History is a Bitch - a weblog by Jeanne Kalogridis

Despite its name, Bookslut isn't slutty at all, but I suppose "bibliophile" and "book lover" have been taken. I stumbled onto this blog last week and have enjoyed keeping up with it. The blogger, Jessa Crispin, writes knowledgeably about books and publishing, and gives constant industry news updates. She's also suggested some interesting titles to read. Besides, she works in a bookstore -- isn't that reason enough to love her? Highly recommended.

We are laid low this week at the Palazzo Kalogridis, my friends; both Ser Giorgio and I are feeling the deliberate, inexorable advance of decrepitude, prompting a flurry of visits to medical specialists who cluck their tongues and shake their heads and say, Alas, what can be done? You are, ultimately, mortal.

The sad diagnosis? Take out. I, Donna Giovanna, will not be cooking tonight.

Even the inexhaustibly cheerful Miss Sweetie Pie, who turned twelve this past week, is feeling her age. For the first time, ever, I will be taking her to the vets for more than a vaccination.

But all is not doom and gloom. In fact, I stumbled upon some glorious photos which not only improved my mood, but in fact brought a flush of youthful heat to my bosom. Oh, to remember my sweet university days!

I present to you, dear friends, Hot Library Smut.

Next Wednesday marks Independence Day, the Fourth of July, here in the States. It's only Friday afternoon, but the festive spirit is already in the air and has wafted clear up to the window of my ivory tower. The fragrance was so intoxicating I was forced to set down my manuscript and head to the fishmonger's for a hefty filet. Add a fired-up charcoal grill, limes, cilantro, garlic, onions, tomatoes, avocado, some serrano chiles and corn tortillas and yes, folks, it's Fish Taco Friday here at the Palazzo Kalogridis.

In honor of the looming holiday, I'd like to give a shout out to some of my favorite people in all the world: librarians. Yes, I know I recently shared some Hot Library Smut with you, but it isn't just the buildings that set my heart aflame; it's the women and men who so love and respect recorded knowledge that they safeguard it for us.

In their honor, I submit the American Library Association's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. Please make it a point to read at least one of these books this holiday -- or if not one of these, one you think is a likely candidate for the 2000-2010 list.

Here's some advice from Scott Berkun over at The Berkun Blog, subtitled "the short honest truth."

I have to agree: Most people balk when they realize the work involved. It's ridiculous, really -- most day jobs in corporate America pay more per hour than the average novelist makes, when you break down the amount of time spent working. Sure, there are a few lucky souls who hit the bigtime with the first book, but most of us toil in the salt mines for years before achieving a modest degree of success.

As for glamorous lifestyle that follows publication: I'll be mowing the lawn this morning, then tucking into another Sunday spent at the computer.

My newest (and probably last) STAR TREK novel, RESISTANCE, is in stores this week. I wrote it more than two years ago, while my husband was undergoing chemotherapy for nonHodgkins lymphoma.

The inscription "Heers to Hope" is the motto of my very dear friend Sara, who was told some years ago that her cancer, which had spread to her brain, was so advanced that she was terminal. She was sent home to get her affairs in order. Fortunately, Sara didn't listen to them. Her cancer went into full remission, and today she's pursuing a career in photography.

Heers to hope, everyone!

The New York Times ran an article recently on the fact that Amazon.com is both venturing into the world of e-books this fall. Here's what caught my eye:

In October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader that has been the subject of industry speculation for a year, according to several people who have tried the device and are familiar with Amazon’s plans. The Kindle will be priced at $400 to $500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site.

Now, I'm one of the more voracious readers in the world, and nothing floats my boat higher than the thought of immediate access to new books -- no waiting for overnight shipping! No more books overflowing on my bookshelves and in banker's boxes in the garage.

But... $500? Ouch.

And I have to admit, I keep a printed copy of my manuscript beside me when I work. Why? Because it's just so much easier to quickly leaf through paper pages to find a detail than to scroll tediously through an electronic copy. It just is.

And so I remain skeptical. At least, I will until Apple gets involved and makes printed books available through iTunes...

Meet my good friend, Sherry Gottlieb. After being friends with Sherry for more than a decade, I finally turned to her for advice on my latest book (in frantic progress), THE BLOODIEST QUEEN.

What an idiot I was to wait.

Sherry, you see, is a Novel Doctor -- that is, an editor who is skilled at helping aspiring novelists bring their work up to publishable quality. (She was also owner of one of the world's most famous science fiction bookstores, A CHANGE OF HOBBIT.) I'd always suspected she was pretty good at what she did -- after all, her own novel, WORSE THAN DEATH, was published by St. Martin's Forge, her other novel LOVE BITE was made into a movie, and her non-fiction book, HELL NO, WE WON'T GO! about Vietnam War draft resisters was nominated for the PEN West USA Literary Award.

But Sherry and I have always been busy, off doing our own things, and somehow I never nailed her foot to the floor to make her read my work. She was always swamped with editorial work and her other businesses (she also runs a resume-writing service), and we never connected.

I'm so glad we finally did. THE BLOODIEST QUEEN will be my thirty-third published book; I've grown lazy and jaded and had thought there was little anyone could teach me. (Hah!) I went to Sherry just to see her reaction to a particular scene -- whether I was able to pull off a fast one on the reader or not -- and wound up being blown away by her editorial acumen. She understood all the nuances of the scene in question better than I did -- and pointed out exactly what wasn't working, and why. She then gave me a suggestion which was nothing short of brilliant in terms of making the whole thing work beautifully. (And then gave a dozen other suggestions which will make the book *so* much better...) Long story short, Sherry's going through the entire manuscript for me. And she's going to be my best pal during the writing of the next book, too.

