Don’t Kill Fido
When I hired a sensitivity reader for my upcoming novel, Diamonds in Auschwitz, I never imagined the main piece of advice. I wanted someone to read it and show me the things I got wrong in the Jewish faith and culture and make sure I didn’t accidentally write something offensive. Looking back now, I see that my sensitivity reader almost worked like a focus group. My brain went over those arguments for days. I can’t say how grateful I am to have an editor to do that for me. The sensitivity reader saved one life at least.
Things I learned from copyedits
I am getting closer to the publication date of Diamonds in Auschwitz and a completed book! I finished copyediting the entire manuscript. When you read something 1700 times, you’ll second guess yourself. I thought my book would be edited. One and done. All you non-journalism people can celebrate. The very first thing I noticed when I looked at the copy editor’s changes was the death of my AP comma. I’m entirely too wordy. I blame this on my early Tolstoy and Dostoevsky influences. Like everything else in this publishing journey, copy editing was a wonderful learning experience. Round two of publishing?
Confessions of a Non Editor
Confession: I was truly ignorant in regards to the process of writing/preparing a novel for publication. Having just finished the developmental editing phase of publication, I can say without a doubt: I was right. Enter: My Editor. Btw, my editor is fabulous. I was finally given a little direction on major edits. And I loved it! the developmental editing experience was not just essential to get Diamonds in Auschwitz ready for true book form, but it was an amazing lesson.
The Courage to be Naked
After I finished my first draft of Diamonds in Auschwitz, I wanted to hide my manuscript in a box, under my bed, never to see the light of day again. Why would I want to hide my pages? A book is not a book without readers? Showing them to the world, letting others judge them – it’s like walking around naked. Handing over my story to other people was a tremendously terrifying thing for me. I had to close my eyes, take a deep breath and tap the key.
When Winning Feels Like Losing
I know I have to earn the Dream. I realized that I wanted to skip past all my dues, all the hard work, all the reputation- and network-building. I grieved The Dream. I’ve come to terms with it. The goal of Diamonds in Auschwitz is: 1. Telling the story, because I believe it’s an important one to be told. The Dream is still alive, it’s just in the future, but a bit closer.
Part-Time Lover… I mean Writer
If the words I put on a page are not published, is it a book? Am I a writer? My writing aspirations are still a somewhat guarded secret among my friends, acquaintances and day-job co-workers. I only have a file on my computer, a dent in the seat of my office chair, and keyboard keys with the S, D and E worn out to show for my efforts. A professional writer entails having been paid for such efforts. It’s also a badge of honor, in my opinion. Without a book on the shelves of Barnes and Noble, I don’t see that I’ve earned that honor. I shy away from announcing that “I am Writer! Hear Me (or my pen) Roar!” because I’m terrified of failure. “I’m a Writer.”
Confidence is not ‘They will like me.’ Confidence is ‘I’ll be fine if they don’t.’
Sending a manuscript to publishers is a fresh new hell, especially for those who suffer from low confidence and/or crippling imposter syndrome. In all my classes during undergrad, which I took ALL the creative writing ones, never was it mentioned the fortitude of spirit that would be needed to be a writer. Not everyone will like what I wrote, and I will be fine even if they don’t.
Writing and Middle School Robotics
Have you ever attended a middle school robotics competition? In these competitions, there are a lot of misplaced outbursts of anger, a lot of asking “why am I even doing this?”, a lot of tears. I was recently faced with the same dilemma – continue down the path of the novel I was currently writing with very little hope of publishing OR completely start over in hopes of making something spectacular. There was definitely one night of lying in bed deciding that I was done. Done researching, done writing, done trying to make this dream come true. If my twelve-year-old can do it; so can I.
Adoption, Injured Geese and the Patience of Publishing
I’m not one to handle disappointments, rejections, failures, etc. stoically, or even well. I look at my daughter today – this daughter who is the perfect one for me at the perfect time. I know that those stacks of NOs from publishers that I am collecting are not really nos, but just not yets.
Frau Friedl in Real Life
Frau Friedl deserves so much more than the few chapters in which she appears in Diamonds in Auschwitz. Unlike many of the artists in Terezin who were afraid to draw the true conditions and afraid to sign their name to anything incriminating, Frau Friedl encouraged the children to draw what they saw, what they felt, what they dreamed of. Four years later, she smuggled over 4,500 drawings in two suitcases out of the camp.
The Living, Breathing Streets of Prague
I knew nothing of the city, nothing of its people or its experience during World War II. But as the story unfolded itself to me, starting backwards in Auschwitz, reversing in time to Terezin, the origin became obvious to me. It’s more than a place. It’s a living, breathing part of the story.
This book is dedicated to the porch swing
I’d love to tell you some heart wrenching story about how her piano teacher inspired me or encouraged me or motivated me. But in truth, it’s very simple. My book would never have been completed without her. Or rather, without her porch swing.