I'm in Love!
. . . with my new editor, Karyn Marcus at Macmillan St. Martin's. Joy joy joy joy down in my heart. She totally gets the project, and she 100% gets the voice of the narrator, Nola. Karyn's edits--from macro to micro--are making it a better, stronger book. More focused, more taut. I love it! I love her!
It's such a joy--and a relief--to be working with someone who's on the same page as far as the vision for the project goes. THE DESIRE PROJECTS is a complicated book with a complicated heroine; Nola's an unreliable narrator, which is tricky to sustain for 400 pages (especially when she's got a major chip on her shoulder but also has to remain "likeable" enough for readers to stick with), and the book weaves in a lot of history, myth and psychological data, which have the potential to bog it down and get wonky--which is particularly counterintuitive, given that the whole point of a noir approach is lean and mean. So it's challenging.
Karyn not only clicked with it but is clearly, clearly making it better. She's so smart and clear and deft. I trust her judgment, which makes working on the revisions, which I've been doing since I turned final grades in for spring, a complete pleasure.
I have been so blessed with all three of my editors so far: Casey Ebro, who did The Truth Book, Kristen Elias Rowley, who's doing ISLAND OF BONES for U of Nebraska, and now Karyn.
And for those of you who are comforted, as I am, by other writers' stories of numerous rejections, I can confide that Karyn's offer arrived only after 18 rejections from publishing houses and editors I would weep to be accepted by. (Not a record-breaking high by any means, but not the dream, either--you know, the one where your agent calls you the day after he submits and says there'll be an auction and to go ahead and plan your vacation in the Andes. No.)
It was an agonizing wait. But all good things came.
Speaking of all good things coming to those who wait, my copy of Silver Sparrow is winging its way toward my apartment! I am sooooo looking forward to sinking in for a good read.
And all good things are coming to its wonderful author Tayari Jones, too--who's touring with it now--including a beautiful profile in Poets & Writers and lots of great reviews. The few pages of the manuscript that it was my honor to read were as moving and real and lovely as any of her earlier work I'd read--and now people are calling it the best of her three novels! And the cover's beautiful.
Tayari works so hard and generously at her craft, as well as at publicity, and is so generous with writers and with the readers of her blog. Here's wishing her every success.
It's such a joy--and a relief--to be working with someone who's on the same page as far as the vision for the project goes. THE DESIRE PROJECTS is a complicated book with a complicated heroine; Nola's an unreliable narrator, which is tricky to sustain for 400 pages (especially when she's got a major chip on her shoulder but also has to remain "likeable" enough for readers to stick with), and the book weaves in a lot of history, myth and psychological data, which have the potential to bog it down and get wonky--which is particularly counterintuitive, given that the whole point of a noir approach is lean and mean. So it's challenging.
Karyn not only clicked with it but is clearly, clearly making it better. She's so smart and clear and deft. I trust her judgment, which makes working on the revisions, which I've been doing since I turned final grades in for spring, a complete pleasure.
I have been so blessed with all three of my editors so far: Casey Ebro, who did The Truth Book, Kristen Elias Rowley, who's doing ISLAND OF BONES for U of Nebraska, and now Karyn.
And for those of you who are comforted, as I am, by other writers' stories of numerous rejections, I can confide that Karyn's offer arrived only after 18 rejections from publishing houses and editors I would weep to be accepted by. (Not a record-breaking high by any means, but not the dream, either--you know, the one where your agent calls you the day after he submits and says there'll be an auction and to go ahead and plan your vacation in the Andes. No.)
It was an agonizing wait. But all good things came.
Speaking of all good things coming to those who wait, my copy of Silver Sparrow is winging its way toward my apartment! I am sooooo looking forward to sinking in for a good read.
And all good things are coming to its wonderful author Tayari Jones, too--who's touring with it now--including a beautiful profile in Poets & Writers and lots of great reviews. The few pages of the manuscript that it was my honor to read were as moving and real and lovely as any of her earlier work I'd read--and now people are calling it the best of her three novels! And the cover's beautiful.
Tayari works so hard and generously at her craft, as well as at publicity, and is so generous with writers and with the readers of her blog. Here's wishing her every success.
fayepoet said:
Love! Such wonderful news of your excitement with Karyn as your editing partner. I'm fascinated by the description of your book and it's no surprise that you would offer your readers (and fans) a complex, layered unreliable narrator that will keep us on the edge of our seats. I can't wait to meet Nola. When, oh when?? (not to rush you).
May 22, 2011 2:45 PMWendy Call
said:
Oh, Joy, it is such a delight to read this news! Congratulations -- no one deserves this more than you do. Go, Joy, go!
June 8, 2011 4:43 AM