The Coward's Journey

US PUBLICATION!!

2012-02-26T12:51:00.000-08:00

The US edition of The Coward's tale is on the chocks, and comes out officially early next week, although I think they are shipping already! With thanks to my US editor Kathy Belden and the Bloomsbury team in New York.

And two US literary blog reviews came in recently. First, a site called Seeing the World Through Books. Quite a fantastic website, a goldmine of in-depth reviews of books set in countries other than the US. The owner, Mary Whipple begins her amazing review thus:

"It has been two years since I have added a new book to my list of All-Time Favorites, but that has just changed with the release of this novel which deserves a special place on my Favorites list. Set in the mining country of southern Wales, Vanessa Gebbie’s incandescent new novel captures the cadences and speech patterns that lovers of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood have celebrated for years, and as I read the book (as slowly as possible), I felt as if Richard Burton, the Welsh narrator of Under Milk Wood, were whispering in my ear."

Please follow the link above for the whole review. I am particularly moved to see she has sourced pictures of the Gleision colliery disaster last September to underline the fact that mining tragedies are not a thing of the past.
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And secondly, a site called Tzer Island, where the review begins:

"When we take the time to look beneath the surface, people are not always what they seem to be. Sometimes those who seem cowardly are not cowards at all. Sometimes atonement is mistaken for guilt. In her unapologetically humane novel, Vanessa Gebbie reminds us of the patience and effort that is required to understand another person, and of the rewards awaiting those who make the effort."

and it ends:

"Gebbie writes musically rhythmic prose, forming sentences as sharp and shimmery as broken glass. Both instyle and content, The Coward’s Tale is an outstanding novel".

The complete review is via the link above. Another terrific website.

BARNES & NOBLE LINK - for easy purchase in the USA.

Mid-Feb round-up

2012-02-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

Hmm, I have neglected this blog of late. Apologies to the book.

Right - there have been some nice things happening - firstly, a coveted starred review from Kirkus in the USA: The whole review will become publicly available just before US publication, which is scheduled for March but includes these great lines, for which I am very grateful:

“With the hypnotic charm of her Welsh lilt, natural storyteller
Gebbie whittles tales from a hard bone of loss to create a profoundly
moving world.”

Then some reviews/interviews in the UK press which I neglected to put here:

The Independent - “a hynotic debut...”

The Daily Telegraph carried an interview.

The Guardian called it ‘spellbinding’
Literary blogs have been very kind:

Tales from the Reading Room says:

I was deeply moved by this book. It is at times incredibly sad, but always brave, inventive and beautiful

Read the rest here.

Cornflower Books says:

great humour and humanity, honesty and poignancy - the pitch is just right, and all the while the story's cadences rise and fall with a lilt and a rhythm that make it irresistible. (...) an outstanding piece.

Read the rest here.

Elephant in the Writing Room (Sally Zigmond) says:

one of those novels you want to read again and again

Read the rest here.

A kind review on the writers’ forum, WriteWords:

The Coward’s Tale has a quiet solemnity and dignity about it and yet manages at the same time to be funny and strange and touching.

Read the rest here.

However - The New Welsh Review blog seemed to write The Coward off as yet another damp-shadowed DT cliche. Ah well, can’t please them all. Read the blog post here.

Pre-Publication review in the USA

2012-01-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

From Publishers Weekly:- "The tenderness and generosity of this debut novel is strengthened by the precision and sharpness of its language."
and
"...this compassionate and sage depiction of a rural community gives the ... warmly fashioned characters the power of healing and forgiveness. "

A kind pre-publication review for 'The Coward's Tale' in the USA. Here, in Publishers Weekly.

One of The Financial Times Books of the Year -

2011-12-05T10:26:00.000-08:00

As if a lovely review wasn't enough, A N Wilson selected The Coward's Tale as his novel of the year, in The Financial Times, saying:

"... an extraordinarily lyrical, moving, funny evocation of a Welsh mining town and its inhabitants as seen through the eyes of “the coward”, who witnessed the collapse of the Kindly Light pit. A poet’s novel, really."

For the whole page, and all the FT's books of the year - here's the LINK.

LAUNCH PARTY

2011-11-17T00:28:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but the author had a marvellous time. In the end, you never quite know who is coming - but about 100 people came and went, popped in or stayed, and helped The Coward's Tale off to a flying start by buying a record number of books at a launch party, I'm told.

The Bloomsbury team were there, from Editorial Director Helen Garnons-Williams, who liked the book so much she bought it, Editor Erica Jarnes, Alexandra Pringle, Editor in Chief, who has been so welcoming - Alice Shortland from marketing, who invented the map among other things. I was particularly pleased to see Holly MacDonald, the designer who created the wonderful hardback jacket - she got a terrific round of applause from the multitude who approved strongly! My publicist, Anya Rosenberg. And my literary agent was there. Euan Thorneycroft, who was precisely the right person to represent this writer. I don't respond well to pressure, creatively - and I never felt any at all - even though the manuscript was finally handed in two years late and he must have wondered if it was ever coming. I owe him thanks not only for selling the book, but for sticking with me!
In the pic above, Helen is addressing the crowd from the dizzy heights of a chair. Well, she is tiny - and so many of my friends seem to be giants. I can't describe how moved I was to hear her speak. It was as though she was talking about some one else's book, and this was still a goal, far away, to have my very own editor speak so warmly about my 'stuff'. She quoted from A N Wilson's uber-great review in Readers' Digest, and a rather red-faced author accepted the most gorgeous bouquet of blooms from Bloomsbury.

