Children . . . what’s more precious to a parent and family? And, what could be more terrifying and heart wrenching than to have them torn from their foundation, their home . . . from you?
I have the great pleasure of being part of Vivian Gilbert Zabel’s book tour for Stolen. Along with featuring Vivian today, I also did a review of her amazing story; the link is below.
For those who aren’t aware of Vivian, here’s a bit about this award winning author:
Zabel has won several awards with her writing, including first place with her mystery/suspense Midnight Hours. She taught English and writing for nearly 30 years and edited newspapers, yearbooks, and literary magazines sporadically for 45. After retirement, she produced a collection of short stories with Holly Jahangiri, Hidden Lies and Other Stories; a collection of poetry with seven other poets located in the United States and Canada, Walking the Earth: Life’s Perspectives in Poetry; three young adult books, The Base Stealers, Case of the Missing Coach, Prairie Dog Cowboy; and two novels: Midnight Hours and Stolen.
A wife for nearly 49 years, the mother of three living children, grandmother of ten grandchildren, and great-grandmother of five, Zabel believes family and faith are most important, and that belief finds its way in most of her writing. Her characters come from people she observes or reads about mixed with her imagination. Plots take a gain of an idea and combine with a massive dosage of “what if.”
Stolen, based on a true story, tells of the inconceivable: a father steals his children from their mother. I asked Vivian eight questions regarding the writing of Stolen, and her answers were candid and touching.
Discussing Stolen with Vivian Zabel1. Vivian, I know this book took a number of years to make it to publication, and I know in part why, but do you think you would have published it had your grandchildren not been found?I think I would have found a way to publish it no matter whether Faris and Yasmeen had been found, or rather they found us, or not. The trip may have been harder is all. The story had to be told.
2. Being the subject matter is so personal and heart wrenching, were you able to say all you wanted to? Or, were some of the emotions just too difficult to convey? Or, certain details better left out?I couldn’t put everything into the book. For example, I didn’t have Gramps or Bob say, “If I ever see that piece of trash again, I’ll have one of my black outs and run over him.” Plus, there is no way to express the anguish we all felt. I did feel as if part of my heart had been ripped out. How do I describe that so that another person could really “feel” the pain?
ROAD TO TATER HILL by Edith Hemingway
Introduced first in 2007, debut children’s authors have formed a cooperative effort to market their books. Last year, I featured many of the Class of 2k8 on Revision Notes, as they told the stories of how 2k8 Novels Were Revised.
Today, I’m glad to begin the 2k9 Series of novel revision stories.
Class of 2k9
“When your editor says your character isn’t stepping up to the plate…” by Edith M. Hemingway, author of ROAD TO TATER HILL (Delacorte Press, September 8, 2009)
Structural Changes?
I consider the process of revision to be the true meat of writing. In fact, I revised my middle grade novel, ROAD TO TATER HILL, for three years before I decided it was finished and polished enough to submit to an editor. So, when I heard from Michelle Poploff, VP and Executive Editor of Delacorte Press, that she was interested in talking to me about my manuscript, I was confident that if she wanted it, there would of course be changes, but surely not major structural revisions.
She was interested and wanted to set up a telephone conversation a week later. I asked if there was something I should be thinking about in terms of revision before we talked. She said, “My assistant and I think your character, Drew, isn’t stepping up to the plate. We’d like you to consider removing him entirely from the story.”
I was thankful this was communicated through email and not face to face or over the telephone because there would have been a groan, a gasp, or a fleeting look of panic. My immediate reaction was, “How on earth could I take my brother out of my book?”
What I neglected to say earlier is that the seed for ROAD TO TATER HILL was my own childhood experience of the premature birth and death of my baby sister. Since I started writing it as a memory of an emotional childhood incident for a creative writing assignment, of course I included my older brother in the story. He was a significant part of the whole experience within our family. As the story evolved into fiction and took on more characters and an actual plot and story arc, the brother in the story tagged along, too. We had always been close, and I could not imagine life without him for either my character, Annie Winters, or me. However, the student in me that constantly strives to improve my writing urged me to be open to all suggestions—especially those from an experienced editor.
