Come on board our Google Lit Trip!

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I've been excited about the Google Lit Trip developing on my Facebook Page for The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. We now have basic instructions and a streadsheet for collecting the data. Once that is done, we'll create a Google Lit Trip map for the book that will be of educational use to students in High School and University classes.

We have a good core team, but we need more hands on deck, so if you are at all interested, or simply curious, please join in. You can take on as much or as little as you please.

Check it out!

Our Google Lit Trip Discussion Groups:
http://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=6284613175

What's a Google Lit Trip?
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6284613175&topic=13270

Anyone interested, just join in. It's the first time a Lit Trip has been made by a Facebook team, so we're all of us learning as we go. Plus, it's fun. All you need is a copy of The Many Lives & Secret Sorrow of Josephine B.

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Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3xzbgv
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland

Book cover design in 55 seconds (NOT!)

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Click HERE for a wonderful short video on the process of designing a book cover. (I love the cover!)

On YouTube: http://bit.ly/BookCoverDesign
Blog on the design process: http://bit.ly/BookCoverDesignBlog


*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3xzbgv
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra_Gulland

Street vendor wanted

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A street vendor plays a part in the novel I'm writing, but I haven't settled on what that something might have been in 17th century Paris. A quick Google search reveals street vendors of:

penny ices
blank verses
kindling wood
ink
neckties
yams
straw
oranges
grilled chicken
boot laces

I have yet to find what I'm looking for. I'd like it to be something tasty, so for now I may settle on yams.

Suggestions welcome!

Barbara Kingsolver: Turning on the lights

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I have piles of notes from my weekend at the wonderful San Miguel Writers' Conference. Very briefly, from Barbara Kingsolver's keynote address on how The Lacuna evolved:

1. She first asked: what are the big questions? 
2. She wrote pages and pages on what the novel would be about.
3. As she was doing this, scenes begin to "pop up" and characters appeared.
4. She asked: Who will tell the story? To find the voice, she did a lot of practice-writing.
5. She started, but in bits, not chronologically.
6. Then, when she could see the shape of it, she felt ready to start a proper draft. From this point on (she made it very clear), she was in control — of the story, and of the characters.
7. During all this time she was doing research.

The first draft, she said, was like "hoeing a row of corn." It hurt, like giving birth.

Revision is "where the art happens," making everything fit, "pulling the meaning up." (Again, beautiful.)

Her husband is her first reader, then trusted others.

A problem with early drafts is failing to visualize scenes. She goes through the manuscript, "turning on the lights." (I love this image as well.)

She likes to hold a balance between mystery and revelation —but tends, she confessed, to mystery.

She quoted Chagall: "Great art begins where life leaves off."

I wanted to know more about her work at the sentence level. It is, no doubt, intense. She uses a thesaurus constantly (which interested me).

Right now, I'm reading through the second draft of The Next Novel,  editing it. With each pass, I get closer to the meaning. Soon, I'll be going through the scenes, "turning on the lights."