I know what you are thinking

I know what you are thinking: Is she really going to post about her debut novel, Crazy String, that was published in July, again? Well yes, maybe, simply, because it was 7 months of back and forth emails and notes and suggestions and edits and rewrites and font decisions and cover designs and everything that goes into this act of publishing that is far far away from the solitary hours and years and imagination that formed around my initial ideas when I first met the core characters and felt their angst, their sorrow, their loves, their struggles but also the overwhelming crazy strings that held them together even when they were hellbent on getting clear across the continent and as far apart as possible. Yes, for all of that.

woman reading Crazy String

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A Story is Born

How do you begin to write a novel is often the first question I’m asked. I guess, as a woman who had witnessed much and lived to tell, all I needed to do was sit myself down and let the words come. On the best writing days I allowed the story to simply unfold and did my darnedest to meet each character without judgement. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. It wasn’t that simple, but I did try to stay out of the way of whatever was building on the page. At first, characters arrived shrouded in shadows, one then the next slowly stepping closer, until there was a whole illuminated cast who lived and breathed life into Crazy String.

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