Reading and Writing History and Fiction (and sometimes food)
After sales in Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands (am I forgetting any?), Alison has cracked the U.S. market. From Publisher’s Marketplace this morning:
Alison Pick’s FAR TO GO, an epic historical novel set during the lead-up to Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia and the fate of one Jewish family, to Claire Wachtel at Harper Perennial, in a good deal, by Barbara Howson at House of Anansi Press.
Can a U.S. book tour be far behind? Here’s hoping for Chicago.
In Publisher’s Marketplace:
Dutch rights to Alison Pick’s THURSDAY’S CHILD, to Orlando, at auction, by Margaret Halton at Rogers, Coleridge & White, on behalf of Anne McDermid at Anne McDermid & Associates.
Congratulations, Alison!
I am breaking my long blog silence (permanently — there will be many more posts in the next few days and weeks) for a very good cause, to celebrate the release today of Sheramy Bundrick’s debut novel, Sunflowers, published by Avon, about the story of Vincent van Gogh. I met Sheramy at the Historical Novel Society conference in June, and have been eagerly awaiting for this release.
You can go here to enter a contest to win a copy of Sheramy’s book. Julianne has a review of the novel up there on her site today as well.
I have to laugh at the status-consciousness of some (very few) of the people in my field sometimes. For the four or five of us who haven’t figured this out yet, fifteen minutes away from the Medieval Academy Meeting, to paraphrase Pierre Trudeau, you could be the most published, beloved, reprinted, honorary degreed, endowed medieval historian in the world, and nobody will know your name.
What I didn’t realize until this week, was that much the same can be true in the fiction publishing world. I met Diana Gabaldon on the weekend, and I have spent much of the week trying to impress my friends with the coolness of this and being met with “Who’s she?” or “I *think* I’ve heard that name.” And this is from people who read, and who read fiction at that. It goes to show that you can be a New York Times best-selling writer whose books normally make that list with a publishing career that has spanned decades, and still people will say, “Ummm…”
Anyway, I met Diana Gabaldon on the weekend, and she was lovely. Friendly and warm, and not in a “I will tolerate you while you gush all over me” way, but in an “I will join you and your friends on the couch and we can talk about how to write sex scenes” kind of way. Very impressive.
I spent last weekend in Schaumburg at the Historical Novel Society conference meeting old friends and new, and thinking hard about what it takes to write a compelling historical novel. I was going to write a full post about the conference but all my procrastination has meant that Julianne Douglas got there before me, and I must concur with everything she said. She even went to most of the panels I attended, so go on over there if you want to see what I thought!
I was tagged in this reading meme over on Facebook ages ago, and I never answered. I’ll post my answers over there too, but my blog seemed like a better place for it.
1. What author do you own the most books by?
Well, I own all the Dorothy Dunnetts, including one of the mysteries so she probably wins. Also close would be Mary Wesley and Carol Shields. I can see Alice Hoffman creeping up behind them in the next few years.
2. What book do you own the most copies of?
I own two copies of Carol Shields’s Republic of Love — a paperback, because it has the perfect cover and I can’t let it go (Mum? You know that copy you’re missing,well, erm…heh.) and a hardcover that I bought at the coop used book sale and found it was signed by the author once I got it home.
3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with a preposition?
Didn’t notice. If they had confused “fewer” with “less” I would have been really upset, however.
4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Is it too utterly wet to admit I have kind of a crush on the hero of the first novel I wrote? And does it count when they are a figment of your imagination, not someone else’s? Apart from that I fear I am a bit of a literary flirt. I can fall madly in love with a character for the length of a novel, and then forget his name once I am finished with the book.
5. What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding children’s picture books)?
Probably either A Tangled Web, The Blue Castle, or Rliia of Ingleside, all by L.M. Montgomery. I am a re-reader though. I read all my favourites many times over.
6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
See the answer to number 5. I’ll also add Eloise Jarvis McGraw’s Greensleeves. I still get something out of that book when I reread it.
7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
Heh. A certain nameless novel about Barcelona. (Not Shadow of the Wind, which I loved). I learned a lot from it though.
8. What is the best book you’ve read in the last year?
This has been a good twelve months for reading, but I’m going to pick Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale for sheer satisfaction.
9. If you could force everyone to read one book, what would it be?
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Hah. And I’d make them read the poetry out loud. Aren’t you all glad I don’t run the world?
10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Difficult, because Doris Lessing just won. I’ll say A.S. Byatt.
11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games
12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
I wish I could unsee Possession.
13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don’t think I’ve ever dreamed about any of these things.
14. What is the most lowbrow book you read as an adult?
I skimmed the Da Vinci Code.
15. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Derrida’s Of Grammatology. I haven’t got past the Spivak introduction yet. Oh, you mean fiction? Fiction’s not difficult.
16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve ever seen?
Probably one of the Henry’s, and I don’t even remember which one…
17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
The Russians, of course!
18. Roth or Updike?
Um, I read Witches of Eastwick, and it was fine and all, but…
19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Oh, please.
20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare. yes, i know I’m a medievalist, but Chaucer isn’t even close.
21. Austin [sic] or Eliot?
Can I trust a literary meme that can’t even spell Jane Austen’s name correctly? I’ve read one Eliot (Middlemarch) and every single Austen that has a beginning, middle, and end, and I’m still going to pick Eliot.
22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
Nineteenth and twentieth century fiction from the United States. I’ve read almost none.
23. What is your favorite novel?
Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook
24. Favorite play?
Macbeth. And everything of Tom Stoppard’s that I’ve read or seen.
25. Favorite poem?
John Donne is my favourite poet, but my favourite poem of his depends on my mood.
26. Favorite Essay?
Laurie Colwin’s food writing.
27. Favorite short story?
While she’s on my mind, Colwin’s “St. Anthony of the Desert.” Or any of hers, really. I also like Melissa Bank.
28. Favorite work of nonfiction?
I’m going to pick Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror
29. Favorite writers?
See above.
30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Quoting Julianne: “If you can’t say something nice…”
31. What is your desert island book?
Why wouldn’t I take my favourite book to a desert island? Besides, The Golden Notebook is nice and long.
32. What are you reading now?
Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair. Fun.
Any question you find especially interesting? Answer it in the comments!
Spotted today in Publisher’s Marketplace:
Alison Pick’s THURSDAY’S CHILD, a story about love, hope and betrayal within an affluent Jewish family in Prague during the lead-up to Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, to Lynn Henry of House of Anansi, in a pre-empt, by Anne McDermid Associates.
That’s my cousin! Check out her website in my links. I’ve read this novel and it is wonderful. There are many novels about the war and the Holocaust, but this one is very different, about a place and a moment that is seldom described. To me, she gets the feel of Czechoslovakia as it fell to Hitler absolutely perfectly and the story is gripping and beautifully written. Her publisher is going to be very happy they picked up this book.
Maybe I’ll do a blog interview of Alison when her book is released. Hmm. *plots*
Amy Kelly’s engaging and evocative biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings says about Eleanor’s participation in the Second Crusade, citing Michaud’s History of the Crusades as her source:
With the queen came “many other ladies of quality,” Sybille , Countess of Flanders, whose half brother was King of Jerusalem, Mamille of Roucy, Florine of Bourgogne, Torqueri of Bouillon, Faydide of Toulouse, and scores of others whom the chroniclers could not afford the parchment to enumerate.
Do a google search for a few of those names. Go ahead, I’ll wait. You’ll find that scores of other writers, both in published non-fiction and fiction, as well as web-based sources have taken those words as gospel truth and have published that list of names almost word for word — Allison Weir, Norman Cantor, Antonia Fraser, etc.
Problem. Not one name on that list actually accompanied Eleanor to the Holy Land — and as it happens, Michaud mentions none of them. Let’s take a look at them one by one:
So, frankly, shame on all these authors for simply accepting Kelly’s words as fact, especially the ones who claim to be writing non-fiction. But the lie has been repeated so many times, it has become a commonplace. Faced with that, what does the historical novelist do? Work the myth into the story — or change it?
Last April I wrote a post on what makes a good cover, and I mentioned that I especially liked the cover for Laurie Groff’s The Monsters of Templeton
Turns out I was not the only one. My friend Tamara alerted me to a fascinating article called 30 Books Worth Buying for their Covers Alone, and I was delighted to see that Ms Groff’s book made the cut. The other 29 covers are worth checking out as well. I own Heaney’s Beowulf and Cooley’s The Archivist and have been drawn to many of the others. It is interesting to note that, with the eexception of the Heaney, the Cooley, and the cover for Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun, all the books on the list use illustrations rather than photographs for their cover art. Which was kind of the point of my original post.
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Julianne Douglas is seeking some help with market research, and I’d like to know the answer too. She wants to know what makes people choose to buy the historical novels that they buy. Which factor plays the biggest role in causing you to part with your dollars to buy a historical novel written by a new author?
Hop on over to her blog and answer the poll question on the top right hand side. And if you can’t decide (or even if you can) and want to comment about these or other reasons for buying a book, I’d love to read your comments, either here or over there.
I’m posting this here because I know I have many non-novelists but fervent readers who read this blog. I would love to learn your views.
Thanks!