Yes, to Editor’s Suggestions
By the time our telephone conversation rolled around, I had come to terms with the change and realized the loss of a longed-for baby sister would be all the more poignant if Annie were an only child. I had even taken the necessary steps to mark every point in the story where Drew had appeared physically, through dialogue with other characters, or by reference in Annie’s thoughts and memory—especially those scenes where he played a significant role in driving plot points. Drew had appeared in 81 pages out of the then 154 total. I had also figured out the perfect character to beef up and take over the plot points that Drew could no longer control—Bobby Miller, the neighbor boy, who not only now became Annie’s best friend, but also added an interesting boy/girl dimension to the story.
Michelle and I talked for nearly two hours—going over those ideas in addition to many other lesser points and clarifications she needed. She ended the conversation by saying she would mail back my manuscript with all her written comments and suggested I think it over for a couple of weeks to decide if I wanted to move forward with these revisions. I did not tell her then that I had already decided—of course I would make those changes and even take them a step further!
Taking Time to Plan Revision
Once I received the manuscript, I spent several days reading through and taking meticulous notes. Then I put together a 4-page revision strategy list which included 9 detailed character improvements, 17 other considerations based on Michelle’s questions, a clarification of the time span of the entire story, and a plan for resequencing some of the major scenes.
Before scheduling our next telephone conversation, I emailed this detailed revision plan to Michelle, so she had time to look it over first. When we talked, her first words were, “You’ve really stepped up to the plate.” I had demonstrated that I was ready, willing, and able to make the revisions they wanted, and they were ready to offer me a contract, even before I completed the revisions.
Yes, there were more revisions required after I finished the first round and even before we reached the copy-editing stage. I even rewrote the entire novel in the first person point of view in order to dig deeper into the emotional core. It sounds as if I made every single change my editor suggested, but no, I didn’t. There were a few ideas that just didn’t ring true to my characters, even though I tried. In those cases, I came up with alternative plans that worked as well or better. I also learned that revisions often need to be done in layers, rather than all at once. One change perhaps leads to another change, which in turn reveals another problem that must be fixed, and so on. The hardest thing for me is to know when to finally stop revising.
I firmly believe, however, that my willingness to trust my editor, listen to her suggestions, and follow through with revisions was critical in landing my first “solo” contract!
Edith M. Hemingway
[email protected]
Road to Tater Hill
Delacorte Press, Sept. 8, 2009
http://www.classof2k9.com
Related posts:
- Cheryl Renee Herbsman: 2k9
- Rosanne Parry: 2k9
Great interview Karen. You gave Vivian a chance to flesh out her story of how the book was motivated and her feelings through the process. Having "ridden" with her through those tough 12 years, I was also privileged to share her victory when she again "discovered" and reunited with her grandchildren. The book has close parallels with the emotions we all felt as we prayed for their safety and return to a relationship with Vivian and her husband.
Hi Jacque, Thanks for stopping by. I needed tissues when I read Stolen - I think it helped knowing the real-life eventual outcome though.
Vivian did an excellent job.
Karen, thanks for the very special and poignant interview. It gave Vivian a chance to tell us how much the story meant.
Congratulations to both of you.
Karen, thanks for the very special and poignant interview. It gave Vivian a chance to tell us how much the story meant.
Congratulations to both of you.
Thank you, Karen, for hosting me today, and thanks for the excellent review. I hope people click on the link and read it.
Hi, Jacque and Nancy. I appreciate your visiting already today. I'm a bit slow getting around this morning. I had hoped to be here first, but I couldn't get my body to cooperate. Ish.
Wow, very interesting interview! So glad to have had a chance to read this. I can't imagine writing something very intense and emotional. That takes a very strong lady. Thanks for being so candid, Vivian, and to Karen for hosting her.
