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Good advice from the author of Wolf Hall and my all-time favourite historical novel In Place of Greater Safety. (If you're studying the French Revolution read it, she doesn't put a foot wrong.) And here's what to do when you're staring at the computer screen and all ideas seem to have gone on holiday.
If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.
HILARY MANTEL
A Love Story, by Kate in Publicity
This is a picture of my bookshelf, taken last night. I don't really have an organizational system and promise I didn't re-organize it to look more impressive (or I definitely would have replaced that Adriana Trigiani book with David Foster Wallace or something equally highbrow).
Those of you familiar with Overlook's highest-selling titles might realize the books in the middle--the Penny Vincenzi "Spoils of Time" trilogy. I actually applied for this job having read most of Penny's books, and am ridiculously excited to be working on her new one, Forbidden Places, that comes out in October.
But as I pitch these books, I find myself trying to prove that I'm not just being a publicist--these are historical romances that I actually think are fantastic. Sure, they're not the most literary thing we publish here, but they're pretty high-end commercial romance and I love the historical aspects as well.
I kind of want to attach this picture of my much-loved copy of No Angel to the pitches I'm sending out to reviewers, producers, and bloggers. "I'm one of you!" it seems to say. "Once upon a time, I wasn't a publicist. I was just a reader. And look how many times I read this book!"
In my cover letter that I submitted when applying for this job, I mentioned how I recommended these books to all of my girlfriends (after my grandmother recommended them to me. Generations coming together!). The upside? They loved the books too, and are badgering me for advance copies of Forbidden Places. The downside? I have to explain to them that my job is just slightly less glamorous than that of Lady Celia Lytton.
Anyways, I just wanted to share that it's incredibly fun to be a fan of an author and also get to work with her titles--and that this isn't me fluffing Forbidden Places, I actually AM that big of a fan of Penny Vincenzi.
Do you love her, too? Leave a comment, and be sure to pre-order Forbidden Places (or the paperback of Windfall, out this month!)--I think it's the best non-Celia Lytton book yet. And Penny fans know that that is high praise, indeed.
Happy reading!
This is the original Missing Person poster for the Honorable Joseph F. Crater, gone missing on August 6, 1930. The story of Judge Crater is one of the most interesting unsolved cases in New York--the New York State Supreme Court Justice was last seen leaving a restaurant near Times Square, and simply disappeared.
80 years later, the case is still alive in the public consciousness (here's a quick primer for those who are unfamiliar with Judge Crater). Beloved Overlook author Peter Quinn has taken this story and woven together true crime and historical fiction in The Man Who Never Returned (coming August 5, 2010). Private investigator Fintan Dunne, the hero of The Hour of the Cat, is hired in 1955 to solve the crime.
Here's a picture of Peter Quinn holding one of the first copies of his new book fresh off the presses.
Early Praise for The Man Who Never Returned:
"Quinn delivers a satisfying solution to the real-life mystery of Joseph Crater... Quinn not only makes the existence of clues at such a late date plausible but also concocts an explanation that's both logical and surprising. The depth and complexity of the lead character is a big plus." --
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Freely mixing history, mystery, and novelistic license, Quinn offers a noirish tale... Quinn’s rich, insightful, evocative descriptions of New York, both in Crater’s time and in 1955, will certainly please fans of historical crime novels." --
Booklist"This hybrid of mystery and history builds a compelling case." --
Kirkus
Rifling Paradise, the new historical fiction novel by master storyteller and author of
Courting Shadows Jem Poster, just received a lovely review from
Kirkus: A dubious character experiences a shattering change of heart during his specimen-collecting expedition to Australia, in a vivid historical novel by a renowned British poet.
Blamed for the suicide of a young boy and hounded out of his home by a mob, Charles Redbourne, the well-born but spendthrift hero of Poster's second work of fiction (
Courting Shadows, 2008), is something of a lost soul in search of redemption. And he will find it at the end of the nightmarish trip he makes to the Antipodes, escaping his past while pursuing his inclination to become a naturalist. Although his host in Sydney, Edward Vane, offers hospitality, he too is a questionable figure, whose relationship with his headstrong, artistic daughter Eleanor seems violent, possibly abusive. Despite his earlier interest in boys, Redbourne is drawn to Eleanor, whose attunement to the land, its spirit and wildlife argues for a sustainable, noninterventionist relationship, unlike Redbourne's, whose specimen-hunting is done with a gun. Matters become more polarized when Redbourne leaves on his expedition into the hinterland, in the company of brutal Bullen and a half-aboriginal boy, Billy. Trapped between Bullen's cruelty and Billy's ancestral sensitivity, Redbourne barely survives and returns a different man. Poster's storytelling is notably fresh and pacey, and his characters have definition, even if they are often emblematic. Redbourne and Eleanor will leave Australia together, but their future is far from certain.
Edgy, intense and engrossing work that delivers lessons astutely."