Then my turn to speak - there were thank yous to say and of course, I was worried about getting it wrong, missing someone out. True to form... sorry Erica. You know how important you are to The Coward's Tale.

Lots of natter, lots of signatures, lots of silly messages to friends, and grown-up scribbles to supporters - and a gang of us were off to a nearby Italian restaurant, Getti, for supper. 32 of us, I think, round a vast table in the basement - where finally, V had a glass of Italian beer - the first drink of the evening - and my goodness, it was very very welcome!

Thanks to Anya Rosenberg at Bloomsbury for all the organisation, and for supplying the drinks at the launch. Thanks to Daunt Books Marylebone for allowing The Coward's Tale to have a great party in such a terrific place.

Waterstones Brighton - Saturday 19 November!

2011-11-14T01:35:00.001-08:00

next Saturday morning, 19th November, I am doing a different sort of book signing at Waterstones Brighton! For every lovely reader who buys a copy of The Coward's Tale, I will write a short short short story...something whimsical and just for them, with their own name if they want, as the character.
Photos from Twitpic here

Review by A N Wilson - "a gem" of a review.

2011-11-07T03:28:00.000-08:00

A few posts ago, I burbled about how delighted I was (and not a little relieved...) that A N Wilson had liked "The Coward's Tale", and his review in Readers' Digest was going to be positive.
It is indeed positive. It is "a dream review" to quote Sam Leith (@questingvole on Twitter). (Sam played an important role in the genesis of The Coward's Tale in his role as Lit Ed of The Daily Telegraph (may their pages never dim), back in 2007, when he ran A Novel in a Year competition. Not that this took a year, you understand. More like 6, but that's by the by.)

The first line of A N Wilson's review, 'This first novel is a gem', is the start of a list of very generous comments. But you'll have to go find Readers' Digest to read the rest. I'm far too modest to post any more here. (HA!!)

It is also good for the soul, in case one gets too la di da about all this - to see that a reviewer on Waterstones online found the novel 'Not my cup of tea'. Balance in all things, don't you think? There. That feels better.

Coming up to Publication...

2011-10-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

Three weeks, or maybe less, now to publication of The Coward's Tale. Yup - two weeks on Monday - 7th November! The launch party is organised, thanks to Anya, at Daunt Books in Marylebone High St. That's on the Thursday...I visited recently - what a gorgeous place - a booklover's dream. Particularly liked the way the 'travel' section contained not just travel guides, but all sorts of books about, or set in, or concerning each country - novels, poetry, history...

but I digress.
Invitations have gone out to friends and colleagues, family and various "great and good" - I have no idea who is coming because I'm not running the show, and that feels really odd! The shop will be open anyway - so if you are passing, and feel like browsing in one of the best bookshops in the UK, pop in and investigate The Coward's Tale gang - we'll be the noisy ones at the back. And of course, among others, you can buy this most gorgeous book, hardback, the jacket shining with foil blocking over terracotta and black...just perfect for Christmas presents (!).
I really started this post to describe how I feel. Friends ask if I am nervous - and the answer to that is 'not in the slightest.' Why would I be? The book is done to the best of my ability, published by a great publishing house. Its already been reviewed by one of the most revered reviewers in the UK, A N Wilson, and I can't wait to see what he said, although I know it is positive. It is lead review in Psychologies Magazine next month, and Marie Claire have also reviewed for next month's issue - and their journalist is coming to the party. That will be simply marvellous - who's a lucky person then?
How do I feel? I want to get on with it, now. I want the book out there, and I want to get on with the next! I have the outline in my head, never more than that - a fog, a cloud of 'something' - and am going to see my agent in ten days to discuss, as much as I can, anyway.
I met Erica Jarnes this week, at a Booktrust event. She is the editor who works with Helen Garnons-Williams at Bloomsbury, and who has been so helpful with The Coward's Tale - and we were talking briefly about the work of publicising, spreading the word. 'At some point, ' she said wisely, 'the book goes off on its own. You have to let go.'

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I had a smashing invitation this week. Been asked to attend a training day for publishers' publicists in London, and to natter about the use of social media, for writers. The pros and cons as I see them. Examples of the good and the bad - any high spots, and disasters that others can learn from.

So of course, I will talk about this little blog, among others. My main blog efforts. Facebook, and my newest playground, ( for 'playground' read 'potential timewaster',)Twitter. This is here to document the stages of a novel right through the publication process - as I hadn't seen that done before. And the blog will stay here, Google willing, when tis done.

Foreign rights...

2011-10-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well, just goes to show, I hadn't thought of this one too much - 'The Coward's Tale' is written in a fairly idiosyncratic style - in which the rhythms, the repetitions, and occasionally the choice of words is 'odd'.

The smashing rights people at A M Heath have sold rights in Portuguese, for Brazil. I am really pleased! And they have spent the last week at the Frankfurt Book Fair, so I'm waiting to find out if there are any other languages to think about.

