabs, uploads, downloads, etc. Yet, here we are, 8 months on, and the array of illustrations that accompany my words have been downright fun to bring to you. Uncle Norman said I asked too many questions (remember?), but I think he said it with an affectionate look of approval in his eye.
MONTH #3, AUGUST
The incidence of miscarriage greatly reduced at this point, with embryo now a fetus “fully formed with arms, hands, fingers, feet and toes,” we turned our attention to an event dominating the news: the rising tide against immigration, nowhere more starkly illustrated than in Murietta, California. One of the two protagonists in A Tale of Two Citizens, Harry Himelbaum, is a young man who would today be called an “illegal alien,” so the vitriolic shouts against newly arrived mothers and children emanating from southern California resonated with my protagonist’s painful struggle to belong…In August I also paid tribute to my mother’s keen eye for writing missteps as I anticipated the arrival of the galleys the following month, again finding a parallel between this last opportunity to locate and correct errors in the manuscript with the amniocentesis and other tests available to parents in the fourth month of pregnancy. This month I also introduced the concept and function of Advance Reader’s Copies (ARCs).
MONTH #4, SEPTEMBER
In September the focus was on galleys, and I explained why getting the appearance of the official legal documents in the novel right was so important to establishing context for the characters’ experiences, but once again current events permeated my thoughts as the voices coming from Ferguson, Missouri resonated powerfully with the second citizen of the novel’s title: Will Brown, the young and earnest Iowa lawyer cum immigration official, who believes with all his heart that if America is to live up to its ideals it must take control of the growing and menacing influence of “the other.”
MONTH #5, OCTOBER
During this period of Judaism’s High Holy Days, I wondered about why I write, harkening back to myself as a child, learning that during these holidays G-d writes in a book whether we will live or die: Did I begin to write after hearing this to take some power from G-d? Or perhaps writing for me was about something else entirely: To fill in the empty space that was my father’s life… In October’s post, I also shared a photograph I had once found of a young woman and a boy: wouldn’t you write a novel, I asked, if you had found this photograph among your deceased father’s papers, and had no idea who these people were?…In month 5, I pointed out that Tuesday is the Holy Day of Publishing, the day of the week that all books are published. Reader, we’ve got 4 Tuesdays left before the official pub date of A Tale of Two Citizens: February 3rd!!!
MONTH #6, NOVEMBER
In month 6 the pregnancy is definitely showing, and so too—drum roll—was the cover of the book: I was finally able to post it, a wonderfully exciting moment, to be sure. Things started to really perk along in November – Thanksgiving, anyone? – and an article I summarized about the staying power of printed books added to the feeling of well-being. The continuing popularity of the book is especially gratifying with the very recent revelations about the dangers of some reading devices and their negative impact on sleep. Who among us is a peaceful enough sleeper to afford yet another intrusion into our nocturnal tranquility? Turn off those i-pads and tablets, friends. If you enjoy reading at night, a book may be just the thing… (I could recommend one, due out in just a few short weeks.)…The early practice of writers gathering friends to publicize their upcoming writings was yet another source of comfort in November. If Cicero could seek out followers and “likes” in the way of prompted shouts of approval, who are we to question the act of self-promotion?
MONTH #7, DECEMBER
With the fetus getting ever closer to viability, I noted that many mothers become impatient about delivering before the due date. Doctors warn against this, and two factors helped out with my impatience in December: 1) Working on an update for the republication of my earlier book, Father Loss, the older sibling as it were of Citizens; and 2) the upcoming holiday season. Citing a learned New York Times story about the wisdom of remaining patient about delivery, I agreed with the idea of allowing “nature” to take its course. Many of us would question the “naturalness” of the holiday season as practiced in the frenzy of buying, wrapping, eating, drinking, etc., but hey, it got us to this point, didn’t it?
So what else?
THANK YOU to all of you who reassured me on Facebook and in emails about the dignity of posting my father’s photograph. I had been reluctant about using his picture for the purpose of publicizing my book, but he would be proud, many of you wrote, and it really meant a lot to me.
I know this Month #8 post has been very much longer than most, and I’ve heard it said by various technophiles that it’s good to keep it short when writing on social media. So think of this as your Lamaze training, because following my next blog—that would be Month #9!—there’ll be this entity that is a heck of a lot longer than what you just read, and it is my very fervent hope that you will make arrangements to receive it; hold it in your hand; and give it a good read.
COMING NEXT MONTH:
