Writing a Book

I have been writing and writing and writing—pretty much nonstop, without coming up for air. Five chapters are now complete. I think I may be turning into a mushroom, having spent so much time in a cool, dark room without much sunlight or fresh air. Yes, there’s a fungus among us.

The last two chapters have been struggles, and the amount of research and reading I have to do to prepare to write each letter is overwhelming, especially with such a truncated schedule. Yesterday, I hit a serious wall, and literally could muster neither the physical nor mental energy to go on. My eyes are continually sore and strained, and I look like hell. I took a short break to…

Category: Writing a Book

Oh really? Says WHO?

Well here, fresh from the inbox, is the final version of our book cover! We had a little aggravation back and forth over the subtitle font—I copped a fontitude and wouldn’t back down—and in the end I broke away from writing, gave them five fonts I could live with and they picked one. Whew!

Sent the complete Chapter One off to my development editor yesterday, and she let us know that Production had no problem with any of the specs I asked about last week. Yay.

Okay, back to the grind…

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Category: Writing a Book

If you’re looking for me, I’m no longer operating out of the beautiful writing studio, c/o the master suite sitting room – I’ve relocated back to my office on the first floor. This will sound loopy (which is a pretty apt description for me at this point in the project), but it was just too damn sunny and bright up there, and, as heretical as it sounds, I found myself praying for dark, cloudy skies every single day. White walls, white sofa, big windows, and with the sun so strong now that the season has changed, the blinding light was reflecting off everything and I felt like my retinas were burning all day long. So I’m set up in…

Category: Writing a Book

Woohoo! We not only managed to do the cover shoot last Saturday, but it was one of the most rewarding days ever. The “artist” we hired was actually a sand sculptor named Andy, and with our direction he created an extraordinary sandcastle at Georgica Beach in East Hampton. Because the book is written in the form of letters to our boys, we wanted the cover image to convey a lot of things: fun, creativity, dreams, aspirations, simplicity, success and a childlike quality. We thought a sandcastle would accomplish all that, and we actually incorporated a real alarm clock into the clock tower to symbolize the “wake-up call” in the subtitle. The back of the castle is the castle wall,…

Category: Writing a Book

The excitement for last week was that I finished the final profile! It felt amazing to wrap up that aspect of the project – at least temporarily. I took one day off, and then jumped back in, reading over the profiles in the reverse order in which I had written them. I wanted to get all the editing done so that once I moved on to the letters, I would know that these were finito and ready to roll. I had a sense that the more profiles I had written, the more my writing style and voice had evolved and improved, and I was pretty curious to read them in reverse order and see where they would jump the…

Category: Writing a Book

I am so excited to start writing our 16th and final profile! This is an interview we conducted a while ago, and I’ve purposely kept it aside because I wasn’t exactly sure how to frame it. But with no avoidance tactics left in my arsenal, I brought the 50-page transcript with me to read during a pedicure yesterday—how’s that for multitasking? (and Essie “Calypso” for anyone who’s dying to know)—and figured out an angle. It’s going to be a beautiful story, and by the weekend I will finally be on to Part Two of the project, writing the letters. I’m looking forward to doing the research and finally getting to use a different style of writing.

The big news…

Category: Writing a Book

'Twas a red-letter week in Bookland! We completed the final three of our 16 interviews (totaling 20 people), and even though I wish I could keep going and interview people forever, it’s gratifying to have crossed the finish line with one phase of the project. Each and every interview was tremendously fascinating, and often people felt comfortable enough to open up to us and reveal very personal thoughts and reflections. It was sometimes a little like taking confession or conducting therapy, and I remarked to David that so many people wound up saying, “You can’t write this but…” and then telling us something they apparently rarely admit to others. Of course all that off-the-record stuff stays in confidence!

So yes,…

Category: Writing a Book

Ohhhh yeah…I made my co-author weep last week. That’s a pretty damn good feeling, to write a piece in such a way that evokes tears from someone who already knows the story. That was the culmination of a productive week in which I actually got to write two profiles for the same chapter. That hadn’t happened before, since we’ve been doing interviews out of order, but it was a pleasure to be able to do two in a row on the same topic.

We’re down to our last three interviews, and the final one is scheduled to happen on Saturday. I’ve already finished the questions for all three, so that’s cool that we’re winding that part down. Writing stories from…

Category: Writing a Book

The last couple of weeks here in Book Land have been fairly uneventful—in a good way. I wrote two more profiles, both of which I had thought would be quick and easy, yet each of which required more nuanced thought and finessing than I had anticipated. Add in three unexpected days away due to our extended power outage from the Big Storm, and I’ve been slightly less productive than I had hoped. But that’s okay. I’ve written over 100 book pages already!

Because I’m so focused on the writing, I sometimes lose track of the big picture, and periodically I like to get out of the weeds and have a strategic planning meeting to regroup and make sure we’re on…

Category: Writing a Book

Anyone know what 0470637927 is? (Reminds me of, “I am human being number 1005963297.”) If you guessed that it’s our book’s ISBN #, you are absolutely right, and there’a a case of Rice-a-Roni here with your name on it!

Last week, I took a little detour from writing profiles to do the first piece of what will likely be loads of promotional writing on behalf of Letters From Home. Our editor needed to submit web copy to her online team late last week, so it was either use what her marketing team drafted or come up with our own. (And anyone who knows me even remotely well knows which option I will pick every time.) Web copy is the…

Category: Writing a Book