It's a funny thing, this. I am feeling strange - as I won't be able to say if it has been done well, or not - maybe I should take a crash course in Portuguese...?

The book arrives...and reviews hover...

2011-09-27T11:13:00.001-07:00

It was about a fortnight ago - the box arrived by courier. And here it was, my gorgeous novel, times ten. The colours of the jacket glow, the silver of the foil-blocked leaves shine dully - it really is beautiful.

Then, I begin to get messages about reviews. Already? I am very surprised, but there you go, Im a novice at this thing. Those who have read for review seem to get in touch with the publisher, and let them know... at least these are the ones I am told about!

So, A N Wilson has reviewed for Readers' Digest, presumably forthcoming in an issue closer to the publication date of 7 November. He has let Bloomsbury know that he enjoyed it - and that is a relief. I am hugely pleased - he is someone I'd always hoped might read The Coward.

Psychologies Magazine will carry a review in the December issue, on sale in November. I like this - I don't read many women's mags, but this is one I do!

And there is even a Booklist review forthcoming in the USA - a generous one. Needless to say, I am very happy.

Of course, there will be others. Maybe Helen my editor and Anya my publicist are only sending through the good news...who knows. But I feel this - it is out of my hands now. I did as much as I could, and wrote the book I would have loved to read. Then I spent almost a year polishing the manuscript with the help of The Arts Council and the generous Maggie Gee.

Thanks to my agent Euan Thorneycroft The Coward's Tale found a very lovely publisher in Bloomsbury, who have been, and continue to be, absolutely wonderful. As a team, we couldn't have done more. What happens to it now is largely out of my hands, although I will work hard to support my book on its travels, spread the word, and enjoy the ride.

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(But I want to get on with my writing now - I feel pressure building in my head!)

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE COWARD'S TALE...

2011-08-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

Then there is the necessity of finding great quotes from great people, for the book's cover and first pages...and all these really are marvellous quotes from superb writers, performers - I am one lucky person, and The Coward is one lucky book. Please follow the red links to read more -
Maggie Gee says:

“Tender and gripping – a brilliantly written epic”

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Salena Godden says:

“A Russian doll of a book, layers within layers, histories, ghosts, superstitions and secrets. This book shines a light through the material of human nature, our successes and failings, strengths and weaknesses, pride and vanity and love. The Coward’s Tale is timeless. Storytelling at its best. It's a wonderful read.”

Damian Barr says:

“A rich seam of fables conjuring a community bound together by tragedy and secrets. Everyone knows something about someone but only one man knows everything about everyone. The Coward's own tale is the bravest of all.”

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Charles Lambert says:

"The unlikely but entirely legitimate child of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Dylan Thomas, The Coward's Tale invests everyday life with a quality at once whimsical and heroic."

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Mari Strachan says:

“A lovely book. It is compulsively readable. Her poetic writing is meticulous in its apt and close observation. She writes about her flawed characters with such warmth and kindness, making of them archetypal characters hewn out of the history of small towns the world over.”

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Thank you very much indeed to Maggie, Salena, Damian, Charles and Mari for reading The Coward, and for their generosity.

THE AMAZING MUSICAL MAP!

2011-07-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

To visit the Amazing Musical Map, visit my website, and click on The Coward's Tale book, then the map. Put your speakers on...

VANESSA'S WEBSITE HERE!

Thank you to the rather brilliant Roger Betts, (musician and all-round genius) for sorting the music and the interactive quotes. To visit Roger's website, follow the link on on my website.

MEETING MY PUBLICIST - and DOUGHNUTS!

2011-07-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

The amazing experiences of working with the Bloomsbury team towards publication of The Coward’s Tale continue apace. Yesterday, it was my turn for publicity planning, so I was off for a smashing lunch at Patara in Greek Street (go, it’s lovely!) with Anya Rosenberg, Head of Publicity at Bloomsbury, UK.

So I walk in with a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts... and had fish cakes with a cucumber and sweet chilli dip, salmon fillet in a wonderful, light jus, fragrant rice, jasmine tea in a glass pot with flowers floating...

Oops, sorry. Got carried away there.
Anya knows that I do a lot here online and elsewhere, myself – but we spoke about the launch of the book, whether to hold the launch at a bookshop or somewhere private, and the implications of both decisions. We spoke about what happens with review copies when they come in (mid-September!), who she sends them to and what happens next. We spoke about literary festivals, about readings, about website stuff, about blog tours, about possible features here, articles there.
But the most extraordinary thing, too. One of the happenings in ‘The Coward’s Tale’ has echoes of an important Jewish tradition. Anya wanted to know if that was deliberate? And the answer is, although I am fascinated by Judaism for personal reasons, no. It is a coincidence, not there deliberately at all. And a lovely one – that makes me very happy. Here's a clue:

Planning and lunch, over, we repaired to the Bloomsbury offices, where the doughnuts were delivered to Helen, Erica, Alice, Holly and of course now, Anya – Erica’s been posting about cakes and Bloomsbury – another rich tradition that needs to be upheld!

Sorry for the delay in service

2011-07-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

I've been taken up with the death of my dear Dad - hence the lack of jolly posts. However - at 95, and having had a remarkable life, and incidentally, suggested the title 'The Coward's Tale' bless him for ever - he goes in peace.

