This I know for sure… Writing is certainly re-writing. Since the start of this year I have been working through rewrites of my novel. I can’t pretend that editing is an easy straight line, but I am quite grateful that a team of editors at WeBook read and reread my words with such care, and thanks to their efforts, Crazy String is a far better novel than it was before. But here’s the most exciting news: last week I signed off on the completed manuscript! So, we are indeed in the final stretch towards publishing. Before the end of July I will have an official pre-order date for the paper book (the eBook is already available to pre-order on Amazon). A big part of me has been on hold during this rewriting stage, so I am more than ready to fill my calendar with celebrations and launch dates and opportunities to meet with readers, and share this story with you.

People ask: how did you come to write this novel? As a teacher of writing and literature, and a lover of books and plays and all things imagined, I have lived in the world of story most of my life. Living within the school schedule, summer meant time to write. Holed up somewhere, anywhere really, I did just that. And as many stories filled my pages, this one, with this particular cast of characters, kept inviting me to visit them as they sat around their kitchen table with painted legs, struggling to say one honest word to each other, or better yet, to see each other in the present, not stuck in their pained past. A tall order for a family shattered by the “blue light night,” a tragedy that upended their everything, but I would not give up on them. I could not give up on them. And so, due to the tenacious pull of this fictional world, my novel took shape. At its core it is a story that takes a look into what holds people together despite distance and time and all the reasons to be apart. Crazy String.

As a teacher, I became quite adept with holding my high school students’ attention as we navigated complicated literature. We spent time exploring character arcs and plot twists and writing styles by reading Woolf, Dostoyevsky, and Ellison, along with Hansberry, Miller and Shakespeare. Each new class taught me something too. They didn’t accept interpretations handed to them. They found their own way with new eyes. They made me think about what wasn’t written on the page, what they gleaned from the subtext, what original ideas they discovered from these dusty tales I had read dozens of times. As a result, while I crafted this novel, I attempted to tell the reader less. Leave room for imagination. To write the novel being read under the desk.

Eventually, I saw only the connections: how each of us is linked inexplicably across state lines and big oceans and time zones and even death. These strings hold us in a crazy yet wonderful way, and that was all I cared about whenever I sat down with this imaginary family in Vermont at the core of my novel. Their invented scenarios made me fight for their whole story to unfold as they needed it to. Indeed, they deserved all my best intentions. Hopefully, you will agree when you meet the Ueland family and follow their saga, which moves between their fractured adult lives and their haunting childhood memories.

So how can you get a copy of Crazy String?

Soon there will be plenty of purchasing options, but in the meantime please head over to my website, Moira Donovan, for pre-order information. Shortly you will also be able to access launch party dates and contact details and even book club questions.

I promise to keep you in the loop, for we are all held together by a crazy string, right?