Dear Michelle,
In your novel A Proper Knowledge (Bellevue Literary Press), your acknowledgments mention that the manuscript for this book spent some time in the garage before making its way to your editor. Can you tell us more about this journey? How much time passed between when you finished writing the book and when it went to a publisher? Had you at first thought the manuscript unpublishable? Or did you put it in storage for other reasons? What made you change your mind? Did the book change a lot from that version that was in the garage to the published version?
Thanks very much!
all best,
Lynn
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
An Author Encounter
Before I get to the books mentioned below, I wanted to mention a just-published book that’s getting a lot of acclaim: Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter by Susan Nagel.
I wrote earlier about Nagel’s biography of Mary Nisbet, Mistress of the Elgin Marbles. Last week I had the chance to meet Nagel in person when she came to Philadelphia to speak at the Acorn Club, where she gave a very interesting talk about Marie Antoinette and Marie-Therese.
I wrote earlier about Nagel’s biography of Mary Nisbet, Mistress of the Elgin Marbles. Last week I had the chance to meet Nagel in person when she came to Philadelphia to speak at the Acorn Club, where she gave a very interesting talk about Marie Antoinette and Marie-Therese.
See this link for a New York Times review of the book:
Monday, April 28, 2008
More Books!
I finished another session of my Temple University “Sneak Peek at Next Year’s Bestsellers” class last week:
(http://amb-hercules.ftwash.temple.edu/CourseStatus.awp?~~08B8340).
We had a great time! What a great group of people in this class – great readers all! Thank you, class! We had some great discussions.
This time we read four books:
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
A Proper Knowledge by Michelle Latiolais
Hallam’s War by Elizabeth Payne Rosen
If you’re thinking that you haven’t heard of these books, that’s because they haven’t been published yet. That’s the “Sneak Peek” part of the class – we get to read ‘em BEFORE they’re published, thanks to some wonderful publishers who participate in my program.
I’ve already had the pleasure of blogging with Karen Essex. Over the next few days, I’d like to share some more with you about the other three books, as well as about how they got published and who published them – and what my class thought of them!
LR
(http://amb-hercules.ftwash.temple.edu/CourseStatus.awp?~~08B8340).
We had a great time! What a great group of people in this class – great readers all! Thank you, class! We had some great discussions.
This time we read four books:
Stealing Athena by Karen Essex
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
A Proper Knowledge by Michelle Latiolais
Hallam’s War by Elizabeth Payne Rosen
If you’re thinking that you haven’t heard of these books, that’s because they haven’t been published yet. That’s the “Sneak Peek” part of the class – we get to read ‘em BEFORE they’re published, thanks to some wonderful publishers who participate in my program.
I’ve already had the pleasure of blogging with Karen Essex. Over the next few days, I’d like to share some more with you about the other three books, as well as about how they got published and who published them – and what my class thought of them!
LR
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Mary Nisbet in Fiction and Biography
It would be an interesting study for any reader who is interested to compare the character of Mary Nisbet, Lord Elgin’s wife, as portrayed in fiction by Karen Essex in Stealing Athena, and then to look at Nisbet as portrayed by a biographer in Susan Nagel’s book Mistress of the Elgin Marbles. There’s a reading assignment for you if you’re up for it!
I did ask Professor Nagel if she’d like to chat about this online, but she says she’s much too busy these days with the publication of her latest book, Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter, which was just published April 1st. We wish her much luck with her new book. For readers who want to learn more about Susan Nagel’s work, you can refer to her blog at: www.susannagelwritesabout.blogspot.com
Lynn
I did ask Professor Nagel if she’d like to chat about this online, but she says she’s much too busy these days with the publication of her latest book, Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter, which was just published April 1st. We wish her much luck with her new book. For readers who want to learn more about Susan Nagel’s work, you can refer to her blog at: www.susannagelwritesabout.blogspot.com
Lynn
Monday, April 14, 2008
Karen's Research
Dear Lynn,
I am definitely a research freak. I'm the sort of writer who thinks that if she doesn't know everything, she doesn't know anything. I first saw the Elgin Marbles in 2000 at the British Museum when I went to see an exhibit there about Cleopatra. I was researching my novel Kleopatra and I wandered into the Duveen Gallery where the marbles are housed. I listened to the story behind the marbles on the audio guide and had an intuition that it would be good fodder for a novel. When Susan Nagel's biography came out in 2004, I eagerly read it and was blown away by Mary's contribution to the acquisition of the treasures, and also by the absence of references to her in the sources. I thought, hmmm, another woman who defied society's idea of how a woman should behave and paid a steep price for it—and was forgotten. I got very excited about writing about her. My brilliant agent called me one day around that time and said that she'd read a review of a new biography about the Countess of Elgin, and didn't she sound like one of my heroines? I said, sister, I'm already on board!