The Coward's US JACKET...

2011-05-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Goodness me - this is the proposed cover for the US version of The Coward's Tale - due out early in 2012...rather lovely, intriguing, and shivery...

THE MAP...

2011-05-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Brilliant! Now I know where I am, and where I''m going. I have a map - and so do my characters. It is very interesting, as I said before, and none too easy, to create a map of a fictitious place. It made me see where characters had turned right to go left, if you follow me... (I wouldn't if I were you!) Beautiful, isn't it? All the main characters are located carefully, close to the place that means the most to them. So - clockwise from the top, you have:

Tommo Price, by the tunnel on the old coal line
Laddy Merridew, on the Brychan Estate (that's his gran's house...)

below them there is:

Icarus Evans in his caravan, surrounded by feathers

continuing round the edge, there is:

Peter Edwards, near Deep Pit (closed...)
James Little, by his allotment which he digs at night
Ianto Jenkins, the beggar, close to Ebenezer Chapel where he sleeps on a stone bench in the porch
Judah Jones, near the park where he finds silver leaves

moving left there is:

Factual Philips, at the Public Library, where he is Deputy Librarian and is probably reading The Collected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on the quiet...
Tutt Bevan, the undertaker, off for a walk, soon,
Baker Bowen, in his house at the bottom of Steep Street, doing anything but baking

and at nine o'clock there is:

Matty Harris (and his wife Eunice, who will be red-faced with fury at being left off the map)
Mrs Bennie Parrish (who will be delighted to be included...)
Nathan Bartholomew, at The Cat Public House - where he's a lodger

and last but not least, for the last shall be first...

Half Harris, at 11 Maerdy St.

Bless 'em.

MAPS!

2011-05-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

It was Alice's idea - to have a map of the town where 'The Coward's Tale' plays out its dramas - showing where everything happens, where the characters live, work, play...
It is not as easy as it sounds, to transpose a mental image onto a page - you realise that on page three, a park is to the left, and on page one hundred and three the park has moved over to the right. But we are getting there.Thanks to one husband who can draw much better than me, and to the artist Holly M, who designed the jacket... Map to be revealed as and when!

FINAL CHANCE TO CHANGE ANYTHING - UNCORRECTED PROOF STAGE

2011-04-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

There it is on the top - the uncorrected bound proof - and more of that later. This post is copied from my main blog - nattering about revisions in general, and of course, more specifically, revisions on The Coward - so it belongs here as well.

There is such an interesting, very useful, three-part discussion about revision, rewriting, self-editing - call it what you will, on Tania Hershman's blog. Many different writers, all saying how they approach this subject. True, it is directed at short fiction - but so much is relevant to longer pieces of work. Inasmuch as my own current work is reaching the end of its preparation process, and inasmuch as it started life as a series of discreet sections, I chime with much of what is said in these discussions - I share many of the processes described.
Here are the links - the posts and subsequent comments are very valuable.
Part I (also available as a PDF)
Part II (Also available as a PDF)
PART IIb
But there are some differences, of course, as there always will be where a group of writers share their processes. In working on each of the separate pieces between late 2006 and early 2010, I started after a while to do a lot of editing as I went, revisiting the work of the day before and seeing things I didn't like, changing them until it felt better... and using those pages as a jump-off point to continue with that day's writing. And I'd often stop, go back over a paragraph, a few lines of dialogue, shake my head and change them. It became a physical process. I could FEEL when the train was leaving the rails - ie its own rails, and being pushed by the writer. That's when I stopped and rewrote.
It was a very different process to writing a stand alone short story, for this writer. When I started 'The Coward' I was a writer who staunchly believed in writing a first draft right through before looking at any of it with a view to revision, as that's how most of my shorter pieces were approached. With some notable exceptions of course...but in the process of this work I changed completely! And, I believe, I saved myself a lot of time - but perhaps that's a different issue? Perhaps the end result would have been the same.

This pic? The stages of revision of the whole manuscript, AFTER the first draft of the novel was completed. Starting in March 2010, finishing in Oct 2010 -re-creation of one character, then plot tweaks, and the all-important structural revision, where I needed to see the whole thing in one spyglass, over and over and over. Then the revisions became smaller, then tinier, a word here a word there...read through for sound - working towards a cleaner and cleaner product. Because that's what it became. Emotion left the room, and only the words mattered. Getting them right. The top few layers are Bloomsbury-led, tweaks and copyediting proofs. The final layer is the uncorrected proof pages recieved last week- and the uncorrected proof book itself, all ready to go out! Very exciting.
It's a salutary thing though. My manuscript was c 280 pages in length. It didn't vary much. The finished book is 380 pages - 100 pages longer! Even though I feel horror at my use of precious paper in revising here -I don't know how else I might have done it - and I console myself that the pile could have been a lot higher.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

