As the trees in coastal Connecticut leaf out and bloom, and the azaleas erupt in pink, red, and purple, our list of books to come keeps growing. Now in the works for January 2023 is our first middle grade novel, a captivating exploration of the complex social issues and family dynamics of early 19th century America as seen through the eyes of a sweet, sensitive, and whip-smart young woman. We couldn’t be more excited about this book, written by an octogenarian who spent 10 years researching her setting, characters, and historical backdrop after turning up information about her ancestors in a genealogical search. The tale is purely fiction, but it rings true from start to finish, and we know you’ll fall in love with the heroine, Sophia, just as we did.
Azalea - just opened
Tom put his memoir-in-progress on pause for a couple of weeks to launch his new book, The Alphabet of Love. In entries ranging from Love is an Art to Love is Compassion, Love is a Question to Love is Vast, this 128-page volume takes readers on a poetic, lexical tour of what is unquestionably the most powerful force in our lives. Intent on helping us find new definitions and expressions of love, Tom explores the language associated with the ever-present and elusive, invisible yet palpable presence that we struggle to describe and define as much as to find and to keep. Look for love too hard, and it vanishes; hold it too tightly, and it melts away in your hand. The Alphabet of Love brings the magic of love into our minds and hearts and reminds us that love is, indeed, a many-splendored thing.
Click here to buy the book.
In the news travels fast department, a write-up about Tom’s book on a local news blog, 06880, resulted in a new submission to Christmas Lake Press from a local author and garden enthusiast. We’re reading his manuscript with interest and encourage local authors to think of us—your neighbors—first, when considering where to plant your book projects.
Greg Lawrence, author of With You, our techno-thriller about an artificial intelligence with a conscience, is running a Goodreads giveaway for the Kindle edition. You can sign up here to be one of the 100 lucky recipients. Greg’s book has five stars with over 20 reviews on Amazon and received a thumbs up from Kirkus: “A subtle story of family, friendship, strong women, and the hopeful side of technological advancement.”
Click here to buy the book.
After a short time at home, Julia has returned to Marblehead, MA, for another writing retreat to work on projects for television and film for various interested companies. Every writer needs a clean, well-lighted place for the intense concentration and focus required to finish work for release into the world.
Marblehead, MA
A spot still remains in our weekly Wednesday night flash fiction workshop. Join us for a generative experience creating short pieces of writing that can be polished into stand-alone stories or integrated into a larger work you’re contemplating or already constructing.
What we’re working on…
Editing is in full swing now on Kathryn Kaplan’s memoir, Becoming Visible to Myself: An Unexpected Memoir. This remarkable journey of self-discovery through journaling speaks to—and squelches—our self-doubt, affirms—and abolishes—our endless need for external validation, and reminds us that we don’t need a guru, spirit guide, or self-help book to let us know we are and have always been enough. We’re having fun integrating Kathryn’s journal entries, consisting of quotes, notes, diagrams, and drawings, into the book’s narrative flow.
Flowering dogwood, Compo Hill
Tom is also enjoying the editing drill on our coming-of-age novel set in the age of the deconstructionists at his old haunt in New Haven. As he and the author unearth opportunities to further develop the colorful characters and their relationships with each other as well as the book’s themes of isolation and belonging, the book is nearing completion. It’s fairly rare to find a perfect scene in a novel and even rarer to encounter a perfect chapter. But Chapter 19 is as pitch perfect as they come. (Sorry, no excerpt, we’re keeping this one under wraps until it’s ready to be published.)
Where the Light Is Brighter by C. C. Griffin (co-written by Tom) is also growing shinier by the day, with work now focusing on the “Fourth of July” chapter featuring our 98-year-old femme fatale, Edith.
Suddenly I startle as Nurse Hurry (that’s what I call her) barges in with her cup full of pills, each one a different color and size. I guess I didn’t take them after all.
“Jumpy today.”
“I’m fine.” I’m not going to tell her I think something’s wrong—Lord knows what extra pills she’ll try to give me. I just open my hand to count. This one needs to be reminded that I studied bookkeeping and I’ve always been excellent with numbers.
But she’s not smiling, and those chipped nails need to be trimmed.
“Everyone needs their pills on time Edith, not just you. Let’s move this along.”
Apparently, I’m counting too slowly, but you can’t be too careful here. “You’ve given me eleven pills, and I only take ten.”
She shrugs. I put the yellow pill—supposedly for memory—back in the cup and hand it to her, then swallow the rest, one by one, saving the white oval for my osteoporosis for last. “Satisfied?”
She puts the cup with the yellow pill down on my tray and walks out of the room. I toss the cup in the trash. My name is Edith. My son is William. I remember what I need to remember. I’m doing just fine.
This chapter is full of fireworks, but if you want to see them, you’ll have to buy the book when it comes out.
Fireworks, Compo Beach
What we’re looking for…
Hybrid publishers bridge the gap between authors taking the risk of publishing books themselves—often with no editorial or marketing guidance—and undertaking the arduous—and often fruitless—process of seeking an agent who will then seek an editor at a traditional publishing house. We’re fast to read and return a decision, fast to market (6 to 9 months instead of 18 to 24 for traditional), and fairly priced. If you have a good book—novel, memoir, collection of essays, something you’ve polished and of which you feel proud, send it our way.
What we’re reading…
Tom got just a few pages into rereading William Zinsser’s classic, On Writing Well, which grew out of a class Zinsser taught at Yale in the 1970s, well (and we emphasize the well) before Tom attended. So much of writing is editing, and so much of editing is working a paragraph, sentence, line, or word over and over again until you get it right. The best writers make this look effortless, but that ease is an illusion, and the passage below is more than an allusion to the strenuousness of the writer’s craft.
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard. It’s one of the hardest things people do.
[Note: Links to books we’re reading usually go to Amazon for a new copy, because we want the recommended author to receive his or her royalties on the sale. Buying at your local bookstore accomplishes the same result. But the link to On Writing Well above will take you to Thriftbooks, a wonderful alternative for purchasing used books. The reseller market is essential to keeping millions of older books in print, and outfits such as Thriftbooks are phenomenal resources for finding older titles at reasonable prices. And of course, Zinsser did receive his cut on the first sale of the book :)]
While enjoying the scenic beauty of Marblehead, Julia is also revisiting the lyrical beauty of Rilke’s poetry.
What we’re listening to…
Tom started Ron Chernow’s The Warburgs, an intriguing blend of history and storytelling. He’s also listening to more On Being podcasts, and in one featuring author and Torah scholar Avivah Zornberg on the interpretation of Passover, she said something along the lines of: what really happened is less important than how best to tell the story. This gem of wisdom should help fiction and memoir writers alike. Julia has been listening to a favorite classic, The Great Gatsby, which, in light of our note about resellers above, entered the public domain in 2021. It took a long time for her to find an edition with the right narrator, one who sounded like he was a character of the time period telling the story, not just a professional actor reading it out loud.
In producing audio books, we always strive to find a narrator who breathes the passion of the book (without making breathing sounds, of course) and creates a listening experience that makes the story come alive.
What we’re cooking up…
We’re still, yes still, yes still, planning our first pop-up Zoom workshop for some time in May.
As always, we are grateful to our authors, clients, friends, and supporters. Onward and upward in 2022 and beyond!