On Saturday, a sudden snow squall turned the sky white as a blank page, forcing a moment of reckoning with the forces beyond our control. All one could do was surrender, marvel, and appreciate. So it is when the muse enters the room and takes the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the oxygen—leaving us breathless as we wake from our trance.
After the skies cleared, we headed out for hibachi with one of our favorite clients—also a dear friend—whose long short story has morphed into a novella—and as he reminisced about his childhood in the 1940s, we encouraged him to start his memoir. Here’s what he has to say about working with us.
Although I have written and published nonfiction, the skills required for fiction are distinctly different. Tom and Julia’s collective experience in fiction writing has been essential to my ability to write a first novel. — Brooks Colburn, PhD
Last night, there was coconut curry cooking in the crock pot as we prepared for another week of helping writers bring their stories to life.
Work on the audio edition of The Big One, which Julia co-wrote with Mike Krysiuk, is nearly done, guided by our brilliant British audio engineer, Morrison Ellis. Morrison was live on Instagram last weekend demonstrating his skills on a section of the book, after which he hosted a Clubhouse discussion in which Julia was featured.
Our newest title, With You by Greg Lawrence, is also in audio production and continues to receive rave reviews on Amazon.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. A generational saga with vivid story telling, well researched details and history , great concept and unexpected twists and turns. Well worth your time for the read. — Lizz M.
What we’re working on…
Cover artist Nicole Hower is cranking out concepts for Where the Light Is Brighter, the bittersweet story of 98-year-old Edith Sharp’s finding friendship, joy, and ultimately home in the fictional River’s Edge long-term care facility—the “never place” she never wanted to be. And we’re about to start serious line editing on both our historically accurate Native American thriller and our madcap adventure of an Ivy League baseball star whose life—both on and off campus—is turned upside down, inside out, and every which way but loose when his troubled past collides with his plan to land a job on Wall Street. If you want to become a master of the universe, you have to master your demons first.
Finally, Tom’s little book of essays, The Alphabet of Love, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
A thoughtful contemplation of the modern day struggles and triumphs of love.
— Abigail Bates
What we’re looking for…
Unlike many hybrid publishers, we continue to be interested in literary fiction (as well as memoir and non-fiction that educates and inspires). Books with strong voices that push the boundaries of genre and form are welcome, as a good story always transcends its container.
What we’re reading…
Reading and rereading our authors’ manuscripts occupied most of our time during the past two weeks, but Tom did get a little ways into Joseph Conrad’s story, “Youth,” the tale of a cursed ship carrying coal from London to Bangkok (which apparently was cost-effective in the late 1880s). Julia is enjoying Fulfilled by Anna Yusim, a friend and award-winning psychiatrist and executive coach, whose compelling book explores the premise that “our lingering feeling of dissatisfaction coincides with spiritual neglect.” The rest of our ever-growing reading list will have to wait.
What we’re listening to…
Tom logged another hour or so of Maya Jasaloff’s biography of Joseph Conrad—The Dawn Watch—while Julia continued to absorb A Light so Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, Author of a Wrinkle in Time. She’s also started Chrissie Hynde’s memoir, Reckless: My Life as a Pretender.
Krista Tippett’s On Being podcast continues to be a source of inspiration for Tom, who encountered this quote from Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg that echoes the message of his book on love.
The word love is so loaded, And our fear of course is that it means something very passive, complacent, and I’m going to let people hurt me, and I’m going to let them oppress other people, and I’m going to be a doormat. It’s very hard to see love as a force, as a power rather than as a weakness, But that is its reality. — Sharon Salzberg
What we’re cooking up…
Our Flash Fiction Workshop, back by popular demand, starts up again on March 2nd. Come join us as we use free writing to generate a piece of flash fiction in just 20 minutes. Starting with a prompt to stimulate your imagination, you’ll find yourself setting scenes, creating characters, forming a narrative, and mastering the flash fiction story arc. After writing, we’ll read our pieces and discuss with the group. And, you’ll have finished stories you can submit to contests and possibly stitch into a longer narrative.
Here’s the opening of a piece created in the workshop.
Wilson opened the pages of his wife’s journal, looking for answers. She had always been a woman of mystery—tall, slim, disarmingly attractive with that sly smile of hers and those saucer-like blue eyes—and a ten-year chunk of her past that was—even to him—unaccounted for and never spoken of. She called it her “hiatus from life,” and Wilson—who was well aware that he had married several notches up on the rating scale—wasn’t one to pry…until now.
We’re also offering an exciting new two-session course, The Art of the Opening—Scene, Stakes, Structure, and Spirit. You’ll learn exactly what makes an opening great, master a simple process you can use to craft your first lines and following paragraphs, and sharpen the tools you need to start your book with a bang.
Aside from co-leading our classes, Julia will be devoting the entire month of March to work on the screenplay for her own independent feature film.
That’s all for this edition; stay tuned for the next. As always, we are grateful to our authors, clients, friends, and supporters. Onward and upward in 2022 and beyond!
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