2011-04-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

I tell you, if I ever win an Oscar, the speech will go down in history as the shortest and most incoherent. "Oh. Lumme. Er. Ta..." or somesuch. Acknowledgements - Oh Lord. Where do you start, and far more importantly, where do you stop? I think it is stopping that is key, don't you?
I approached this like a military campaign. Lists.
1. Those without whom the novel would be still sitting on the floor of my study, a pile of paper, destined never to be read by anyone other than those I could ambush and tie to the desk until they'd finished. a) Agent Euan Thorneycroft at A M Heath. b) Editors Helen Garnons-Williams and Erica Jarnes.
2. Those without whom the novel would be bare as bones. Jacket designer. (I have not seen this person acknowledged much... why is that?) Mine is Holly MacDonald.
3. Those without whom I might not have written much of anything. a) Writing tutor, 2003/5 Alex Keegan. Without whom I might still have written, but relatively badly. b) Owner of writing retreat where novel got writ over 5 years. Sue Booth Forbes of Anam Cara Writers' and Artists' Retreat
4. Those without whom this novel might not have got written at all. Three colleagues who kept me either sane, or if not that, on the straight and narrow. Andrew G Marshall. Tania Hershman. Niyati Keni.
5. Those without whom the novel would not have been polished, polished, revised, revised...The Arts Council and my lovely mentor Maggie Gee.
6. Those who have to put up with having a writer as a relative, and have no choice.
7. Those who put up with having a writer as a relative, have a choice and decide to stay anyway.

That's about it, half a page, no sugar. Done.

The Final Version of the Jacket

2011-04-11T04:28:00.001-07:00

This is the final jacket for 'The Coward's Tale', thank to the genius and patience of Holly MacDonald at Bloomsbury.
The characters of the little boy (Laddy Merridew) and the old chap on the left (Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins) have been tweaked several times, until they felt right.

PROOF COPIES - ON THE CHOCKS!

2011-04-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

This is the cover of the proof copies that will soon be winging their way to the desks of the great and the good - and hopefully to their bedside tables...'For fans of 'Under Milk Wood' and 'The Earth Hums in B Flat' the blurb on the back says - how lovely! I hope they are right. I know the first well, of course, it is one of my favourite pieces of writing. The second I did not know, but will soon!

DEDICATION

2011-03-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

There is a hilarious but rather interesting article in The Daily Telegraph about the thorny subject of book dedications - “To Whom It May Concern...”
Many actual dedications are here, including these three I particularly liked:

"To Litel Lowis my sone.... purpose to teche thee a certayn nombre of conclusions pertayning to this same instrument." Geoffrey Chaucer

"To all those who lead monotonous lives." Agatha Christie

and my favourite – Larry McMurty's "For Leslie, for the use of her goat."

But seriously, I needed to think about my dedication page.
2008: Book number one was dedicated thusly - ‘In memory of a good friend, Jan Newton’. Jan was a fellow adoptee, and a friend of The Foundling Museum in London. She died just before Glass Bubble came out – but I had my launch party at The Foundling Museum, and gave royalties to Breast Cancer Research.
2009: Book number two, Short Circuit, had no specific dedication as it’s a writing textbook – and I guess the whole thing is dedicated to writers of fiction.
2010: Book number three, Storm Warning – my collection of war/conflict stories - is dedicated ‘To my father, ex-sapper David Rees, MC’.
2011, and Book number four. So to whom or what should I dedicate The Coward? It crossed my mind to dedicate it to myself. After all, I wrote it for me, mostly, not worried whether it would ever end up on a shelf. But I also put in places, streets, and buildings in the town of Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales, to amuse myself, and my father. The house where he was born, the street where he grew up, the park he played in, his school, the house my mother was born and grew up, the places they courted, the library where she first worked...and so on – but he’s already had a book dedication.

Sons, husband, the cat? Or even Dylan Thomas, whose Under Milk Wood I adore, and who taught me so much. Who appears in The Coward in his own book, borrowed from the library - and who provided a good name for the pub, rather suitably. Bless ‘im.

However. Finally, The Coward is dedicated to someone I never knew - a lad who was killed on the railway line near Lewes, aged seven, playing hookey from school with a friend. His story became the starting point of the novel after ‘I Can Squash the King, Tommo’ won a prize at Bridport. His mother Rita, who I met a long time after she lost her lad, became a great friend, and was delighted he was a ‘short story’. She's gone now - but would be even more delighted he’d started a novel on its way.

The Coward's dedication page reads ‘For Robert Diplock, 1962 – 1969’

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COPY EDITING and JACKET TWEAKS

2011-03-25T00:55:00.001-07:00

Under the microscope he went, The Coward, under the eagle gaze of Audrey, my copy editor. Audrey contacted me first to introduce herself, and to make sure I was going to be around when she was concentrating on my novel...some things she could do herself, but other things, she would need to discuss.
True to form, I had booked to be away on a reading retreat - two weeks in Suffolk, in a house with no Internet. Not exactly the simplest scenario -but the copyedited MS had to be back with Bloomsbury by the middle of week 2 of my retreat. It wasn't long before I discovered Munchies, a cafe with Wifi in Aldeburgh, so I picked up queries there via email, paying for my wifi access by downing lattes and bacon butties. It wasn't too hard! Armed with notes, I would retreat to Cosy Nook (yes, you couldn't make it up, really...blame Benjamin Britten's housekeeper, Nellie*).
What an education! The Coward was pretty good when it went off - but it was anything but perfect if you put it under a microscope! The eagle-eyed Audrey found lots of things to tweak. Many many things absolutely crucial, too. We spoke over the phone to discuss those issues she needed my input on, and then The Coward, complete with her annotations, went back to Bloomsbury.