I have not met Susan Nagel, but we have corresponded a bit by email. I've sent her an advance reading copy of the book. I hope she feels that I did Mary justice! I do think that scholarship and fiction work together often in this way. A scholar brings new understanding to something from the past, and the fiction writer or dramatist is inspired to try to popularize it. It's common knowledge that Shakespeare wrote with a copy of Plutarch open on his desk (so do I!).
I cannot explain how I decided to incorporate Aspasia's story into the narrative. I guess I just wanted to make my life a lot harder! I have long held an interest in Aspasia, and one day while I was lying on the floor, the idea to have Aspasia watch the Parthenon go up and have Mary watch it come down just descended upon me. I suppose that I love the classical Greek world above all time periods and feel very comfortable writing in that space.
Stealing Athena was difficult to write simply because of the enormity of the research. It was crucial for me to understand the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, Napoleon, the Golden Age of Pericles, and all the ensuing cultural studies that would have impacted the people in those civilizations and epochs. I have posted a selected bibliography on my website. Additionally of interest might be an email interview I did with a class at University of North Carolina who were studying my book Leonardo's Swans in which I explain my research process. Please encourage your students to check out the resources on http://www.karenessex.com/ and sign up for my newsletter. I'm launching a newly designed site at the end of this month with loads of additional content on Stealing Athena and new resources. The interview is on the "Classroom" page. http://www.karenessex.com/classroom.html.
My best,
Karen Essex
I am definitely a research freak. I'm the sort of writer who thinks that if she doesn't know everything, she doesn't know anything. I first saw the Elgin Marbles in 2000 at the British Museum when I went to see an exhibit there about Cleopatra. I was researching my novel Kleopatra and I wandered into the Duveen Gallery where the marbles are housed. I listened to the story behind the marbles on the audio guide and had an intuition that it would be good fodder for a novel. When Susan Nagel's biography came out in 2004, I eagerly read it and was blown away by Mary's contribution to the acquisition of the treasures, and also by the absence of references to her in the sources. I thought, hmmm, another woman who defied society's idea of how a woman should behave and paid a steep price for it—and was forgotten. I got very excited about writing about her. My brilliant agent called me one day around that time and said that she'd read a review of a new biography about the Countess of Elgin, and didn't she sound like one of my heroines? I said, sister, I'm already on board!
I have not met Susan Nagel, but we have corresponded a bit by email. I've sent her an advance reading copy of the book. I hope she feels that I did Mary justice! I do think that scholarship and fiction work together often in this way. A scholar brings new understanding to something from the past, and the fiction writer or dramatist is inspired to try to popularize it. It's common knowledge that Shakespeare wrote with a copy of Plutarch open on his desk (so do I!).
I cannot explain how I decided to incorporate Aspasia's story into the narrative. I guess I just wanted to make my life a lot harder! I have long held an interest in Aspasia, and one day while I was lying on the floor, the idea to have Aspasia watch the Parthenon go up and have Mary watch it come down just descended upon me. I suppose that I love the classical Greek world above all time periods and feel very comfortable writing in that space.
Stealing Athena was difficult to write simply because of the enormity of the research. It was crucial for me to understand the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, Napoleon, the Golden Age of Pericles, and all the ensuing cultural studies that would have impacted the people in those civilizations and epochs. I have posted a selected bibliography on my website. Additionally of interest might be an email interview I did with a class at University of North Carolina who were studying my book Leonardo's Swans in which I explain my research process. Please encourage your students to check out the resources on http://www.karenessex.com/ and sign up for my newsletter. I'm launching a newly designed site at the end of this month with loads of additional content on Stealing Athena and new resources. The interview is on the "Classroom" page. http://www.karenessex.com/classroom.html.
My best,
Karen Essex
Friday, April 11, 2008
More from Karen Essex
Dear Karen,
Thank you so much for your detailed and very illuminating answer about the cover art!
Another thing that interested my students very much about the book is the extensive amount of research that you did. How long did it take? What were some of your best sources?
