Trip to Denver April 11 & 12
I’ll be at the Tattered Cover Bookstores (all three in Denver) on Monday evening the 11th and Tuesday morning/afternoon of the 12th. i’ll also be hitting a couple of Barnes and Nobles. I’ll be stopping by to talk to sales staff and bring some gifts! It’ll be my first visit to speak to booksellers about Open Wounds and I’m looking forward to it. In a previous secret life I worked a second job as a bookseller in a Walden Books for a few months before and up to Christmas. Thinking about it still brings a smile to my face. I loved talking to people about books.
Review: Crossing The Tracks, by Barbara Stuber
From Goodreads: Stuck in 1920’s rural Missouri as a housekeeper, fifteen year old Iris cultivates an eccentric cast of folks into the family she never had and opens herself to love.
Crossing the Tracks, by Barbara Stuber is a gem of a book.
Barbara Stuber’s award winning first novel lives up to its promise of beautiful writing and fascinating narrative storytelling. From the opening scene of a five year old Iris playing beneath her mother’s coffin to the home of Dr. Nesbitt in Wellesford, Missouri, where Iris has been sent by her busy father to work – the 1926 rural landscape and atmosphere is perfect. This is a wonderful historical novel that you savor as you read. Ms. Stuber’s writing is lyrical, insightful of human nature, and textured. For example, Iris, the protagonist says of a crying elderly Mrs. Nesbitt, “I’ve never seen an old person cry like this. The sadness from life is supposed to be folded inside an old person, not streaming out.” A throughline in the story of dusting off memories is especially wonderful as is the call-back to the meaning of the word hobo – homeword bound. As in the best historical novels, the details of the period give life to the world Ms. Stuber has created, but do not overwhelm it. For example Doctor Nesbitt treats common rural illness but also broken bones from injuries related to hand cranking cars. The world building is quite simply terriffic. Characters are real and draw the reader into Iris’ world immediately. I just loved Iris and Mrs. Nesbitt. As a protagonist Iris made me turn the pages to see what happened next.
This is a novel about loss and grief and the themes are handled with love and care. The author’s understanding of these themes is deep and her novel shows how great losses – a mother, a son, a husband, growing old – can cripple and bind a heart but then with time and the help of others can be healed.
How relevant can a story set in the 1920s be to teens today? Highly. Iris’ world and her problems, insecurity, loss of a parent, the need to be loved and to find love, the need to understand her place in the world, are universal. This is a book that deserves a wide audience and I truly hope it finds one.
Visit Ms. Stuber’s website for more information about her and the writing of her debut novel, Crossing the Tracks.
ARCs
Open Wounds ARC
Open Wounds ARC
ARCs are advanced reader copies. They are trade paperback size versions of my book that will be sent out to reviewers for pre-publication reviews. The ones sitting in front of me have the old cover on them (which although not as cool as the final version that will be going on the hard cover – is still pretty impressive to me).
I opened the box left on my door step by UPS from Everbind (where WestSide Books is housed in New Jersey) a few moments ago and five copies are staring up at me. I am sitting writing this and my fingers are tingling and I’m a bit light-headed. I can’t believe a book with my name on it is staring up at me. It’s beautiful.
When I was 16 and first started to write (I entered an essay contest and was a finalist but didn’t win because, as a judge told me later confidentially, “You could have won – we all loved what you wrote – except your spelling was so bad it put you out of the final spot.”) I hadn’t really imagined this moment. As I wrote and sent out stories and received one rejection after another over the next thirteen years I still didn’t think of myself with a book in front of me with my name on it. But by the time I was thirty I had written my first book and had begun my second, and although I hadn’t found an agent yet (I would write to 74 before I found my first) I’d published a few short stories and all of a sudden I realized I was capable of writing longer works and could be a… novelist. Over the next fifteen years the dream crystalized as I found an agent, then lost one, then found another and lost that one too. Two more agent later and the dream had almost faded. Too many rejections, too many agents, too many disappointments. I had written five novels the last one taking seven years to write, and not one had sold. I had just about given up last summer when my agent called, out of the blue – as they say – and all of a sudden – seven months later and I’m staring at an ARC of my book.
There are blurbs from eight author’s on the front and back covers saying how much they liked it. Most of these authors I’ve never met before but they did this wonderful thing for me.
There’s an acknowledgements page – a dedication page.
I can’t believe it. There’s a huge smile on my face. A huge smile.
There are Swords and There are Swords
Open Wounds first cover
My publisher is incredible. I’ve heard stories from other writers about their covers that have been horror stories. I know writers may or may not get a say in what their cover looks like. I’ve always known this. So when Evelyn Fazio (Publisher at WestSide Books) told me she doesn’t like to let writers get a look at their cover until it’s been tested on the target audience I wasn’t sure what to think. She said, “I don’t like authors to fall in love with a cover that we have to change. Evelyn knows how to market her books – she focus groups them on their target audience and on librarians – and I had to have faith in her and her team’s abilities to put forth a cover that would knock me out. I know she loved my book and the folks at WestSide also loved my book so I, after sending an initial email with my “ideas” spelled out, let things go. I have a hard time with that.
The first cover was terrific. A fencer in full competitive gear. I saw it and loved it but… I noticed the weapon he was using was a Saber. In Open Wounds Cid, the main character, only uses an épée. He is told by his teacher, Nikolai Varvarinski – the mad Russian – that he should only use the épée and not the saber. Cid also uses a rapier for teaching stage fencing for a production of Romeo and Juliet so either weapon will do just not… a saber. I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I say something? Should I let it go? My publicist said, “Say something.” My wife said, “Say something.” My writer friends said, “Say something.” I waited a week and said nothing. Then I called Evelyn and said, “I love the cover, but… it’s a saber and not an épée. Any fencer will know he’s got the wrong weapon on the cover.” Evelyn understood right away the importance of this, especially in a historical novel. She said it would be changed. They could still use the cover but change the weapon. She asked me for some pictures so they could make sure they got it right. I sent them along.
In the mean time she had sent out the cover to librarians and asked them to show it to kids and see what they said.
Open Wounds is a boy book – not that girls won’t like it but it is targeted at boys. and one thing studies have shown in the publishing world about boys is that a good percentage of them choose books based on the cover. I found out Evelyn had also sent along a second cover of a NYC landscape with a sword superimposed over it. One group in California at a juvenile detention center gave especially helpful feedback. “Kids were turned off because they’re not interested in fencing,” The librarian said. “They like swords, though, a lot.”
Yesterday Evelyn sent me a rushed email with the cover explaining quickly what had happened.” Tell me what you think,” she asked, “now!” I downloaded the cover and closed my eyes while it loaded. I waited a few moments then opened them. I loved this cover. The old one was out and the new one was in. The sword is a rapier from the late 16th century, a clamshell hilt, the perfect weapon for Cid to teach his actors with. And New York City is… well its always been perfect – especially the shot of the Empire State Building. And Cid Wymann’s world is 1940’s New York City in all its glory.
Thank you, Evelyn Fazio.
Lunievicz 