Also seen for the first time over a bacon butty at Munchies, was the PDF of the final jacket design, which the saint-like Holly MacDonald had worked on until the figures of the two characters were 'right'. I really am grateful to her for that! When I get a good image, I will post it of course.

'The Annotated Coward' was then sent to me by post (still in Aldeburgh) and I was meant to pick it up from an office - for me to go through with a toothcomb to make sure all the copyedit tweaks were right. I found the package left on the floor in an open doorway - on the High Street...Yikes... but I guess no one would nick a parcel that looks like a phone directory in bubblewrap.

Audrey had done a fantastic job. She had found so many things to tweak, it was absolutely amazing. I wondered why on earth I hadn't seen them myself... and was reminded of the old puzzle at the top of this post. If you are really familiar with something you just don't SEE it !
However, there were also places where absolute correctness stood out for entirely the wrong reasons. Hard to explain, but I tried, on my other blog in this post- Visual Voice. Interesting stuff, and good discussion afterwards.
So some tweaks were re-tweaked, to restore the visual voice. Oh the work that goeth into a book on a shelf in a bookshop. I will never walk past without mentally bowing, ever again.
I extend my grateful thanks too to Erica Jarnes, the editor who has been i/c this part of the operations!
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* I stayed in the grounds of The Red House in Aldeburgh, the home of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears for years. Now owned by The Britten Pears Foundation, the little house they had built for Nellie on her retirement, is used for accommodation for music scholars, or, when it isnt needed, guests like me can rent it. Some pics of the place and of the surrounds, are on my other blog. HERE .

The Jacket!

2011-03-05T03:04:00.001-08:00

Well, I was going to wait until a few tiny tweaks were done by the wonderful Holly MacDonald of Bloomsbury, who is doing this work of art by hand - but as it appears in the Bloomsbury catalogue, yer tiz! I love it, love it. We are having fun going backwards and forwards making the two characters a little tattier, and less clean cut.
No photo could do the jacket justice.. the six leaves either side of the title are hand blocked in silver, and it is a thing of real beauty.
Thank you so very much from the author to the artist.

The Coward is perfect!

2011-02-14T06:04:00.000-08:00

The tweaked manuscript was read by my editor somewhere high above the North Atlantic, and deemed to be perfect. This is good, and karma is wrapped warmly round, for it was deemed perfect mid-way between UK and USA. Love it!
Of course, it isn't - have you ever read a book that was perfect? No - neither have I. But all I can do it aim at that height. 35000ft seems a good start to me. Look at that sky!!
Next stop - copy editing.

The cover...

2011-02-07T03:25:00.000-08:00

So - last week, I was told the jacket artwork was done - and was in the post! Why in the post? Why not just scan and email, or attach to the leg of a passing pigeon? Because a scanned image would not do it justice, I was told... and my goodness they were right. The jacket is absolutely wonderful, and I am not going to show it to you. Ha!
This is because there is one very small almost insignificant tweak, which no one else might notice, but I do - and then I shall emblazon The Coward's Tale cover on all available surfaces, believe me.

Until then, enjoy the empty frame above, the intrigue, the possibilities... and anyway, putting it here will still not do it justice, because in among the brilliant but brilliant design, carefully worked up by a genius who knows the book, that is evident ...there is shining silver...

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However. before I unveil the cover artwork with all due razzmatazz as soon as i can, I promise - this is the event-sequence leading up to the piece of art.

1. I am told it will be an illustration as opposed to a photographic cover. The designer has taken the manuscript away to read, and will create something that echoes the themes, the feeling of the book. The designer will take into account my thoughts, if I have any.. so do I have any ideas to add to the mix?

2. Sure do. At the centre of my thoughts is a statue seen in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. That statue made such a deep impression on me that I blew monay I did not have a few years later, when I found a 100 year old bronze copy/almost copy in an antique shop in Petworth, Sussex... The statue is by Dalou, and is called 'Le Grand Paysan'.
I sent this photo to Bloomsbury. Said something about feathers, rain, statues...! What a mix.

3. A few weeks later, the artwork comes, through the post, a mock-up of my book. The jacket is on a novel, the same size as mine will be. And when I saw it, it was hard to do anything else but look for some moments... This was mine. But the process of it being 'not mine' had begun. This was someone's view of the book, their interpretation, incorporating my Dalou statue - the feathers... bless them. It is absolutely beautiful. And I think it is at that moment that the process of 'having to let go' begins. The Coward will be interpreted by readers as they will... and its maker hopes that some will find it beautiful.

Revisions... revisions...

2011-02-04T01:46:00.001-08:00

Last week, Helen, my editor, sent me her notes - thoughts on those things I might consider... Cross-checking her notes with the manuscript, there was no question that these small tweaks added smoothness to the paragraphs she had selected. It was not a question of 'rewriting' anything - more taking the sandpaper out here and there - and to continue mixing the metaphors, sewing on one waistcoat button more securely.
I make no apologies for having become an obsessive when it comes to getting this as good as I can - and this part of the process was no different. Having done the tweaks, I thought I'd get the manuscript back to her mid-week. But nope. Changing anything changes rhythms in the language, the voice - so I needed to read the whole thing out loud. Again. I sent a hopefully polished Coward back to Bloomsbury via email last night at something like 1.00 am.