I'm so impressed that I've added a link to Sherry's Novel Doctor page to my sidebar. Sherry charges the going rate for such editorial service -- and trust me, you'll be getting an honest, top-notch professional to look over your work.

If you're writing a novel and thinking of getting help, please consider Sherry.

No, I'm not referring to folks like yours truly, who has made her living for the past twenty-five years writing books. "Hack" in this case is synonymous with "tip," and here are 13 lucky book hacks -- courtesy of Lifehacker -- for those of you, like me, who need a little bit of help managing your personal libraries.

For everyone who sent get well wishes regarding my flu: Thanks! I'm all better now. Still frantically working to finish BQ.

On my nightstand, waiting to be read:

LAURA BLUNDY, a Victorian-era dark historical by Julie Myerson (a peek at the first page has already convinced me that I'll love it)

ANGER, by Thich Nhat Hanh (I recommend all of his books)

GOULD'S BOOK OF FISH, a historical novel by Richard Flanagan (recommended by the NY Times Book Review)

THE WISDOM OF YOGA, Stephen Cope

Since I'll have little time to read until March, these are currently gathering dust, but I've promised myself that this year, I'll read a lot more fiction.

Reading recommendations, anyone? Comments?

Okay, I said the book was due the fifteenth of March... but the finished manuscript runs very, very long -- 900 pages. I'm still working to cut *three hundred* of them.

I'm blind, I'm crazed, but I'm almost done.

Give me a week or two, my darlings, and I'll be back.

It's all over but the shouting, folks -- at least until I hear back from my editor, whom I utterly adore. I e-mailed the manuscript to him twenty minutes ago.

As of this instant, THE BLOODIEST QUEEN (whose US title might change to the UK title of THE MEDICI QUEEN) is scheduled for publication by St. Martin's in Winter of 2009 -- as things progress, I'll learn whether that means January, February, or March '09.

More to come this week. Thanks to all of you for putting up with my long absence.

My editor, Charlie, loved the book I turned in -- hooray! Just as delightfully, there are almost no editorial changes to be done -- double hooray!

The title, however, has been changed from THE BLOODIEST QUEEN to THE MEDICI QUEEN because the marketing folks are frightened that my gory title might scare off prospective readers.

Gee whiz. It is, after all, a book about a massacre (the St. Bartholomew's Day one, to be exact). And I would have thought, by now, that my readers have figured out that I like things, um, dark.

But the marketing folks also insisted on changing my title from PAINTING MONA LISA to I, MONA LISA, and I've had a number of US readers tell me they preferred the latter title, because it was far more descriptive of the book's content.

Further update: THE MEDICI QUEEN will be released in hardcover first, instead of trade paperback (translation: They really, really like the book and have faith reviewers and readers will, too). This has pushed us back a bit from a Winter 2009 pub date to Spring/Summer 2009, so that lots of reviewers and distributors can get advance reading copies.

In the interim, the author is catching up on some long-deserved reading of her favorite authors -- one of whom is Dan Simmons. More about him soon...

Recently, I had the pleasure of stumbling onto Dan Simmon’s website. It includes the usual list of the author’s works, as well as a forum and a series of essays called Writing Well. The latter are so well-written and entertaining that I’ve linked to them for you here.

One of my favorite passages from Simmon’s essays includes the theory of developing a story (I think it’s a perfect description of what occurs when I write a novel):

Speaking of Dan Simmons, I just finished his novel, THE TERROR. The title suggests a horror novel – and the story is indeed very dark. But it is wrapped in an elegant historical novel, titled after the name of a nineteenth-century British ship which became trapped in frozen polar waters. Simmons’ ability to capture the sights, sounds and smells of the Arctic and the ships and crews that braved its seas is breath-taking. I was completely absorbed by the story, the setting, the characters, and the precise, stunning details.
His next novel, DROOD, focuses on Charles Dickens’ friendship with Wilkie Collins, the nineteenth-century author whose mystery THE WOMAN IN WHITE is considered a classic. His website states DROOD will be published in January 2009, although publication dates sometimes shift. I’ll be waiting…

When my agent, Russ, first suggested that I try my hand at a historical, he mentioned that I ought to study an author who happened to be represented by my foreign agent, Danny. That author was Noah Gordon, who wrote a fine novel which became a bestseller in Europe, though not so much here: THE PHYSICIAN, set in the 11th century. THE PHYSICIAN is the story of young Rob Cole, a Londoner who is determined – after the loss of his mother – to learn all he can about healing. It’s a richly detailed look at the healing arts in the early middle ages. I highly recommend Gordon’s books.

Remember that book called THE BLOODIEST QUEEN? That became THE MEDICI QUEEN when it was pointed out that my UK and Australian readers would guffaw at the "Bloodiest" bit?

Well, after much deliberation, I came up with another title with a bit more pizzazz than THE MEDICI QUEEN -- one which shows Catherine's deep involvement with evil forces. The result?

THE DEVIL'S QUEEN. It'll be out spring/summer 2009, and I'll give an update as soon as I know the month.

P.S. That, plus I've heard my dear friend John Allen is running for President. I'm anxiously awaiting his text message to learn which lucky soul he's chosen as his running mate.