Thanks!
all best,
Lynn
Thank you so much for your detailed and very illuminating answer about the cover art!
Another thing that interested my students very much about the book is the extensive amount of research that you did. How long did it take? What were some of your best sources?
Thanks!
all best,
Lynn
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
More Books and their Covers
I’ll hope to have more from Karen Essex soon, but in the meantime I thought I’d chat a little more about this question of book covers and what you can tell from them. Since I work in the publishing business, I know that there are conventions for how industry folks want book covers to look. If a certain type of book has a certain cover look, then its audience can locate it more readily. Think, for example, of romance novels. They have a very distinct look, making it easy for readers to find them. They often have very colorful art that looks hand-painted, and the art often includes a clenching couple or a woman walking alone on the beach, or in the moors, usually in period costume. Or look at self-help non-fiction. It often has a lot of big type, making it look serious, like it means business.
At the moment, I have a pile of galleys for some forthcoming books on my desk. One is a novel called Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts (Grand Central Publishing). It has a dark blue sky on the cover, with points of stars in the distance, and a horizon line low down so your eye is looking up at a big glass Mason-type jar with fireflies in it. To me this cover says: folksy, quirky, somewhere in America that’s rural, not New York or California. Looking at the back cover copy, the book appears to have a few quirky kids as main characters, and take place in South Dakota. I guess I got the right message from the cover.
Here’s another novel: Sun Going Down by Jack Todd (Touchstone). Lots of yellows, reds, and brown tones on the cover, a drawing of a Conestoga wagon, lots of cattle and horses. Ok, American West, not too hard. And sure enough, back cover calls it “a sweeping epic about the American West” and puts it in the tradition of Little Big Man and Larry McMurtry. Here’s one more, for now: a new forthcoming novel by David Guterson. This one is mostly black & white, with what looks like a photo, or if not a photo then a very photorealistic style of art of a lake, frozen and snowed over, with footprints going across. A bit desolate, a bit ominous. But the snow is what strikes me most. Since Guterson’s big book was the bestseller Snow Falling on Cedars, they’re obviously trying to make us think about snow!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Judging a Book By Its Cover
Karen Essex apparently did not think my question so superficial! Here's her in-depth response:
Dear Lynn,
The question of cover art is a very good one. Just as our first impressions of people often prove to be accurate, I do believe that we can frequently judge a book by its cover, which is why I try to be as pro-active as possible in the design of my book covers. I am a very deliberate writer in that I know exactly what story I am trying to tell and what themes I wish to convey to a reader. It's crucial that a book cover reflect those things, and who would know better than me? My undergraduate work was in theatrical design. I'm a very visual person, and my books are often inspired by works of art. With both Leonardo's Swans and Stealing Athena, I knew which art should grace the covers before I had written the books.
The cover is the "face" of the book, if you will. A reader may not judge the book by its cover, but the reader cannot get inside the book without seeing and regarding the cover. Like faces, a cover is either alluring—or not. Publishers (publishers of us more fortunate authors) put a great deal of time and consideration into what a book cover should convey. Choosing the elements for a cover is now as exacting as if it were a science. I am very grateful to have a publisher that wants to involve me in these decisions. Not every publisher defers to an author in these instances.
The painting on the cover of Stealing Athena is a self-portrait by the French painter Marie-Geneviève Bouliard in which she envisioned herself as Aspasia. I selected it because it is an imagined portrait of one of my two heroines done by a female artist who was painting in the time period of my other heroine, Mary Nisbet (circa 1794). Considering the dual narratives of my book, you can't get more perfect than that! The first attempt at a cover design, however, was unsatisfactory. The painting was a good choice, but the true star of the book, "The Elgin Marbles," had no representation. I asked Doubleday to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get those marbles on the cover, and they graciously accommodated me. I think the result is stunning. The insertion of a small portion of the Parthenon frieze at the bottom was genius, as far as I am concerned. It does not intrude upon the design but enhances it. And I also love the gilded Turkish trim that the designer uses at the top of the cover because it brings in another element of the book, which is its setting in Ottoman-ruled Turkey and Greece. Also, a funny aside—the figure in the painting has one exposed nipple, which the book designer brilliantly wrapped around so that it fits on the spine, not on the cover, and then covered it with a plaque containing my name! Many bookstores, in addition to "family" stores such as Walmart, where thousands of books are sold, will not carry a cover that has nudity.