I have been at work on a book off and on for two years, as I have previously posted. It's an historical novel, deeply researched, and three voices carry the plot.
Here is the lesson of a multiply voiced novel: Collisions are essential, and they should not look like coincidence. The collisions (between characters, within moments, across voices) must carry meaning. They must signify.
I work on the signifiers now. It is slow but fascinating going. I look to the masters to see how it is done—Louise Erdrich, William Faulkner, and now Jayne Anne Phillips in her new novel, Lark & Termite, which got her a starred PW review, for starters, but more than that, it has Tim O'Brien saying:
What a beautiful, beautiful novel this is—so rich and intricate in its drama, so elegantly written, so tender, so convincing, so penetrating, so incredibly moving. I can declare without hesitation or qualification that Lark and Termite is by far the best new novel I've read in the last five years or so.
I'd love to know of other masters of collision, of when you think multiply voiced novels work.
The Italian Renaissance brings to mind beautiful images, paintings and sculptures, glorious and expensive brocades, string quartets in the garden, a rich texture of life indeed. But it was also a time of great strife and cruelty the likes of which we could never imagine in this day and age. Sprinkled throughout with Italian words and phrases, PRIMAVERA dips the reader into the renaissance period.
Flora, the youngest daughter of the Pazzi, strives to find beauty and normalcy in a life that is anything but. Scorned by her own mother, she lives as little more than a servant while her older sister, Domenicia, is primped, plucked, painted by the famed Botticelli, and otherwise prepared for the wedding that will join the Pazzi to the Medici.
As Flora contemplates her mother’s plan for her future, life in a convent, a member of her father’s guard arrives with a missive from the Pope himself. The guard, Emilio, hangs around and becomes the friend and companion that Flora has never had. When Emilio and Nonna, the grandmother who’s raised and protected her, convince her to train with the guard, Flora finds strength that carries her through the difficult months to come.
PRIMAVERA is a captivating read. I found myself rooting for Flora and Emilio. Ms. Beaufrand painted her characters so realistically that I felt their pain, their fear, their guilt, and yes, even their joy. True to great historical fiction, the author did not flinch when she described some of the tragedies that befell her characters. Be warned that some of the scenes are quite graphic and not for the faint of heart. Yet I hesitate to limit this book to those only 9th grade and up. If you know nothing about this time period, yet enjoy historical fiction; you will love this well-written novel. If you are a fan of the renaissance you will revel in all of the historical details Ms. Beaufrand has so expertly shown.
This review is cross-posted here at Teens Read Too. * Release date: March 1, 2008.
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I'm sure yours will be one!
You make such a great point about what is essential in this type of undertaking.
Happy Saturday.
The Waves, perhaps . . .
I think Jennifer Egan did a great job on linking, colliding her characters in Look At Me. It is the only book I have read recently that I could think of being written in multiple voices.
Can't wait to hear more about your book. :)
I finally looked on Amazon for Lark & Termite and realized the book isn't out until January! But, for some reason, my library system has one copy. Three people already have the book on hold! Now I can't wait to get the book.
You're right about the collisions being necessary in a multiple voiced novel. Good luck!
This is a really great post. I wrote earlier this fall about a novel that several people enjoyed but that bothered me because a few scenes where characters crossed paths was too coincidental. It wasn't multi-voiced but the scenes involved important characters. I got a lot of comments that coincidence in novels is to be expected and even allowed! I think the true masters (and yes, you are a master) understand that collisions should not look like coincidence.
(I'm wracking my brain for a multi-voiced novel that I read lately and feel as if a god one if hovering right out of reach. If I can think of it, I'll let you know)
Thank you, for your suggestions. Thank you, all. I am not at all sure that I am up to the task I seem to have given myself, but I work toward resolution.
Miss Em, I remember vividly that post. I remember siding with you.
What about these:
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Dancer by Colum McCann
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Grete — what wonderful suggestions. They all sit here; I love them all. The Hours would come closest to what I am doing, for my story is told by three who are brought together by one force but who don't, for example, live within the same house, who have their very distinct, singular stories to tell. Dancer is an unusual book, somewhat like Zoli, and I think of it as more of a collage than, perhaps, The Hours. History of Love is a good suggestion. I struggled with some aspects of that book (Krauss's thematic similarities to her husband's work, for example)but thought the language beautiful. It's a book I'm going to go snatch off the shelf right now.
Thank you all for thinking out loud with me about this!
Oh, Faulkner. He's been in my head ever since The Sound and the Fury.
I think Justine Larbalestier did quite a smart job with the multiple voices in her Magic or Madness trilogy.
P.S. Make Lemonade - I didn't expect to like it, just because I'm not usually drawn to books with that sort of subject matter. But I did. I especially liked how quietly it built to those "grace note" passages.
And I read it after a unit in sociology on urban inequality and poverty in the U.S., while riding the El through Chicago. I passed buildings where I could picture LaVaughn living or Jolly working. It was perfect!