Over on my other blog, where I write about other things to do with writing, I have described the entire process of editing/revising/polishing The Coward's Tale, before sending it to my agent. It took a year. What?! A year to polish? I'm afraid so. This novel was not slammed out in a few months and knocked into shape fast... it's been a long haul!
To read that article - please go HERE.

Signing Contracts...

2011-01-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

I now feel real. I am a Bloomsbury author-in-waiting. The contract, drawn up by my agent, has been carefully perused, questions have been asked, clarifications given. It has been signed by both parties - and now the champers can flow. After I've done the edits - need to keep a clear head for those.

But in case anyone is interested to know what is IN a contract, here are the topics covered....

1. Author grants publisher exclusive license to publish.
2. Author warrants she has power to make this agreement
3. Status of the work. (in my case, delivered.)
4. Publishing schedule - within what timescale, where, and in what format.

5. Royalties. This is where it get complicated, as each heading attracts different royalty percentages...and no Im not going to give away my financial info, unless you are my tax man.

United Kingdom:
Hardback:
Home sales with and without discount
Export sales
Small reprints

Trade Paperback:
Home sales with and without discount
Export sales
Small reprints

Mass Market Paperback:

Home sales (with and without... getting the picture? etc etc

United States
Trade hardcover
trade paperback
b-format paperback
discounted copies
book clubs
small print runs

Remainder sales

Electronic Book sales (NOT enhanced with other material...video etc)

Abridged audio edition
Digital abridged audio edition
Educational edition
Large Print edition
Special Sales
UK Book Club edition

Advance breakdown and bonuses.

6. Royalty statements, accounts pertaining to the work, reserves
7. Licences and subsequent receipts
8. Author copies and discounts on any author purchases.
9. Consultation over jacket copy and design. Print run info for author.
10. Post-delivery manuscript changes - costs.
11. 'Out of print' detail
12. Reversion of rights on liquidation of publisher
13.Other rights.
eg. How much text can be used by a film company..
14.Copyright notice wording
15. Moral right wording
16. Arbitration of disputes.
17. UK legal system governance
18. Costs and liabilities in any copyright actions
19. Safeguarding publisher's sole rights pre-publication
20. Ditto, regarding marketing
21. No adverts to be included in the work, other than in the event of empty pages at end - then publisher may list other works of a similar nature.
22. Confidentiality clause re contract
23. Financial processes - all monies to be paid to author via agent.
24.Use of authors name/pic/selections from work in publicity.
25.releases and permissions - author's own responsibility

Phew.

Done.

Note: If you are a member of the Society of Authors, you can get your proposed contract looked over by an expert. If you work with a good agent, you do not need to do this.

Author's Photograph...

2011-01-18T04:27:00.001-08:00

And along came the inevitable request for a high-res photo of meself, to adorn or otherwise the catalogue, the book, the Bloomsbury website.

Oh how tempted I am to copy other authors and dig something out from years ago, when my neck and chin didn't have constant illegible conversations, when there was space enough for a splodge of subtle but glorious colour on the eyelid and the eyebrows didn't insist on dropping in to see what all the fuss was about.
Wouldn't it be loverley to pop down to the local cementworks and order a facial. Then a makeover, where all the lines were filled with filla, hedges clipped, topiary toped. A quick blast of sellotape behind the ears to restore the jawline, a new drenching of the tired old locks. A streak or twain (not in the football sense of course..) and the subsequent hiring of a top photographer for a week.
A week? Oh yes. Then I could have photos of me in every mood. In every item of clothing I posess (a la OK!, or Hello!) black tee after black tee after black tee. Then the green one!
I could have images of moi, sultry in bed in the morning, dog's breath and all, wincyette nightie fetchingly askew. Moi at brekkie, chomping toast. Moi feeding the cat and the husband in that order. (Husband makes less noise). Moi on the phone to the GAP Year son Somewhere in India. Motherly love and red lipstick, black shiny phone. Cool.
Moi in black rollneck, posed lightly over arm of sofa. Taken from above, natch. Or moi carefully posed at desk, fixed, intelligent yet quizzical and beguiling expression on physog. Fingers( light pink nail varnish?) ready to type on keyboard... and on the desk, randomly scattered tomes that always live on my desk, of course, just found in a box in the roof - the poems of John Donne! Shakespeare! Roget's Thesaurus! A carefully angled silver frame, containing, if you look very very carefully, a signed photo of Martin Amis...or yet again, moi, with a wind-up clown, a pile of books, in an artisanal setting and wearing a blonde wig? Yes, I did, and no, never used it.

Oh fer gawd's sake.
I can't find me desk let alone me keyboard. It is under a heap of stuff. Mostly mine. Actually I lie - if I look down, I can see the following:
1. A Ordnance Survey Map of Pulborough, Worthing and Bognor Regis.
2. A pencil sharpener in the shape of a plastic Loch Ness monster wearing a tam, emblazoned Nessie!
3. A copy of 'Contented Dementia' - ( for my Dad's carer - but who knows, soon enough, for moi...)
4)Another pencil sharpener, in the shape of a cat. I won't tell you where you stick the pencil but it miaous piteously. (From GAP Year son, Christmas last.)
5) Papers, papers, papers. More papers. Hiding yet more.
6) A reel of white cotton.
7) A box of earplugs.
8) Nine more books slipping off the side - among them, The Biography of the Bible, the short stories of Flannery O'Connor, The Mapmakers of Spitalfields by Manzu Islam..
9) Notebooks, files, more paper.