Warmly,
Jenny
J.R., I used to teach writing, and I always told my students to take something they experienced to delve into an emotion when they wrote. Of course most high school students hadn't suffered greatly, yet, but some had. I told the ones who hadn't if they had ever lost a pet or had a close friend leave. Of course all had. I then told them to remember how they felt and then exaggerate the feeling.
Well, with this book, no exaggeration was needed, just the plain, unvarnished agony that I hope others never have to know.
However, hope does reign eternal, at least in my life.
Vivian, what a horrendous experience to go through. One of my recent books deals with a girl who was taken from her family -- the stories I've heard about kidnappings have made me so paranoid that it finally broke through to a story. I used to stand and watch my kids until their school bus came, even if they were right in front of my house.
I'm so glad you got them back.
Best of luck with Stolen and its sequel.
People used to say I was overprotective of my children, back before kidnapping were so prevalent, but as we discovered, sometimes being vigilant doesn't help.
Thanks for stopping by, LK.
What an emotional story and a great interview. I can't wait to read the book and also to promote it at my blog. Best wishes for the book and it's success.
Thank you, Terry. Please let me know if and when you do promote Stolen.
Wow, what a great interview, Karen and Vivian. I had no idea what this story was about, and I've been inundated with emails lately so that I hadn't had time to read any of the other blog tour stops.
Good luck with this book, Vivian. It sounds like it will touch many families.
I'm glad you dropped by, Katie.
This book is one that is truly close to my heart.
Hey All, thanks for dropping by. Had a doc appt, but will check in the rest of the day.
I'm so glad those who didn't know about Stolen got a chance to understand the content and emotion involved.
It is a crazy world. When my older daughter was around 17, her boyfriend at the time was crazy. When she broke up with him, he threatened my life twice, hid in her car and kidnapped her at knife point and broke into my home several times. I didn't think I'd live through it. For so long during and after it ended, I would check around the house and her car before she got in it.
Viv, I hope the writing of this was great therapy for you. I'm convinced that it is alays better to face truths than bury them. Lovely interview, Karen.
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Blogging writers resources at Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites pick www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com
The writing of the novel didn't mitigate the pain, but did help make it more bearable. Thanks for dropping by, Carolyn.
Carolyn, thanks for stopping by. And, Vivian, hopefully time will help heal the lost years and pain.
The scars are there forever, but more for the kids than even for us.
Life isn't always fair, usually isn't, and life sometimes is harder on some than others. However, we have two choices, just as Torri did. I choose picking up the pieces, gluing them back the best I can, and going on.
Thank you for sharing this emotional, powerful, moving interview. It's good that you wrote Stolen, Vivian, to help some with your own healing and to touch others who read it.
Connie, thank you for dropping by. Stolen will definitely touch those who read it.
Thank you, everyone who left comments, and thanks, Karen, for hosting me today.
I think I'll need a box of tissues when I read this book, so am preparing myself for the tears. Thanks for a great interview, Karen.
Hey, Beverly, I need the tissues just to talk about it.
If and when you do read Stolen, please share your thoughts about the book.
Beverly, thank you for stopping by. I needed tissues!
Vivian,
It was a pleasure featuring you and Stolen.
I've enjoyed this stop on the tour. Thank you again, Karen.
Powerful subject matter and what a title. thanks for sharing your story and heart with the rest of us.
Margo Dill
http://margodill.com/blog/
Margo, thank you for stopping by. And, yes, once you know what the subject matter is the title takes on great significance.
I'm glad you left a comment, Margo. The title really does say everything.
Great interview, Karen. I'm glad to hear Vivian is in the process of writing a sequel.
Hi, Rena. I really do need more time or at least a whole lot more energy so I can do all I need to do. Ish.
Rena, thank you for stopping by. I know it will take time, but I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Great interview! I look forward to reading STOLEN.
Hi, Susanne, I'm sure you'll love Stolen, but again, have tissues on hand!