So you see, designing a cover is truly an art form in itself, but just as important are the marketing and sales realities that one must also consider. Another great question in designing a cover for Stealing Athena was how to make it reminiscent of the paperback of my last novel, Leonardo's Swans, which was very successful. Now, I know that a lot of people don't even like to think of an author having to trouble her pretty little head with these business-type considerations, but the truth (the real, solid, inescapable reality) is that if we don't sell books, we can't get published anymore. And if we can't get published, well, you can't read us, and moreover, we can't eat! So I am delighted to work on these issues with my publisher to satisfy all parties while still remaining utterly true to the integrity of the book. With a little patience, fortitude, and creativity, it can be done.
To recap, I think it's amazing that we were able to convey so many elements of the book in the cover design with visual clues alone: an 18th century woman in classical dress represents the two female heroines; the frieze suggests that the book is about The Elgin Marbles; the gilded letters and trim suggest the Turkish setting; the lettering, colors, and florals suggest the lavishness of the settings and the time periods; and the similar composition and elements that were present on the cover of Leonardo's Swans all suggest that the book was written by the same author.
My best,
Karen Essex
Dear Lynn,
The question of cover art is a very good one. Just as our first impressions of people often prove to be accurate, I do believe that we can frequently judge a book by its cover, which is why I try to be as pro-active as possible in the design of my book covers. I am a very deliberate writer in that I know exactly what story I am trying to tell and what themes I wish to convey to a reader. It's crucial that a book cover reflect those things, and who would know better than me? My undergraduate work was in theatrical design. I'm a very visual person, and my books are often inspired by works of art. With both Leonardo's Swans and Stealing Athena, I knew which art should grace the covers before I had written the books.
The cover is the "face" of the book, if you will. A reader may not judge the book by its cover, but the reader cannot get inside the book without seeing and regarding the cover. Like faces, a cover is either alluring—or not. Publishers (publishers of us more fortunate authors) put a great deal of time and consideration into what a book cover should convey. Choosing the elements for a cover is now as exacting as if it were a science. I am very grateful to have a publisher that wants to involve me in these decisions. Not every publisher defers to an author in these instances.
The painting on the cover of Stealing Athena is a self-portrait by the French painter Marie-Geneviève Bouliard in which she envisioned herself as Aspasia. I selected it because it is an imagined portrait of one of my two heroines done by a female artist who was painting in the time period of my other heroine, Mary Nisbet (circa 1794). Considering the dual narratives of my book, you can't get more perfect than that! The first attempt at a cover design, however, was unsatisfactory. The painting was a good choice, but the true star of the book, "The Elgin Marbles," had no representation. I asked Doubleday to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get those marbles on the cover, and they graciously accommodated me. I think the result is stunning. The insertion of a small portion of the Parthenon frieze at the bottom was genius, as far as I am concerned. It does not intrude upon the design but enhances it. And I also love the gilded Turkish trim that the designer uses at the top of the cover because it brings in another element of the book, which is its setting in Ottoman-ruled Turkey and Greece. Also, a funny aside—the figure in the painting has one exposed nipple, which the book designer brilliantly wrapped around so that it fits on the spine, not on the cover, and then covered it with a plaque containing my name! Many bookstores, in addition to "family" stores such as Walmart, where thousands of books are sold, will not carry a cover that has nudity.
So you see, designing a cover is truly an art form in itself, but just as important are the marketing and sales realities that one must also consider. Another great question in designing a cover for Stealing Athena was how to make it reminiscent of the paperback of my last novel, Leonardo's Swans, which was very successful. Now, I know that a lot of people don't even like to think of an author having to trouble her pretty little head with these business-type considerations, but the truth (the real, solid, inescapable reality) is that if we don't sell books, we can't get published anymore. And if we can't get published, well, you can't read us, and moreover, we can't eat! So I am delighted to work on these issues with my publisher to satisfy all parties while still remaining utterly true to the integrity of the book. With a little patience, fortitude, and creativity, it can be done.
To recap, I think it's amazing that we were able to convey so many elements of the book in the cover design with visual clues alone: an 18th century woman in classical dress represents the two female heroines; the frieze suggests that the book is about The Elgin Marbles; the gilded letters and trim suggest the Turkish setting; the lettering, colors, and florals suggest the lavishness of the settings and the time periods; and the similar composition and elements that were present on the cover of Leonardo's Swans all suggest that the book was written by the same author.
My best,
Karen Essex
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