See, that's me. What would a makeover do except make me look rather daft when I turn up to do readings or somesuch, without the makeup team in tow?
I'm using the same pic I used for 'Glass Bubble' and 'Storm Warning' -here you go. Taken in 2007, it made me look rather grown-up.
I've just about caught up with it.

Working on Catalogue Copy - the novel in 100 words!

2011-01-17T02:14:00.001-08:00

(This is the latest catalogue available - The Coward will be in the next)

Each six months, Bloomsbury publishes the list of books forthcoming next season, for the book trade - available here, as a pdf on the website.
It's worth taking a look anyway, as so many of the books look really gorgeous - but what is interesting here is the concision with which the books are described. Certainly a skill worth learning!

The process for The Coward was this:
Helen sent me her initial thoughts, broken down as follows: (the word count is the absolute maximum) 20 words for the shoutline, 100 words for the main text, 60 words for the bio. She invited me into a game of editorial ping-pong until we were both happy with the result.... but reading her initial version, I hardly needed to pick up my bat!

Here's the catalogue copy for 'The Coward's Tale'.

Shoutline

Poignant, poetic and spiked with humour: a novel about guilt and atonement, kinship and kindness, and the reverberations of the past.

Main Text

The boy Laddy Merridew, sent to stay with his grandmother, stumbles off the bus into a small Welsh mining community where he begins an unlikely friendship with old Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins, the local beggar-storyteller. Ianto is watchman over the legacy of the collapse of Kindly Light Pit, a disaster that happened years ago, but which still echoes through the lives of many in the town. Men like Icarus Evans, Half Harris, and Tutt Bevan – not forgetting the enigmatic Ianto Passchendale Jenkins himself, whose stories of loyalty and betrayal, loss and love form an unforgettable, spellbinding tapestry.

The bio: (oddly enough this was the hardest thing to get right!)

Vanessa Gebbie is the author of two collections of stories and contributing editor of a Creative Writing text book. She has won numerous awards – including prizes at Bridport, Fish and the Willesden Herald – for her short fiction. An extract from The Coward’s Tale won the Daily Telegraph ‘Novel in a Year’ Competition. Vanessa is Welsh and lives in Sussex.

Covering 'The Coward'

2011-01-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

And what happens about the cover?
Answer: The manuscript is given to the art department, who go away and read the book. They are given a brief by the editor as to the type of cover - the author adds ideas into the mix, in my case, specific thoughts which may or may not be of interest - and then gets on with other things. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

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Foreign rights - what happens and how...

2011-01-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

I was asked what other languages the novel will be published in.
Answer: Well obviously, I'd love 'The Coward' to be translated into as many languages as there are on the planet, but as there were 6,900 at the last count (according to Wiki-someone) that is a somewhat unrealistic target.
All will become clear in due course - its a long process. And in a world recession, longer than ever.

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Meeting the editor...

2011-01-09T01:23:00.000-08:00

I am delighted to be working on 'The Coward's Tale' with Bloomsbury's Helen Garnons-Williams, who is just great - especially when it comes to ordering toffees to chomp throughout my first meeting with the team.
There is a very good, very useful three-part interview with Helen on The View from Here - HERE! in which she talks about the acquisition process in general and lots more.
The photo is from The View from Here. Of which a little further news - my great writing colleague and friend Elizabeth Baines (aka Fictionbitch)) has been invited to join their blogging team. Well done E!

So what does it feel like, being here...

2011-01-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

At the moment, no contracts are signed. Now I know this is where most writer clam up, say nothing, just in case a natural disaster occurs, completely flattening the publishers' offices. Or aliens land and cart them off to outer space, and they are never heard of again...

well, all I will say is, it's a funny old time - I met with the Bloomsbury team on the first Monday in December. And Christmas and New Year got in the way... and it must be the wrong time of year for hurricanes, and volcanos, especially in the middle of London... but you never know...

anyway - unless I am swept away in a flood, or there is an eruption in Sussex, or a tornado in London ... there will be signatures on papers soon enough. I'm not worried.

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Ah. I forgot the possibilities of snow... the postman stuck for three weeks in his van, the post, including my precious contract used for kindling in the back of the van to keep him warm, the crackle of crisp paper, the only copy...

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WELCOME TO THE COWARD'S JOURNEY!

2011-01-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Teresa Stenson for the thought - to write a blog that follows the journey of a novel after it has been accepted by a publisher, right up to publication. I love it!
Hey, we see lots of stuff about the writing, the submissions, the rejections, the successes, and the ups and downs of the writing process. But what happens after someone says they love the result, and want to publish it?
This is the journey of a novel called The Coward's Tale.
Four years in the making, this novel has run the gauntlet of all sorts of ups and downs - Links to the main events of the last four years will appear here, when I find them, scattered as they are across the ether.But for now...
'The Coward's Tale' will be published by Bloomsbury UK in November 2011. And by Bloomsbury USA in mid 2012.